VoW-Bitter gourd Round up and Voting starts from now....

Bitter gourd – you love it or you hate it. There is no other options for that. Yeah people like me could be exception who is slowly trying to consume it knowing the enormous benefits it has. Not only to control sugar level , it is very helpful to cure Cancer, Constipation and piles, blood-disorders, respiratory disorders, alcoholism, cholera and Numerous infections.

We have a saying in Gujarati – “Kadva Kaarela na Goon na hoy kadva” meaning Karela tastes bitter but it has many is having many qualities in it. I know back in India sometime mothers used to give Juice of it to child for fever. We never realize those values when we were in India , I am glad that I came to USA that made me aware of what a rich legacy of everything we had. Anything of today’s technology seems dull compared to deep knowledge of those things our people had. May it be counting the distance between starts, or deciding time by the length of shadow. We had people knew these things thousands of years ago even. I know some people who even today guess time by the position of sun on their head while working in farm in day time.

Ayurveda- is another thing which I started exploring very much after I came here. Even up to that extend that I feel like going back to India and do detailed study on that:D.

Well, coming to round up of Bitter gourd recipes , we have 60 great entries to enjoy bitter gourd now. With these entries this - liking and hating things -is also visible. As some choose to skip it this month while some choose to send more than 1 entries for the same. We have 10+ bloggers with more than 1 dish from them including --- Asha – 2, Srivalli - 5 , Mythreyee - 3 , Jayashree - 2 , Kajal – 6 , Meera - 3 ,Sandhya - 2 ,Kalai - 2 , Rina-2 and Trupti-2, Jan- 2. I must say they are all wonderful in cooking bitter gourd in wide range - from pickle to Pulao… :) . Thank you all for sending in your delicious recipes to cook bitter gourd with. It surely is a good chance for people like me to start eating it more and more to try each dish with.

Bitter Gourd as Starter dish

	Kakarakaya Pakoda by srivalli
	Spicy Karela Nuts by srivalli
	Kakarakaya vepudu by srivalli
	Bitter gourd fritters by srivalli
	Garlicky Lemony Bitter Gourd Crisps by Jai&Bee
	Healthy Bitter gourd Fritters by Trupti
	Bitter Gourd fries by Dhvya K
	Pavakka Pakora by Mythreyee
	Sorisa batta kalara bhajja by Shibani

Bitter gourd as Side dish

	Bitter Gourd Crisps by Pravs
	Kakara kaya Gojju ~ Bitter Gourd Medium Sauté by srivalli
	Bitter gourd Stir fry by Divya
	Baked bitter gourd Chips by Sia
	Parikkai thayir pachadi by Jayasree
	Bitter gourd Pickle by Ranjeetha
	Kakarakaya Podi by Deepika
	Kakarakaya Karam by Vijaya
	Pavakka(bitter gourd)Pickle by Mythreyee
	karela crispy lemony fry by Priyanka
	Bitter Gourd Fry by Rama

Bitter Gourd as Main course (Gravy/Curry)

	Karela Masala by Asha
	Karela Stir fry by Asha
	Baked Gutti Kakarakaya (Baked Stuffed Bittergourd)by Hima
	Baby bitter gourd fry by Jayashree
	Bitter Gourd curry by Cham
	Pavakkai Kozhambu by Vineela
	Dheeve Ummen by Nanditha
	Bitter gourd Pitlai by Jayashree
	Bitter Gourd Baskets in Thick Gravy by Lavi
	Simple Karela (Bitter Gourd) Stir-Fry by Jan
	Hagalkai gashi by Archy
	Bitter gourd gojju by Rupa
	Bitter gourd curry by Uma
	Bitter gourd with Lentils by Kajal
	Bitter gourd with Tomato-Onion Gravy by Kajal
	Bitter gourd with Mango(Keri-Karela) by Kajal
	Stuffed Bitter gourd by Kajal
	Stuffed Bitter gourd with onions by Kajal
	Bitter gourd- onion Curry by Kajal
	Karela Masala by Jan
	Uchche Posto Jhuri -- Bitter Gourd fried with Poppy seed paste by Sandeepa
	Karela Ju bhajji by Medhaa
	Bitter Gourd fry with Besan by Sandhya
	Spicy Bitter Gourd curry by Sandhya
	Karela Kanda nu shaak by Meera
	Karela Dhokli nu shaak by Meera
	Bharela karela curry by MS
	Tetor Dal by Me
	Kaaju Karela(cashew &bitter gourd) curry by Me
	Bitter Gourd curry by Bhawana
	Bitter gourd Rasam By Sushma
	Shukto by Bhagyashri
	Bitter gourd fry by Kalai
	Bittergourd tamarind masala by Kalai
	Bitter gourd stir fry by Reena
	Tamatar karela by Reena

Bitter Gourd as Dinner dish/One dish Meal with Bitter Gourd

	Bitter gourd with eggs By Dhivya
	Bitter Gourd peels Thepla by Meera
	Bitter Gourd-Ragi Utappa by Trupti
	Karela Pulao by Mythreyee

Do check it carefully and at the end of that don’t forget to vote for three categories as you did here.

Categories are
Most authentic recipe , Best presented( by picture shown here) and Most creative recipe.

Please mention your votes in separate comment along with the category name( please note that my entries are excluded from this ). Those comments will be moderated for 1 week .The voting time is from today to 23^rd April mid night. It's a good idea to value someone’s effort , so take little time and drop in your vote for your choice of entry .

Keep voting, keep rocking and keep cooking , And if you have some more time, help me with my click-confusion.

Note: As many of you might be knowing by now that Tastes of India is having little trouble showing up feeds of the posts (my last post , appeared just now :(( . ) .Wouldn't it be better to get feeds delivered in your email for that? Just put in your email address in the top of the sidebar to get email updates of My Creative Ideas.Also the same is available on An attempt to spread love by cooking.

So stay tuned and keep rocking gals... hugs to you all.

Click-Confusions : ( !!!

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

all natural Oops .. its .... Au netural :( .... NO ..... ahhh........ Au Naturel (from where do they choose name like this :D ).
When Jai and Bee announced it on Jugalbandi for this month I had this in my mind immediately . Can you help me decide which one to send it for Click-Au Naturel this month .

If you wonder - what are these pictures ? Here is the answer .

Please suggest your views, may be that will help me to qualify for the first 25 entries to be voted at least ha ha ha ....
Check out round up of "VoW-Bitter Gourd " here. Don't forget to vote.

I appreciate you patience and love for this blog :) .
Hugs to all of you . Have a good day :) .

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 :) .

Arusuvai -Mystery revealed.....

Taaaa daaaa………

Mystery revealed ….

Na na … not this soon ….

Let me say first that just like me many of you guessed the same. And needless to say that you were wrong :O . Just like I was . Thank you all , you make me feel better that I am not the only person weak in this guessing games :D.

Here are the answers for Secret Ingredients . They are Dabeli Masala , Takamaria seeds(Sabja seeds) and Meera’s Homemade Indian tea masala.

Now somehow for me it happened to be the first time with all these ingredients… and I never tried or even saw any of these before . But the red masala seemed very much like pau bhaji masala to me. And I guessed all these as Paubhaji masala , Kalonji and Dry ginger powder . As I tried smelling it many times(each time a little nearer that earlier :D ) , I got my nose red and lost my sense of smelling for a day almost following sneezing every half an hour(well, you have all rights to think this as my excuse for guessing it wrong :D ). Well that proved the masala is really something very good and strong. I wrote to Meera with my guessing : ( and to reveal this mystery soon , as I didn’t wanted it to be my nightmare :O (In that case it surely might be the same for hubby too , as I don’t let anyone around me sleep when I am sleepless :D ) . Meera responded quickly and I felt relived. Aaahhhh…. Then only I could enjoy the joy of getting these many nice goodies from her.

Here is my Spiced up Indian tea As arusuvai Part –I , I really don’t know how many parts it will take to try different recipes to make with this lovely spices , but I am sure you will enjoy it :) .

Recipe:

To make 1 cup Indian Chai Take half cup of water in a tea pan ( tea pan is a - special copper bottomed steel pan with cervical handle to make tea specially or you don’t have any other little deep steel vessel ) . When its little hot add suger upto your taste and one spoon of Indian tea ( I use brooke bond red label chai . It normally don’t get much dark color but tastes too good. ) . let the water boil till it gets the nice color of tea and then add half cup ( or your desired quantity of ) of milk to it. Let it boil and when it start boiling slow down the heat add 1/8 tsp of Chai Masala ( and enjoy the fragrance :p ) and after a while turn of the heat , strain tea into a mug and enjoy hot :) . It’s a boon in winter mornings, specially on weekends, take this hot tea in mug , relax a bit and enjoy it with cookies reading newspaper and forget the worries of life and allow yourself to lost in its divine taste :) .

Meera sent me everything ,
spicy masala for cooking ,
something for summer drink
and chai masala for winter mornings :).Thank you dear Meera :)

I have little different idea to use Dabeli masala with, for that still I got to get something from store to try it with . By the time I get that I thought to post this Spiced Indian Chai (Masalawali Bharatiy Chai ) with Meera’s home made tea masala. I am not a regular tea taker, but you surely made me one Meera.

Also if you have any idea to use Takamaria seeds to let me know the recipe to use it , As I have it in fairly good amount and all I know is only how to use it in falooda . Poor me :( . I think hubby gonna have summer earlier this year otherwise: D .

I am extending this Arusuvai friendship chain by passing on some "Secret Ingredietns " to
Vani of Mysoorean and Indira Of Mahanandi .
Vani is a very active young mommy , and she already posted about this .
As the parcel to Indira is on her way still , be ready to check more on Mahanandi in coming days :) .

(P.S. – One of our close relative is visiting India right now, and Mom was asking me if I want some homemade tea masala . As I told Mom that one of my blog friend have sent this, she was happily surprised to hear this . Now when asking for other things she asks me playfully that “ if any of your blog friends has not sent XYZ , do you want it from India ??? “ )

Arusuvai has arrived - Thank you Meera :) .

Meera - A very enthusiastic and highly managed cook of Enjoy Indian food choose me to extend her Arusuvai friendship chain .

The Arusuvai friendship chain is brianchild of Latha and Lakshmi of the Yum blog. This is the friendship chain where you send your surprise ingredient to two or more of your blogger buddies. The friends use the surprise ingredient in their cooking and blog about it. This chain was quite popular in India. and now Latha of Masala Magic started the chain in USA. Thanks to all for this wonderful concept. Thank you Latha & Latha and lakshmi for your wonderful thought :)

Meera sent me 3 secret ingredients and if know me you must be knowing how am I in guessing game :D .
Well not only "Secret Ingredients" she send along with that a lovely card , a big bar of dark chocolate(which I managed to finish withing half hour of arrival ;) ). Even the Green placemate you see in this picture is also her gift for me.
So many things :p .... I was happy as a little child who received many gifts on her birthday :z .


When I got it I smelled that red powder as many times until I started sneezing with the strong flavor of that. And after that too , I was not correct in guessing it :x. Well I didn't expected that too , coz now I have learnt to accept my guessing power limitations :O .

Any guesses you have for what this can be (click on image to see larger view) ? I know the first one is what real challenge is , other 2 are little simpler compared to that. Doesn't matter even if you guess only one of them correct , you are still better than me coz I guessed all of them incorrect :O .

So ladies keep on guessing and I will be back soon with these spices - with some ongoing event's cooking and some bitter gourds too :) .Have a good day ahead, see you all soon.