Description
Bitter Melon is one challenging veggie and coming up with tasty cooking ideas using them, is another daunting task. Just a small serving of this melon offers quite a lot of nutrition and medicinal benefits, which made me come up with this recipe. Chinese Bitter Melon, which is too bitter and strong in flavour, when compared to our Indian Bitter Gourd, is being used for this recipe and I’ve tried my best to make it appealing tastewise reducing the bitterness to some level, not fully though.
| Ingredients | |
|---|---|
| ¼ tsp | Cumin powder |
| 2 tsp | Coriander /dhania powder |
| ½ tsp | Red chili powder |
| ¼ tsp | Turmeric powder |
| 1 tsp | Ginger garlic crushed |
| 2 nos | Onion (chopped) |
| 1 no | Bitter melon |
| ¼ tsp | Garam masala powder |
| ¼ tsp | Cumin seeds |
| 6 nos | Curry leaves |
| 3 stks | Coriander leaves |
| ¼ tsp | Sugar / jaggery |
| ¼ tsp | Salt (or to taste) |
| 1 tbsp | Grated coconut |
Instructions
Wash, cut in half, remove the soft tissues and seeds. Chop them into small pieces, add a few pinches of turmeric and salt, mix well and set aside for 1/2 hour. Heat a cup of water, bring to one boil, quickly blanch the melon pieces, drain and keep aside. These two steps should reduce the bitterness to some extent.
Now heat oil splutter cumin seeds and curry leaves. Add the chopped onions, crushed ginger garlic and fry till translucent. Now add the bittermelon pieces along with the remaining turmeric, red chili powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, garam masala powder. Fry till the oil separates, add the salt and jaggery along with grated coconut. Saute for few more minutes or until it turns into a dry stir fry. Garnsih with coriander and serve with curd rice.
Notes
If you wish to have a subtle taste add in extra coriander.
My choice for a comfortable intake is to scramble an egg to this melon fry.