BHARVA KARAILA  [STUFFED BITTER GOURD]

Bitter gourd is, well.. bitter and at times very bitter. It is kid’s nightmare dish. But this  “stuffed karaila”  dish is palatable and for adults, who have acqured a taste for bitter gourd, it is a gourmet dish. It takes 30 minutes to prepare.
The ingredients for 5 persons

Ingrkaraila-with stuffingedients:ingredients-stuffed karaila

  • 5 medium size bitter gourd
  • Two medium size onions
  • Two medium size tomatoes
  • One small lemon or dry raw mango powder (amchur)
  • 4 to 5 segments (carpels) of garlic
  • A small piece of ginger
  • 4 tablespoons of coriander (dhaniya) powder.
  • 2 table spoons mustard  oil
  • Salt to taste

Method:
Boil the karaila for 5 minutes so that its skin becomes soft. Slit them longitudinally and remove the seeds.  Make a paste of onions, tomatoes, garlic, ginger. Warm one tablespoon of mustard oil in a pan and add the paste along with the coriander powder. Stir till you get a consistent paste. Add the karaila seeds and cook the paste  further. Then add the lemon jiuce. Alternatively, if you use amchur then add it to the paste during the cooking process. Using a ladle or just bare fingers stuff the longitudinally slit karailas with the paste, Fry them on a non-stick pan with a little oil.

eggplant-with-stuffingThe karready-to-relish-bharva-karailaailas are ready to eat along with chappatis or rice.
Note: One could use raw mango instead of lemon or raw mango powder. In this case dice the raw mango and grind it to a paste along with the other ingredients. One could also prepate stuffed egg plant this way.