Stuffed Karela

                        Stuffed Karela

My favourite recipe is Bharwan Karele: small, green, oval bitter gourd is carefully selected, scraped, salted and then stuffed with a masala of browned onions. It is then fried till it becomes crisp. The onion stuffing is typically seasoned with a souring agent like amchoor, mango powder, in the Indo-Gangetic plain. It is a delicious interplay of flavours: the caramalised onions matching the slight bitterness of the vegetable, but also providing a mild sweetness, amchoor cutting the bitter with its sourness and the oil toning down the alkaline. If much of Indian food is about creating juxtapositions and yet finding a sense of balance within the flavour profile, the Bharwan Karela exemplifies it to the fullest.

What the stuffed bitter gourd also does is mimic the Mediterranean dolma — leaves and veggies are stuffed with mince (or spiced rice) in this Arabic/Med cold appetiser. Perhaps that is indeed the genesis of stuffed bitter gourd; originally stuffed with minced meat in Medieval India. Could the dolma have travelled to India in this manner? 

Minced meat or keema stuffed karela is still quite a popular dish in Muslim homes of Uttar Pradesh as well as Pakistan; the continuance of that tradition of Mughlai-based food, where native-to-India vegetables combined with meats, were cooked using methods that came into the region via the great Persian civilisation or the hardier food cultures of Central Asia. Karele, in this case, are often cooked on dum, once they have been stuffed with cooked spicy mince and tied up with strings.One of the reasons why the karela seems to be recently back in fashion is also because of the focus on healthier diets. The vegetable, after all, is a known (folk) medicine for diabetes, since it contains a hypoglycaemic or insulin-like substance, found to be beneficial in lowering the blood and urine sugar levels. Bitter gourd also is a rich source of phosphorus, is low in calories, and thus effectively used by everyone from expecting mothers to those expecting to lose weight. Plus its many therapeutic uses include those against piles, blood disorders (and fungal diseases), respiratory disorders, cholera and even alcoholism (its juice can supposedly help cure that too).

(Part 2- Recipe)

This stuffed karela is sans bitterness and leaves a very amazing taste in your mouth. Let's see the recipe----

Ingredients:

1. Karela- 250 gm.

2. Onion- 150 gm.

3. Garlic- 3-5

4. Kalonji masala-2 tsp.

5. Amchoor powder- 4-5 tsp.

6. Potato- 1 small

7. Salt

8. Turmeric powder-1 /2 tsp.

9. Red chilli powder-2 tsp.

10. Mustard oil- 4 tbsp.

Method:

* Scrape the skin of karelas and slit in the middle and apply salt and haldi generously and leave aside for at least 5 hours. (I kept in fridge for 1 day).

* In manual chopper, finely chop garlic onion.

* In a pot, boil water with turmeric and 2 tsp. Amchoor powder and add karelas.

* Cover and cook for 6 minutes or till skin softens.

* Remove from water and softly squeeze.

* In a pan, heat 3 tbsp. oil and add chopped onion garlic plus all the spices and cook for 5-6 minutes. 

* Cool and add mashed potato and stuff in karelas. 

* Heat rest of the oil in a pan or kadai and add karelas and fry on low medium flame till light brown color you see on the edges.

    Serve with dal chawal roti.

+ I served this with rice, toor dal, Moti roti and Gobhi matar.