KARELA CHHILKA AUR AALU (POTATOES COOKED IN BITTER GOURD PEELS)

If you are one of those 'few' who have happened to click this recipe, I would vehemently recommend you try this. Bitter Gourd, despite having lot of goodness and food value is a vegetable which does not elicit very pleasant response from most people. Most people would rather skip their meal than eat karela for a meal!!

I remember whenever my mother used to make this recipe (along with stuffed karela - recipe will follow soon...), she used to serve it up with tandoori rotis,  lassi and a very basic and simple home made chutney of green chillies, where she would grind them along with some salt. The whole combination was simply...awesome!! 

As for me, this was one of my favourite as a kid (and it still is!!) and now my daughter too loves eating it with paraantha, though it tastes equally good when eaten along with chapati or rice and dal.

On second thoughts, I would rather let the recipe speak for itself.

Ingredients

4 large bitter gourds (peeled)

4 medium sized onions (diced)

4-5 medium sized potatoes (chopped small)

1 ½ tbsp mustard oil (if you desire, you can use any other oil)

¼ tsp of cumin seeds

2 green chillies (split in half)

1/3^rd tsp red chilli powder (or as much heat as you want)

1 tsp coriander powder

½ tsp garam masala powder

1/3^rd tsp turmeric powder

Salt to taste

Peel the bitter gourd with a peeler and add two generous pinch of salt (to squeeze out its bitterness)

Keep the peels (preferably in sun) rubbed with salt for 2-3 hours.

Boil a glass of water in a pan and add the peels. Boil the peels for a minute and a half. 

Put the peels in cold water and then strain them.

Heat the mustard oil in the wok (kadahi) and when it starts to smoke (let it smoke for approximately half a minute and then reduce the flame) carefully add green chillies and cumin seeds.

Immediately add boiled bitter gourd peels. Fry them till the colour starts to change.

Add onions to the peels and keep frying till the onions become translucent.

Now add the potatoes and fry them for 5 minutes.

Season the potatoes with salt and add other dry masala ingredients.

Cook till the potatoes are done and serve with chapatti, parantha or rice. 


Serves 4

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COCONUT LADOOS (COCONUT SWEET)

A few days back one of our South-Indian friend visited us after their trip to their native place. They brought us ‘prasad’ of a whole coconut. Coconuts are synonymous to South India and it is used in nearly every culinary delight of the South Indian cuisine. But me, a North Indian, really didn’t know what to do with it!! I surfed the net for a simple recipe where i could use the coconut and give it the honour that it deserved. 

I found this simple and easy recipe on the net by Anjum Anand. It is fast to cook, good to eat and not high on the calorie count. Though the recipe mentioned 15 minutes of cooking time but it actually took a good 25 minutes. Also, it mentioned ‘serves 8-9′ but honestly, it was just enough for 4!! (coz they are not very large in size and turn out so yuummmmy that you possible can’t just do with one!!)

The only changes I made to the recipe are: one, i peeled the brownish/blackish outer skin of the fresh coconut and kept only the white flesh. Second, I added just a dash of red colour so as to impart a baby pinkish colour to the ladoos and i rolled them in desiccated coconut. The result? They turned out looking really gorgeous with a hint of pink  peeping from a covering of white desiccated coconut!! (exactly the way one finds them in Indian sweet shops) Here’s the recipe:

60 g grated fresh coconut, (or desiccated, if necessary), plus extra for coating

55 g caster sugar

125 ml milk

1 tsp clarified butter

1/4 tsp green cardamom seeds, ground

Chopped pistachio nuts, for sprinkling (optional)

I used fresh coconut for the ladoos and desiccated one for the coating

Place the coconut, sugar and milk in a small non-stick pan. Bring gently to the boil (at this point you will notice that the coconut releases its water and milk turns thin but don’t panic) and cook over a low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the ghee and ground cardamom and continue to cook for a further 3-4 minutes or until the mixture is sticky to touch but still moist and it starts to come off the base of the pan in a ball. Remove from the heat and scrape the mixture onto a plate.

Set aside until it is just cool enough to handle (but i found that an easier way to handle the sticky mixture was to refrigerate it for nearly 20-25 minutes) and then start forming it into balls or ovals. 

Roll the ladoos gently into the desiccated coconut (I placed them on a plate covered with cling film so that they do not stick to the plate and can be removed easily from the plate). Sprinkle with chopped pistachio nuts (optional).


Serves 3-4

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