The Seniors Kitchen: Karele Ka Achar

Welcome to The Seniors Kitchen. Today we are showcasing Karele Ka Achar recipe by Shailaja Khade.

Bitter gourd it is very beneficial it has so many good qualities it has vitamin A, B & C carotene, beta-carotene, gluten, magnesium, iron, zinc, and potassium it has many health benefits, it can control sugar, blood pressure and it is good for the digestive system amongst other benefits. 

 Ingredients 

Wash Bitter Gourd and dry it

  a few pieces of Tamarind

 3 table spoons of oil 

salt as per the taste 

10-15 garlic pieces

half tablespoon ginger paste

 2 green chili

2 tablespoon finely chopped green coriander

2 yellow lemons 

 For tadka (seasoning):

 I am going to use turmeric, mustard seeds, and cumin seeds asafoetida. I am going to take 2/3 tablespoons of all this masala. 

Method:

Take a bitter gourd and cut off both the edges and make 3 pieces, if you want you can even make 4 pieces. Now make a slit in the centre and check the seeds if they are soft then do not remove them. If seeds are over ripe then remove them, we have cut bitter gourd and kept it aside. Take garlic pieces and cut it in thin slices, now chopped the green chili, you can take 2 chilies or 4 chillies depending on how spicy you want to be you will need 2 lemons for 4 chillies. Slit the chilies and make the small pieces of lemon. Now take the cut bitter gourd and fill in it salt and a small piece of tamarind and keep it aside 

Now in a pan add 2 tablespoons of oil for tempering (tadka). Heat the oil and add 2 small tablespoons of mustard seeds. Let them crackle in oil, now add 2 small tablespoons of cumin seeds and keep on low heat. Now add half tablespoon asafoetida and 1 small tablespoon turmeric and stir it well and add 2 green chilies. Keep it on medium flame now we will add garlic that has been chopped into fine slices, the garlic has been sautéed well now add ginger paste in it and sauté it well and add bitter guard in this now squeeze 2-3 lemons and add squeezed pieces in this mixture, keep aside a few pieces of lemon and add them without squeezing. Now add salt as per your taste after that stir it well, it should be well mixed. 

Now put all these all this into a small container and that is put into a pressure cooker for steam cooking. It is important to make sure that the container is tightly sealed as to not allow the water from the pressure cooker to get into the container. 

In the same pan in which the earlier tempering was done add a few drops of water and a green coriander and stir the cook bitter gourd and slowly dry out all the moisture. Once you see that the oil separating from the bitter gourd that you will know it is cooked. Make sure that there is no moisture left in the pan.

You can eat this with roti and rice. You can refrigerate this and it will last for 12-15 days.