Monday, October 5, 2009

Sweet-Sour karela (Bitter gourd) curry

Some time back, we had this awesome sweet and sour karela curry @ kanua, and since then, I always wanted to make it at home. This weekend, I decided to give it a try - here is the recipe I tried:

Karela (bitter gourd) - 3 nos (medium size – pick the white ones if you don’t like the bitter taste – the greener the karela, the bitter the taste) )
Toor Dal - a bit
Urd Dal - a bit
Salt - to taste
Chili powder - a bit
Turmeric powder - a bit
Jaggery - to taste (I used 3 vellams - if you want the curry to be sweet, add more Jaggery)
Tamarind - a small piece
Red chilli - 2-3 nos
Curry leaves
Lemon - one half
rasam powder - 1-1.5 tbsp

Wash and split the karela. Clean the inside and cut into small slices. Mix this with salt and turmeric powder and keep for about 15 minutes.
Soak the tamarind in water and keep it aside.
Mince the jaggery and make powder.
Take a non-stick tawa and heat oil. When the oil is hot, add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds stop spluttering, add urd dal and toor dal and fry till they are light brown. Add red chili and curry leaves to this, and then add the karela. Keep it on a medium flame till the karela is almost cooked. Add a bit of water to this and add the tamarind paste, rasam powder and jaggery. Squeeze one half of lemon and add the juice to this. Cook till the curry is dry. Serve it with rice or chapathi.

7 comments:

k.ø.c.h.ü said...

Bu hu ha ha! Ennalum ente machu!bikil parannu nadanna machuva!dhe kalyanam kazinju cookery ayi! Mrs.Machunu special kudos :-)

Shruti said...

I'll show this to mom :D
doesnt water in karela make it more bitter? Give my regards to Ramya :)

♪♪Happy Go Lucky♪♪ said...

LOLLL
Nice
:)
but i dont cook.
At.all.

Destiny's child... said...

Lol @comments above. Especially Kochu's :D

Ok, abt the recipe...I am not very fond of karelas..infact its one vegetable i don't like. But this recipe sounds exciting...must show it to mom...:)

Usha said...

wowie!
another pavakka recipe!
im a sucker for pavakkas n im sure gonna try this one out.. though i do cook another version of this, without the dals.. the rest of the fare are the same.. jaggery n rasam powder n all.

Tys on Ice said...

i love pavaika..this iam going to make...so, kalayanam has seen you inside the kitchen..iam so proud...love the company

Anil P said...

That is one thing I have struggled with, Karela :-)