We all know bittergourd has too many medicinal values. I found this article in one weekly. I thought it would be helpful for everybody.
I never understood the importance of home remedies before coming to USA. My father being a doctor, I used to always get immediate medical attention back in India. But when I came here, everything changed. It all started from a serious medical emergency we had to handle soon after coming here. We neither had the insurance nor money to pay the hospital bills (we were still expecting our insuarnce cards). When we called hospital to take appointment, they said we had to wait for 6months!!!. We didn’t know about emergency rooms. Finally though we went to emergency room (thanks to an american lady, who took us to hopital and gave us ride back home in her car), we had to wait 3hrs for meeting the doctor, which was hell in our situation. The doctor talked to us for 5mins, needless to say, it didn’t help us in any way, but since he had prescribed some medicines, we could atleast buy them from pharmacy. (BTW..we got a bill of $1000 for that visit!!!).
Anyway…that incident taught me a lot. India is a land of Ayurveda. There are thousands of home remedies which our elders followed for almost every possible disease. My grandfather who was 93 years old when he passed away, never had any health issues. He did so much of physical work at that age, which we cannot even dream to do. Their medicines were simple, all natural. Then why can’t we follow the same and be healthy? So I started this ‘home remedies’ category few days back. I would like to post all the remedies which I have collected so far. All my readers are welcome to add any remedies they know.
- Bitter gourd is the best medicine for diabetes. It is rich in A, B1, B2, C vitamins and Iron. Drink bittergourd juice in the morning on empty stomach to keep the diabetes in control.
- Bitter gourd reduces fever.
- It is useful for people with vision problems, since it has Vitamin A.
- People suffering from Jaundice, drink 1-2 tea spn of bitter gourd in a day. This reduces jaundice and the yellowish colour of eyes turns back to white.
- This is useful in purifying the blood.
- It is helpful in digestion, joint pain and gas problems.
- It is useful in liver problem, pain and swelling of nerves.
- For piles problems, mix 1 cup curd with 1 tea spn of fresh bitter gourd plant leaves juice and drink. This and the bittegourd juice reduces the piles problems remarkably.
- This kills germs in the stomach.
- This reduces unnecessary body heat.
- Bittergourd slices boiled in water and taken early in the morning cures constipation
Eat any version of bitter gourd to keep yourself away from many diseases and remain healthy.
Clams are used widely in Konkani cooking. ‘Aghanashini’ river flows at our native. During the low tide days, people stand in knee high water and pick up the clams. While using for cooking, the clams are opened carefully and the soft meat inside the shell is used in a variety of dishes. Usually one of the two shells is kept intact for some clams. I do not know why the shells are used, but when we were kids we always fought with each other to get the shells :D. It was a competition to see who got more shells.
There are many types of clams used in cooking. We used 3 types of them. First one is called ‘Tisre’ in Konkani. It looks like this and has many lines on the shell. Second type is called ‘Khubbe’, which doesn’t have the lines. Some people eat the first type and do not eat the second and vice versa. (Some more information about these types can be found here ).The third type is called ‘kalva’, these are found in big stones near the sea shore. Any of the three types of clams can be used for this dish.
Few days back, Kalpita sent me a very sweet mail. She had asked to post ‘Tisre sukke’ here. When I searched in the nearby Chinese store, I found the cooked ‘Kalva’ in the frozen section. There were many types of clams available in that store. All of them were too big. Usually the big ones cause stomach pain, so I almost left the hope of getting the good ones. Then I saw ‘Fresh water cooked clams’ in the frozen section.
See Mahek’s version of Tisre sukke here .
Pictorial: Make coconut masala. Fry onion.
Add clams.
Add the masala and cook.
Clams in coconut masala (Tisre/Khubbe/Kalva sukke)
Ingredients
- Clams 3/4 cup
- 3/4 cup coconut
- 1/2 cup onions
- 1/2 tea spn coriander seeds
- Oil
- 1/2 tea spn tamarind extract
- 1 small potato Optional
- 5-6 red chillies
- Salt
Instructions
- Heat oil and fry coriander seeds.
- Grind them with chillies, tamarind and coconut to a smooth paste adding very little water.
- Heat remaining oil and fry onion till they turn slightly brownish.
- Add potato cut into cubes, clams and fry for a minute.
- Add 1/2 cup water and cook for around 10 mins.
- Now add ground masala, salt and cook till all water is absorbed and a dry dish is got.
- Serve hot with rice as a side dish.
