Kakarakaya Pachadi (Bittergourd Chutney)

I am not a big fan of spicy Indian style pickles. My mom makes sure she keeps me stocked with fresh pickles every year, but I rarely eat them. In my house, my husband is the major consumer of these spicy pickles. He also likes the simple chutneys made with vegetables, so I make them occasionally. They keep well in the fridge for 4~5 days.

I saw this pachadi/ chutney recipe made with bitter gourd/ kakarakaya on a cooking show. Recipe is very simple to make and the method of making is quite interesting. Bitter gourd is usually cooked with lot oil for a very long time to reduce the bitterness, but in this recipe it is ground into a coarse paste and then cooked in little bit of oil until it is cooked through.

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Stuffed Karela/ Bittergourd Curry with Garlic (Kakarakaya Vellullikaram)

I am always looking for new ways of cooking bitter gourd, so when I saw this recipe on a Telugu cooking show I promptly noted it down. Then my sister asked me a recipe for stuffed karela and I gave her this recipe and they totally loved it. After hearing the feedback I decided to make it myself and she was right, this is a delicious stuffed karela recipe.

One thing I learnt from this recipe is we don't need baby bitter gourd to make stuffed curry. Just use regular sized ones and cut them into chunks. Remove the seeds from the middle and hollow out the centers, then stuff them with spicy ground masala.

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Kakarakaya Tomato Kura (Bitter gourd-Tomato Curry)

My MIL made this kakarakaya/ bitter gourd curry when she visited us last month. There are quite a few ways to take the bitterness away from bitter gourd, like boiling them with a souring agent like yogurt or tamarind and then squeezing out the bitter water. But this time my MIL salted thinly chopped bitter gourd pieces and refrigerated them overnight. In the morning, she squeezed out the water and made the curry in the pressure cooker.
Both refrigerating the salted bitter gourd and making the curry in the pressure cooker was new to me, so I promptly wrote down the recipe to post it here for future reference.

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Kakarakaya Nuvvulannam (Bitter gourd-Sesame Rice)

One pot dishes are so convenient any time of the day. Being a South Indian most of my dishes revolve around rice, so a lot of one pot dishes I make are with rice. If I have leftover rice, it gets transformed into some kind of one-pot rice dish the next day. I'm sure all South Indians would probably say the same thing. Talking about rice lovers, I had an American co-worker who didn't like rice at all and I couldn't even imagine what it would be like without eating rice.

Today's rice dish is a new combination for me. I've never made a rice dish with bittergourd before. I saw the recipe on a Telugu Cooking show and the combination of bittergourd, sesame seeds and rice sounded very interesting. I was pleasantly pleased how good the dish turned out to be and was even more happy when the husband really really liked it.

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Kakarakaya Podi Kura (Bittergourd Dry Curry)

Blogging Marathon# 32: Letter K
Theme: A-Z Dishes from Andhra Pradesh
Dish: K for Kakarakaya Podi Kura (Bittergourd Dry curry)

Letter K stands for veggies like Kakarakaya (bittergourd), lentils like kandi pappu (toor dal/ red gram) and ingredients like kobbarikaya (coconut). 

Today's recipe is from a cookbook, Vantalu Pindivantalu by Malathi Chandur, that I bought years ago in a small book shop in Hyderabad. I still remember taking my mom to Koti, Hyderabad to buy a cook book. After asking in couple of stores, I was slowly getting disappointed that I won't be buying a cookbook that day. But my mom took me to a dusty old store that had no windows and had a rickety broken stairs. The guy said he had some cookbooks in the back and the back was even more dusty and dark. Well finally one of the assistants came down from the attic with a couple of cookbooks and I ended up picking this one.

This book was first published way back in 1974, so there are no pictures and the recipes are written with no measurements, everything is written in terms of fistfulls and a little bit more. So here's a recipe with the measurements I came up with. The curry ended up super tasty, do give it a try. I'm sure that the masala would taste great with other veggies too.

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Shukto - Bengali Mixed Vegetable Curry

For Day 4 of BM# 5, I made this mixed vegetable Bengali curry which interestingly includes bittergourd along with other veggies. Again recipe courtesy Sandeepa's Bong cookbook. In Andhra bitter gourd or kakarakaya is usually used mostly by itself and as far as I know is rarely cooked with other vegetables. So when I saw this recipe I thought it was very unique (at least to me since I've never tried this combination of veggies before) and wanted to give it a try. The veggies are cooked with mustard and poppy seed paste which gives the curry a totally different dimension. The dish turned out delicious in a very interesting and different way.

I followed the recipe to the T, except that I didn't have green beans on hand, so didn't use any. Also I added 2 dry red chilies to the blender when grinding the mustard and poppy seeds to add some heat to the curry.

Ingredients:

Bitter gourd (Karela) - 1 medium, diced

Ridge gourd (Beerakaya) - 1 medium, chopped into half moons

Plantain (Raw banana) - 1 small, chopped into half moons

Potato - 1 medium, chopped into half moons

Japanese Eggplant - 1 medium, chopped into half moons

Ginger - 1" grated

Moong vadi - 1/2 cup, fried until golden brown

Milk - 1/3 cup

Salt - to taste

For tempering:

Methi seeds (Fenugreek seeds) - 1/2 tsp

Bay leaves - 2

Hing (Asafoetida) - 1/4tsp

For the paste:

Mustard seeds - 2tbsp

Poppy seeds - 1tbsp

Dry red chilies - 2

Method:

• Soak mustard seeds and poppy seeds in water for at least half an hour. Then drain the water and grind to a paste. Since the amount was so little, my blender blade didn't make a very smooth paste. I tried my best and gave up at the end.
• Sauté each veggie separately until lightly roasted about 3-4 minutes per veggie. Remove and set aside. Sauté bittergourd last.
• Add 2tbsp oil in the same pan; add methi seeds, bay leaves and hing and once the seeds turn reddish and hing starts to smell fragrant, add all the sautéed veggies. Add the ground mustard paste and grated ginger. Mix well.
• Next add milk, salt and 1/2 cup of water. Cover and cook till the veggies are tender and the water is all absorbed.

Add the fried moong vadi before serving. Serve hot with steamed rice at the beginning of the meal to cleanse the palette and get your digestive juices flowing.

Let's check out what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up today:
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Priya Suresh, Srivalli, Usha
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Vardhini,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets: Harini, Suma, Veena
Seven Days of Regional Specials: Aarthi, Kalyani, Pavani, Shylaja
Summer Coolers: PJ, Vaishali
Under 15 mins Quick Breakfast: Sushma Pinjala

Bengali Bittergourd Curry with Poppy seeds (Uchche Posto Jhuri)

I was never a picky eater, but when I started thinking about how I felt about bitter gourd when I was young, I don’t have a distinct memory of either liking it or disliking it. May be my mom wasn’t feeding it to her kids, because she knew we wouldn’t like it or maybe she masked the bitterness and made us eat it, I have no memory whatsoever.

But one distinct memory I have was eating stuffed karela at our dear neighbors place; karelas were stuffed and tightly closed with kitchen twine and then sautéed until golden brown (may be in a batter—don’t remember that), but I remember them just melting in my mouth with no bitterness at all. I guess that was when I started really noticing and liking this bitter veggie.

I don’t mind slight bitterness anymore, but personally I try to take out as much of that bitter taste as I can by pre-cooking the gourd with yogurt or tamarind and then using the veggie as needed. For today’s Bengali dish for BM#5, I picked this delicious bitter gourd dish from Sandeepa’s Bong cookbook. I have to say this is one of the best karela dishes I have ever made. It’s a dry curry and the poppy seeds coat the bitter gourd and give them an almost creamy taste when eating. A must try for all Karela fans.

Did I mention the original recipe only has 5 ingredients, but with my pre-cooking the ingredient list grew to a whopping 6 ingredients that includes salt too.

Sandeepa's Original recipe here.
Ingredients:
Bitter gourd/ Karela/ Kakarakaya – 4 medium, diced
Poppy seeds – 3tbsp
Dry Red chilies – 3
Yogurt – 2tbsp
Salt – to taste
Mustard seeds – 1tsp

Method:

• Grind poppy seeds in a spice grinder or small food processor either dry or with very little water.
• Mix yogurt with chopped karela, ½ tsp salt and ¼ cup of water in a microwave safe container; loosely cover and microwave for 5-6 minutes or until the veggie is almost tender, but not completely cooked. Drain and rinse. Squeeze the water completely from the veggie and keep aside.
• Heat 2tbsp oil in a sauté pan, add mustard seeds and once they start to platter, add the cooked karela and sauté on medium-low flame until completely cooked through and slightly browned around the edges.
• Add the poppy seed powder or paste; mix well so that the veggies are completely coated with the powder.
• Season with salt and cook for 5 more minutes until the flavors meld. Serve with steamed rice and enjoy.

Let's check out what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up today:
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Priya Suresh, Srivalli, Usha
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Vardhini,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets: Harini, Suma, Veena
Seven Days of Regional Specials: Aarthi, Kalyani, Pavani, Shylaja
Summer Coolers: PJ, Vaishali
Under 15 mins Quick Breakfast: Sushma Pinjala

Bittergourd in Spicy Kolhapuri gravy

Recipe Marathon: Day 3

Kolhapuri Misal has been on my list to make ever since I saw Sia’s detailed recipe and droolworthy pictures. It took me all this time to get around making it. I made it way less spicy than Sia’s version since I was making for a 2 year old also. We enjoyed it a lot even though the dish has quite a few components that need to be made. I don’t have the pictures of the misal itself since we ate it right away.

But today’s recipe is not the misal but another dish I made with “Kat” or the Spicy curry that is one of the components of Misal.

I had about a cup of leftover kat that needed to be used and since I didn’t have any sprouted moth beans, I used it as gravy in this buttergourd curry and it was awesome. We really enjoyed the spiciness of kat with the bitterness of the veggie.

Here’s the recipe for Kat from Sia’s post (adapted from Chakli's recipe).

Once you have the Kolhapuri masala & Kat ready this dish is a snap to make.

Ingredients:
Bittergourd – 4 medium, chopped into half moons
Onion – 1 medium, chopped
Kat – 1 cup
Tamarind paste – 2tbsp
Salt – to taste
Mustard & cumin seeds – 1tsp each
Curry leaves – 6-8

Method:

• Place the bittergourd pieces along with tamarind, pinch of turmeric, ½ tsp of salt and ½ cup water in a microwave safe bowl. Nuke for 6-8 minutes or until the gourd is ¾th cooked. Drain and rinse under cold water; wring all the water out and set aside until ready to use.
  
• Heat 1tbsp oil in a pan, add the seeds & curry leaves, once the seeds start to splutter add onions and sauté until lightly browned around the edges.
  
• Add bittergourd and sauté on medium-high heat until they start to form a crust, about 8-10 minutes.
  
• Reduce the flame to low and add Kat and ½ cup water; simmer for another 8-10 minutes. Check for seasonings and adjust accordingly.
  

My gravy was spicy enough, so I just had to adjust the salt. But if you want it spicy add some Kolhapuri masala. This spicy dish is great for a chilly night dinner, warms you up inside-out.

Kakarakaya Kura (Bittergourd Curry)

This is a very simple preparation with minimum ingredients but the end product was really yummy & delicious. To me prepping bittergourd (kakarakaya in telugu) to remove some of the bitterness is the most important step. I know some people who really love the bitterness, but prefer it to be mildly bitter; I can’t take extreme bitterness (like broccoli rabe is something I absolutely cannot have, it is way tooooo bitter for my taste).

For this dish, I microwaved the veggie with some tamarind pulp, turmeric and salt for 6 minutes. Then I thoroughly rinsed it under water and completely squeezed the liquid out leaving just slight bitterness in the gourd. For a non-vegan version, use buttermilk while microwaving instead of tamarind pulp.

Ingredients:
Kakarakaya (Bittergourd) – 4 medium size, lightly scraped and chopped into ½” pieces
Red Onion – 1 medium, chopped fine
Curry powder – 1tsp (I used my homemade curry powder)
Salt – to taste

For tempering:
Cumin & Mustard seeds – 1tsp each
Curry leaves – 6-8

Method:

• In a mw safe bowl, add the chopped veggie with 2tbsp tamarind paste, pinch of turmeric, ½ tsp salt and ½ cup of water. MW covered on high for 5-6 minutes or until bittergourd is half cooked. Drain the liquid and rinse thoroughly under cold running water. Squeeze out as much water as possible from the gourd and keep aside.
• Heat 2tbsp oil in a sauté pan; add the tempering ingredients and once the seeds start to splutter add onions and sauté till they turn translucent.
• Now add the prepped bittergourd; cover and cook for 8-10 minutes or until bittergourd is completely cooked. Mix in salt and curry powder. Sauté for another couple of minutes.

Served with steamed rice and sambar makes this a complete comfort meal.

Kakarakaya Masala Kura (Bitter Gourd in Peanut Gravy)

Kakarakaya/ Karela/ Bitter gourd is one vegetable that I really enjoy cooking and eating too. I usually microwave the chopped gourd with lemon size tamarind, pinch of turmeric and some water until almost tender, about 5 minutes. Drain completely, rinse and completely squeeze out the liquid. This takes care of the bitterness, to be honest, I enjoy a little bitterness in the karela and don't worry to much about taking it out.

I have been thinking of using peanuts in the gravy and wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but the curry turned out pretty good and tasted even better for lunch the next day.

Ingredients:
Kakarakaya/ Karela/ Bitter Gourd - 4 medium, lightly scrubbed and cut into half moons.
Onion - 1 small, chopped
Tomato - 1 small, chopped
Ginger+Garlic paste - 1tsp
Peanuts, roasted - 1/4 cup
Red chili powder - 1/2 tsp (or more to taste)
Tamarind paste - 1tbsp
Jaggery - 2tbsp
Salt - to taste
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Dry red chili - 2
Curry Leaves - 6

Method:

• Cook kakarakaya as described above. Keep aside.
• Heat 1tsp oil in a saute pan; add onions and stir fry till lightly browned. Add g+g paste and tomatoes; cook till tomatoes turn mushy. Remove and let cool.
• Heat 1tbsp oil to the same pan; add mustard seeds and cumin seeds, once the seeds start spluttering, add curry leavs and red chilies. Saute for a minute.
• Then add half cooked kakarakaya; cover and cook for 5 minutes.
• In the meantime, blend peanuts along with sauted onions, tamarind paste and jaggery with 1/2 cup of water.
• Add peanut mixture to kakarakaya along with red chili powder and salt. Cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes or until all the flavors mingle.

Enjoy with steamed rice.

This is my entry to JFI: Peanuts. Remember to send in your entries before end of day on July 31st. I'll try to have the round up done on the weekend.

Kakarakaya Kura

Today's dinner is Kakarakaya kura (Karela Curry) and Masoor dal with coconut milk with steamed white rice.
I used frozen karela (round cut) and I simmered them in onion-tomato-tamarind sauce.

And for the dal I pressured cooked dal with chopped onion and tomato. Then put tadka and added 1/2cup of coconut milk.
5 more days of Vegan mofoing.. Have a great week ahead everyone.

Kakarakaya Kura - Bitter Gourd Curry

Yet another recipe from my neighbor back home. This is a very yummy and not at all "bitter" bitter-gourd recipe. It keeps well for days in the refrigerator.

My mom packed this curry for me to bring back to US during my last India trip. All you have to do it cool the curry completely and pack it in polyethylene bags (same thick plastic bags used to pack pickles). I put the packet in the refrigerator as soon as I was home, then transferred into a Ziploc container and it usually stays fresh for at least 10 days.

Ingredients:
Kakarakaya (Bitter gourd) – 3 medium, diced
Tamarind pulp – 2 tbsp, divided
Turmeric – ½ tsp

For Masala paste:
Onion – 1 medium, chopped
Garlic – 2 cloves
Coriander seeds – 1 tbsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tbsp
Sesame seeds – 2 tbsp
Grated coconut – ¼ cup (fresh or dry)
Jaggery – 1 tsp
Salt & Chili powder – to taste

Method:

• Mix 1 tbsp tamarind in ¼ cup water. In a pressure cooker, take the chopped kakarakaya pieces along with tamarind water and turmeric. Cook for 2-3 whistles (depending on your cooker, I cooked for 3 whistles in mine) until the pieces are tender, but not mushy. Remove, drain and rinse with cold water. Squeeze the extra water and keep aside.
• While the veggies are cooking, grind all the ingredients for masala with little water to make a smooth paste. (You can grind the ingredients raw or fry them in 1tsp oil for extra depth in flavor.)
• Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan; add the kakarakaya pieces and the masala. Sauté on medium-low flame till the masala paste is cooked thoroughly and turns golden brown and all the moisture evaporates. Serve with rice and dal for a complete meal.

Kakarakaya Kura & Tomato pappu with Rice