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Over the last few years, I’ve been testing my limits with that most unattractive of vegetables, the bittergourd (or karela, bitter melon, pavakkai or whatever name you call it – my husband terms them “rats”), to see just HOW much I love it.
I used to hate it completely, in any form, as a kid. In my late teens or thereabouts, I would as a concession eat them deep fried (yes, I know, very broad-minded of me) mainly because the ones from Hot Chips in Abhiramapuram were sensational.
Eventually, after a couple of decades, I got around to eating them pan-fried crisp, as a dry curry. After that things moved a lot more rapidly in the experimentation department, and I moved on to karela-without-frying-too-much, karela as a semi-dry curry cooked with onions and tomatoes, karela with mustard paste (a double-whammy in the strong flavour department).
While karela pitla (South Indian style) is probably not as scary as it used to be, or even as full-on as karela-with-mustard-paste, I still had to see if I'd like it - just to drive away the last of the childhood fear and hatred of the karela's bitter flavour. And, of course, I passed the test with flying colours, practically inhaling the pitla which my mother made a day or two before she left Shrewsbury.
The only karela-based item that I know I won't like is karela juice. Where that is concerned, I think I'm as blinkered as I ever was, with just one standard reaction: "No way Felipe." (Jose wasn't available.)
Recipe for: Bittergourd/karela/pavakkai pitla
Ingredients:
2 medium karela/bittergourd/pavakkai, sliced into rounds
1 cup masoor dal, cooked
1 tbsp tamarind paste
3 tsp gingelly oil (or any neutral cooking oil)
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 tbsp sambar powder
2 tbsp finely grated coconut
1/2 tsp asafoetida powder
1 tbsp rice flour
Salt to taste
a few fresh curry leaves, torn up
3-4 cups water
Method:
1. Heat the oil in a small pan and add the asafoetida powder, mustard seeds and curry leaves.
Cover and let the seeds pop, then add the grated coconut. 
Fry on medium heat till the coconut is light brown and aromatic. 
Remove from heat and set aside till required.
2. Put about a cupful of water in a pan along with the karela/bittergourd/pavakkai and turmeric powder. 
Let it cook till it becomes soft.
3. Dissolve the tamarind paste in 2 cup water and add it to the cooked karela/bittergourd/pavakkai.
4. Bring this to a boil, then add the sambar powder and rice powder and stir till well mixed.
5. Stir in the cooked masoor dal 
6. Add salt to taste along with the roasted coconut and mix in. 
7. Boil the pitla for a few minutes longer till it thickens. 
Serve hot with rice. 
RECIPE: BITTERGOURD/KARELA/PAVAKKAI PITLA
Ingredients:
2 medium karela/bittergourd/pavakkai, sliced into rounds
1 tbsp tamarind paste
3 tsp gingelly oil (or any neutral cooking oil)
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 tbsp sambar powder
2 tbsp finely grated coconut
1/2 tsp asafoetida powder
1 tbsp rice flour
Salt to taste
a few fresh curry leaves, torn up
3-4 cups water
Method:
1. Heat the oil in a small pan and add the asafoetida powder, mustard seeds and curry leaves. Cover and let the seeds pop, then add the grated coconut. Fry on medium heat till the coconut is light brown and aromatic. Remove from heat and set aside till required.
2. Put about a cupful of water in a pan along with the karela/bittergourd/pavakkai and turmeric powder. Let it cook till it becomes soft.
3. Dissolve the tamarind paste in 2 cup water and add it to the cooked karela/bittergourd/pavakkai.
4. Bring this to a boil, then add the sambar powder and rice powder and stir till well mixed.
5. Stir in the cooked masoor dal.
6. Add salt to taste along with the roasted coconut and mix in.
7. Boil the pitla for a couple of minutes longer. Serve hot with rice.
This is the karela recipe I was being so mysterious about, about a month ago or so. Those of you who do NOT remember what I was being mysterious about, please click on the link for a memory refresh. (Oh, the things I do for the convenience of my readers...! Might I have made a new follower, perhaps, or even two, by being thoughtful and ironic? One does so hope so.)
So yes, this is yet another karela recipe - and what’s more, I have another one up my sleeve (a post, not a karela), although that is not as radical as this one. This, though... this is THE most radical recipe I’ve ever made featuring this bitter vegetable, and I have to say that it really tested my karela-love. I would definitely consider this to be the penultimate conclusive test of karela-love, no question. The ultimate conclusive test, of course, being the willing consumption of fresh-squeezed karela juice. (You’d have to strap me down for that one, I reckon, and force-feed me it through a tube.)
This is an Oriya recipe, which I got from here and I consider myself very brave to have used Indian karela, which is way more bitter than the Chinese karela used in the original. Okay, the truth is that I would probably have used Chinese karela too, if only I’d had it handy. But I didn’t. Chinese karela is much less knobblier on the outside and much less bitter on the inside than the Indian variety.
Anyway, the reason I tried this recipe is because it uses mustard paste – and I love the sharp tangy taste of mustard paste and mustard oil. It’s a fairly recently discovered love, just short of a year old, actually.
Perhaps the end result would have been less bitter if I’d done the salting-waiting-squeezing routine that removes some of the bitterness from this vegetable, but I didn’t. Call it foolhardiness. However, I still liked the end result – I know, I know, shocking! The mustardiness was as yummy and nose-clearingly sharp as ever, underlaid by the bitterness of the karela. I just couldn’t eat the mustardy karela on its own, though. It needed toning down with cold curd rice... which turned out to be the perfect combination, in the end.
(Total "karela" usage count in one post: 13, including this one. Do I get an award?)
Recipe for: Mustardy karela
Ingredients:
2 cups bittergourd, sliced into rounds
Oil for pan frying (about 3-4 tbsp)
2 tbsp rice flour
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
3 tbsp mustard seeds
3-4 fresh green chillies (or to taste)
3 cloves garlic
Method:
1. Dry grind the mustard seeds and then add chillies, garlic and water.
Make a thick paste with a little water so that it can coat the bitter gourd completely.
2. Steam-cook the sliced bittergourd with a few tbsp water
till done, but not mushy.
3. Mix the mustard paste with the cooked bitter gourd.
4. Then add the turmeric, rice flour and salt to taste.
Mix in till evenly distributed.
5. Heat 3-4 tbsp oil in a shallow frying pan. Add the bitter gourd, spread them out gently,
and fry the pieces on both sides till crisp and well done.
6. Serve as a side dish with rice and dal.
I find I'm a bit worried about getting more and more radical with my bitter melon/bitter gourd/karela/pavakkai recipes, in that I’m using this vegetable in a less and less disguised fashion, as it were. I won't hide the fact that I'm feeling kind of - wait for it – meloncholy, the sort that leaves a.... yes, a somewhat bitter taste behind...
Time was when the only way I would even look at this knobbly-looking vegetable was if it was coated in seasoned gram flour and deep fried. And even then it wasn’t exactly welcome on my plate (or on my palate, heh. Tell me you love these punny asides, because I won’t accept a negative answer. What, did you think this was a democratic blog? Tut).
First I made my own karela chips. Then this. And this. And now, karela masala rice! Where oh where will it all end???
Be warned, readers, this recipe is only for those who love this vegetable. (Although, all evidence to the contrary, I still maintain that I’m not a member of the aforementioned karela-loving group. I mean yeah, I eat it. But would I reach for karela over, say, potatoes? Or green beans? Or plantains? No way, no how.) I used brown basmati instead of white rice, and cooked it with a bit of turmeric powder as per Suganya’s advice on her blog, Tasty Palettes – note that the idea for this recipe, and part of the method, is derived from her own post. I added peanuts for crunch (and some relief from the bitterness) and had a cool cucumber raita on the side, which is also, I think, essential to balance the taste.
Remember that rhetorical question I asked earlier? The one I didn’t answer, because it was rhetorical? (See paragraph 3.) Well, its status has just been downgraded from rhetorical to literal, because I’m answering it.
The karela radicality, my dear friends, does not end with this post. It cannot, because there is more to come, a recipe that is even more uncompromising when it comes to bringing the bitterness to the fore. And no clue, not one, about where that radicalisation will end, or when, or even how...
But for now, here’s the recipe to go with this post.
Recipe for: Bitter melon brown rice
Ingredients
1-1/2 cups brown basmati rice, soaked in water for 10 minutes
3 cups bitter melon/karela, sliced
3/4 tsp tamarind paste
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp urad dal 1 tsp brown mustard seeds
2 tsp oil
a few fresh curry leaves
3-4 tbsp garlic masala powder (or to taste)
Salt to taste
1/4 cup roasted salted peanuts
chopped coriander leaves for garnish
Method
1. Cook the soaked brown basmati rice in plenty of water to which 1 tsp turmeric powder has been added.
Drain rice and cool when cooked.
2. Dissolve the tamarind paste in 4 cups water and pour along with sliced karela in a saucepan. 
Cook the karela till done, but not mushy. Drain the cooked vegetable and reserve.
3. In a wide kadai or wok, heat the 2 tsp oil. Add the curry leaves, urad dal and mustard leaves. Cover till the mustard seeds pop, and the urad dal is golden brown. 
4. Add the cooked karela now and stir till the tempering is evenly distributed. 
5. Sprinkle 2-3 tbsp of the garlic masala powder and stir it in. 
6. Roast the karela over medium heat in the pan, till it starts to crisp up. (You can add 2-3 tsp oil to speed up this process, if you like.)
7. Add the cooked rice now, add salt to taste, and mix carefully till the vegetable is evenly distributed. 
8. Stir-fry the rice till it's heated through, then add the peanuts and mix in. 
9. Sprinkle the chopped coriander over, and serve the rice hot with a cool cucumber raita and crisps or poppadums.
This is a recipe for grown-ups, because I cannot imagine any child ever liking something as bitter-tasting as karela or bittergourd - the name says it all. I would say that even for grown-ups, it is an acquired taste. It certainly was for me. It's only recently that I've felt like cooking karela... possibly because it's a reminder of India, and I cant get it locally - I dunno. Perhaps driving some 50-odd miles for vegetables makes me want to try even those that I'm not terribly fond of, just to justify the long trip!
I DO know that my mom hardly ever made karela at home because we kids simply would not touch it. I have to confess that even now, the only way I can eat it is if it's fried. Some of the bitterness lingers on the palate even then, but it's almost a pleasant sort of bitterness - if that can be imagined. Definitely an acquired taste.
And annoyingly, like most other unpleasant things, bittergourds are excellent for health - it's known for helping to lower blood sugar and high blood pressure, among other things. I guess the vegetable is mostly known in the Far East and India, the Caribbean and possibly parts of Africa. Bittergourds wouldnt carry off the first prize for good looks, either - the outer skin, ridged and knobbly, always reminds me of crocodile skin.
The bitterest part of the vegetable is the seeds inside. So unless the bittergourds are very young and tender, I would always recommend that the middle portion (containing the seeds) should be scraped out. Sprinkling the cut vegetable with salt and leaving it to sit for about an hour helps bring out the watery content, thereby reducing the bitterness some more.
I dont know how much of the goodness is lost in frying the bittergourd, but I figure that eating it fried will still be more beneficial than not eating it at all. Well, it makes sense to me...
Recipe for: Karela (bittergourd) chips
Ingredients:
3-4 bittergourds
2 tsp salt
For the seasoning:
2 tbsp rice flour
2 tbsp gram flour
1 tsp red chilli powder (or more according to taste)
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
a pinch of asafoetida powder (optional)
Method:
1. Slice each piece of bittergourd into fairly thin half-moon shape. Transfer them to a colander and sprinkle the salt over. Shake the colander to distribute the salt evenly. Leave to rest for about an hour or so.
2. Squeeze out as much moisture as possible from the bittergourd pieces and dry them on paper towels. Transfer to a Ziploc bag or a big bowl.
3. Mix the seasoning ingredients together and sprinkle over the pieces. Shake the bag or bowl so that the seasoning is distributed evenly over the pieces.
4. Heat the oil in a wok, and fry the bittergourd pieces in batches to a crisp brown.
Serve as an accompaniment with Indian rice dishes, or eat as a snack.
