Saturday, May 26, 2012

Kakarakaya kura (Bitter Gourd Stir Fry)

Many of them do not like bitter gourd for very simple reason as the name says it is bitter in taste. My mom is one among them, she never had it until she hit with diabetes. She use to make this curry for us when we were kids, and my dad made sure that we will have the habit of eating this vegetable. I too hated it when I was a kid, especially the seeds in it. To hide it from my dad, I use to push them beneath my plate. Eventually, as I grew I started liking it. Ever since I learned the benefits of this vegetable, I started cooking it in various ways and having it regularly. This is curry which I learned from my mom is my favorite among them.

Here is how you make it:

4-5 tender bitter gourds ( I still hate the seeds in it, so I make sure I get the tender ones)
1 small lemon sized ball tamarind
1 tbsp grated jaggery
salt as per taste
red chilli powder as per taste

For tempering:

1 tsp chana dal (senaga pappu)
1 tsp urad dal (minapappu)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds (aavalu)
1 tbsp oil
1 red chilli slit into pieces
few curry leaves

Wash and chop bitter gourds into semi circles (slit the bitter gourd in length wise and then chop into circles which forms semi-circles) . Sprinkle salt as per the quantity and mix thoroughly. Leave it aside.


Heat oil in a wide non-stick pan and add the tempering ingredients. When the mustard seeds start spluttering add curry leaves. Squeeze the excess water from the bitter gound and put them into the pan. Fry on low flame util the bitter gourd turns brown in colour and you can see that it properly fried.

Squeeze tamarind pulp and add to the curry, along with jaggery. Mix all together and leave on low flame for few more minutes. Make sure that you will not add too much water to extract tamarind pulp. The curry should not be watery or turn into gravy even after adding tamarind pulp and jaggery. Fry for a minute and turn off the heat.

This curry goes well with hot steamed rice.

This is my entry to Complete My Thali - Sabji/Shaak/Poriyal event being hosted by PJ at her wonderful blog Seduce Your Taste Buds originally started by Jagruti of Joy of cooking.

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