Kaaju-Karela Crispy

Ingredients :

3-4 medium sized bitter gourd
½ cup cashew chopped lengthwise
2 medium sized red onion sliced lengthwise
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
2 tsp oil
Pinch of asafoetida
Salt to taste

Method :

Peels the rough part of bitter gourd skin and cut it from middle. Remove seeds and chop it length wise as shown In picture above. Soak it in salty water for half an hour to lessen its bitterness. If you like the bitterness skip this step. Initially when I didn’t loved bitter gourd I used to cook it after soaking for a while, although I skip that now. And still love the taste of final curry the same way.

Peel and chop onions. Mince 3-4 garlic cloves and cut the cashews lengthwise. Keep it all aside .

In a pan heat the oil when hot add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and asafetida to it. Immediately add onions, cook it till half cooked, don’t cook it till fully cooked otherwise that will taste bitter till bitter gourd is cooked. Add chopped bitter gourd and turmeric powder to it and mix well. Cook it till bitter gourd turn crispy , finally add minced garlic and chopped cashew to it along with chili powder and salt to it .Mix all together cook it for 2 more mins. Remove from heat.

Serve hot with roti . Tastes best with ripe mango . Although onion is one the of main ingredients of this shaak , I don't know why do they ignored it in naming it. Kaaju Kaarela(cashew with bitter gourd) - that's how they call it. In Gujarat its our one of the most favorite Shaak to enjoy with mangoes in summer season . We normally eat it till the first rain fall .

As a child we use to sing these Gujarati rhyme to welcome the first rainfall.

“Aav re varsad, dhebariyo parsaad, , Uni uni rotli ne Karela nu shaak “ .

(Meaning : Let the rain spread it showers again and again to enjoy the hot chapatis (Roti) with Bitter gourd curry).

This is a simple yet rich dish. My dad’s favorite and for any of our family function this is a must have curry for all of us. A family favorite dish it is .

Here is another way I cut bitter gourd to make the same curry. I normally keep on changing the way I cut vegetables for the same curry, which sometimes is a very good change while cooking it. Change in cooking is all I love about cooking.

Checkout my another entry for VoW-bitter gourd here , which is going to be a part of RCI-Bengal too :) .

You can send you entries with bitter gourd till 15th April midnight. Please follow the rules while sending your entry. That helps a lot to manage it all and round up.

I am already surprised to see many different ways to cook bitter gourd with , and I still don't want to miss anything nice which you can cook with bitter gourd. So don't miss this chance to show up your creativity & sending soon . If time permits I will be back with one more recipe with bitter gourd. Stay tuned and keep rocking with your recipes. Have a Good day ahead :) .