One of my readers asked me for this recipe. I was a bit hesitant to try this because I am not a big fan of bitter gourd. But since it is good for health, I use it once in a while. Whenever I use it, I chop it finely and fry it well to remove bitterness. But for this, I had to use the whole bitter gourd.
I tried this last week and as I said it was bit difficult to remove bitterness. But I know many people who like the bitterness of bitter gourd. So this recipe is for these bitter gourd lovers. The stuffing is very tasty and I liked this dish.
I don’t have good pictures of this. Somehow when I started taking pictures, my hand was shaking. I prepared it again day before yesterday just to take pictures, but still I am not very happy with it.
Ingredients: 1 bitter gourd ¼ cup chopped onion ¼ cup chopped tomato ½ tea spn cumin seeds 3-4 curry leaves A pinch turmeric ½ tea spn chili powder 3-4 strands coriander leaves ½ tea spn grated ginger ½ tea spn finely chopped garlic Oil Salt
Method: Put a cut in bitter gourd and scoop out all seeds. Apply generous amount of salt to both inside outside and leave it for around 2-3hrs.
Heat oil and add cumin seeds. Add curry leaves, onion, ginger, garlic and tomato, fry for around 5mins. Don’t let tomato to become paste. Add chili powder, salt, coriander leaves and turmeric powder. Mix well and remove from heat. Squeeze bitter gourd as much as possible to remove the white colored water out of it. Wash it well. Stuff the onion-tomato mixture in it. Heat oil in a pan and fry this on a medium flame till the outer skin becomes almost black.
While serving, make 2-3 pieces of it and serve.
Serves : 2 Preparation time : 35mins
This is a very easy sweet dish prepared in most of the festivals in India. I am posting this for my own reference and to help cooking newbies. Few days back, I did not know how to make this. I would call up my aayi everytime I wanted to make this.
Some people make these Vermicelli or Shevayi (Konkani) or Shyavige (Kannada) at home. The home made variety is best comapred to the readymade. They make it very thin and it tastes amazing. My friend’s grandmother, Mrs Diwan, makes it at home. It requires a lot of expertice and patience to make these at home. I usually make this sweetdish with readymade vermicelli.
Ingredients: 1 cup vermicelli 3/4 cup sugar 1/2 tea spn cardamom powder 2 cups milk 1 tbl spn ghee 1 tbl spn raisins(dried grapes) 1 tbl spn cashews
Method: Heat ghee and fry vermicelli on a medium flame for around 4-5mins. Add milk and cook till vermicelli is completely done, mix occasionally. Add sugar, raisins, cashews and cook for another 3-4mins. Add cardamom powder, mix well and remove from heat. Serve hot or chilled.
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time: 15mins
PS: Sugar needs to be added after vermicelli is completely cooked, otherwise, it remains raw.
