Bitter gourd or karathe(konkani) or Haagala kaayi(kannada) was never part of my cooking until recently. But I knew one or the other day I would start cooking it. Beleive me, this dish and the others which I am going to post soon, never had any bitter taste. We didn’t even know it was bitter gourd.
This recipe is from my sis-in-law Rashmi. Since I could not get the Indian bitter gourd, I used the Chinese bitter melon . If I started liking bitter gourd after eating this, I am sure anybody will love it (I am saying that because I hate this vegetable like anything and I was hesitant to try anything with bitter gourd).
Ingredients: Bitter gourd (cut into long thin pieces) 1 cup Mustad seeds 1/2 tea spn Red chilli powder 1 tea spn Turmeric a pinch Oil 1/2 tea spn Salt
Method: Add salt to bitter gourd and keep it aside for about half an hour. Squeeze out the water out of the bitter gourd pieces. Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add turmeric and red chillies. (Since salt was added before, no need to add it again at this step). Fry till the pieces are cooked and crispy.
Serves : 3 Preparation time : 45min (including the initial half an hour)
Ganva(konkani) or Genhu(hindi) (I donno how to write down the pronunciation of ‘n’ in Ganvu/Genhu, hope all my Indian friends know how to say this word) means wheat. GuLi is laddu in Konkani. This sweet is called ‘Chirmund’ in South Kanara.
‘Ganva laddu’ is the most famous sweet in North Kanara. If you go to any house, you will find this. It remains good for a long time. So people make them and store for months.
These laddus are very fragile, so they tend to break easily while eating. Also, do not eat them in a hurry, you might choke because they get struck easily in the throat if tried eating very fast. But still, once you eat them, I am sure you cannot stop it, they are very very tasty and healthy too.
Wheat flour laddu (Ganva guLi/Chirmund)
Ingredients
- 1 cup wheat flour
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 tea spn cardamom powder
- 2 cloves
- 1/2 cup approx ghee
- 1 tea spn raisins dry grapes
Instructions
- Heat a tea spn of ghee and fry cloves.
- Add wheat flour and fry on a very low flame for around 10min, till you get the aroma.
- Now add sugar and fry for 5min.
- Add cardamom and raisins.
- Now add the remaining ghee, cool it a bit. Do not cool completely, laddu should be made when the mixture is still hot.
- Make laddus. They tend to break in hand. It requires a bit of patience to bind these laddus, atleast for the first time.
- Add more ghee, if you find it difficult to bind into laddu.
- Store in air tight container after cooling the laddus to room temperature.
