In Indian cooking, karela or bitter gourd is most often sliced and pan fried or deep fried and then spiced up.
At Ronjita Kulkarni's north Mumbai home, her help Sakshi Dhuri, who hails from Maharashtra, chooses to grate karela and then fry it up with finely-chopped onions and finally add in roasted fresh coconut.
A bit like a South Indian thoran or a coconut-and-vegetable dry fry, the onions and coconut cut the bitterness and the mustard oil adds piquancy. Serve this Grated Karela With Coconut dish ideally with hot chapattis.
Photograph: Ronjita Kulkarni/Rediff
Grated Karela With Coconut
Serves: 2-3
Ingredients
- 250 gm karela or bitter gourd
- 2 medium onions, finely chopped
- 1 green chilly
- 2 tbsp mustard oil
- 1 tsp salt + extra for frying the seeds
- ½ cup freshly grated coconut
- ½ tsp red chilly powder
Photograph: Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff
Method
- Wash and dry the bitter gourds well and cut off the stems or the hard ends.
Cut each lengthwise and remove the seeds and keep aside.
- Using a kadukaS or large-holed grater, grate the karelas and keep aside.
- In a large frying pan or a kadhai, warm up ½ tbsp of the mustard oil over low heat and add the coconut.
Fry the coconut over low heat, stirring frequently, till it reddens a bit and take off heat and out of the frying pan and keep aside.
- In the same frying pan add ½ tbsp more of the mustard oil and fry up the seeds over medum heat till they brown a bit, get crisp and are cooked.
Drain from the pan onto a paper towel-lined plate and keep aside.
- Heat up the remaining 1 tbsp oil over medium heat in the same frying pan and add the chopped onions and the green chilly and fry for 5 minutes or so till soft.
Next add the grated karela.
- Fry for another 15 minutes over low to medium heat and, at the end, add in the roasted coconut.
Mix well, take off heat and serve with rotis or dal-rice.
- Spice up the fried seeds with the chilly powder and add a dash of salt and serve as a side.
Editor's Note: You can add ½ tsp of hing or asafoetida, for extra taste, while frying the onion and green chilly.