Now a days I make sure that I eat bitter gourd at least once a month....I know I should eat it more often, but I don't want to really like it as start it slowly. I never used to eat karela and would like it a bit only if fried or suated with jaggery, so that I will not feel the bitterness. But now I am trying to eat is slowly. Shoj loves it, so I am also trying new recipes so that I will also start liking it.
In my recent posts I noticed that I am not much writing about the nutrition value of the main ingredient I am using....because before I used to write for almost all my recipes. So I thought of starting from now on again!!
I did try some other recipes with bitter gourd too and have already mentioned the nutrition information: Bitter Gourd (click on this link to read more on bitter gourd nutrition...). Now lets go the recipe....
Ingredients:
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6 medium Bitter Gourd/ Karela/ Kaakarkaya
1 pkt or 1/4 cup Quaker Oats or Quick Cooking Oats (I used Quaker Oats - Apple Cranberry Almond)
1/4 tsp Fennel seeds
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp Chili powder
1/4 tsp Cumin powder
3/4 tsp Coriander powder
1/4 tsp Tamarind paste
1 tsp Olive Oil
Method:
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1. Wash the bitter gourd, slit lengthwise and remove the seeds. Repeat the same for all the bitter gourd, place in a bowl.
2. Sprinkle salt over and under the bitter gourd and keep it aside for about 30-60 mins.
3. Meanwhile in a bowl add the quaker oats, and all the spices (turmeric, chili, cumin, coriander powder) and salt and mix it properly.
Note: The quaker oats that I used had brown sugar in it, so if you are using the plain oats you can add up to 1 tbsp brown sugar or avoid it if you don't like it.
4. Preheat oven to 400 F or you can use a toaster oven as I did, which does not need preheating.
5. In a baking sheet place aluminium foil.
7. Now wrap the ends (all four sides of the foil) and make a pocket and bake it for about 30 mins.
8. In a small bowl mix 1 tsp water and tamarind paste (you can also use tamarind extract, which would be semi liquid).
9. Now open the aluminium foil pocket and drizzle this tamarind water over the top of the bitter gourd and again close the pocket as earlier and then bake it again for about 10 mins more or until it's cooked properly.
10. Serve this with steamed rice as a side dish or even with roti's as a dry sabji.
This bitter gourd recipe is mixture of all the flavors like spicy, bitter, salty and sweet...
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