Kitchen-Kollections

There are quite a few people who don’t like bittergourd even a bit!! At one point of time, i was one of them..but now i have turned into a big fan of Bittergourd. Why? because of simple reasons..its good for me..it is a rich source of iron. And if cooked properly, it tastes really awesome. There are quite a number of Bittergourd fry curries but one of my favourite version is with gram flour. The curry comes out a bit dry but it tastes yummy with hot rice. This curry takes a lot of time because of the soaking time. But its worth the effort and the wait!! Try it out this recipe.

Ingredients

Bittergourd peeled and slit in the center
1 cup chopped onion
A bunch of curry leaves
Salt to taste
A pinch of turmeric
1/2 tsp Jeera
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tbs Gram flour
Oil

Method

• First wash the bittergourd, peel the skin off and make a slit in the center. Sprinkle salt and turmeric and keep aside for 1 hr.
• After 1 hr, squeeze the juice out of the pieces and keep them aside.
• Microwave on high for two minutes so that the pieces dry off a bit.
• Take a deep pan and add 1 tbs oil. Add mustard seeds and jeera. After the mustard seeds start spluttering, add chopped onions,curry leaves and fry till onions turn translucent.
• Add the bittergourd pieces and fry for a while. Add salt and red chilli powder.Cook for 10 minutes.
• Sprinkle gram flour and mix it well. Cook for 5 more min.

Thats it! curry is done…try it out with hot steaming rice and it will surely taste delicious.

Ingredients

2 cups round slices of bittergourd
1 cup chopped onion
3 chopped green chillies
A pinch of Turmeric powder
1 tsp Gram flour or besan
2 tbs Lemon juice

Method

Cut the bittergourd into thin round slices. Place all of them on a plate and sprinkle salt and turmeric and mix well. Keep it like that for at least 15 minutes. Now take a ziplock bag or any bag and put all these pieces into it and squeeze the juice out of the pieces. Sprinkle some oil on the pieces and microwave it for 10 minutes on high (stirring in between).

Take a pan and add popu (urad dal, mustard seeds, jeera and senagapappu, red chillis, curry leaves) Add chopped onion and green chillies and fry them till onions turn transulcent. Now add the bittergourd pieces and cook for 15 minutes stirring in between. Add 1 tbsp of besan or gram flour and mix well so that it absorbs all the oil. The reason why I add besan is it soaks the bitter taste and gives a crunchy look. This curry goes well with chapatis!