Recipe for Karela [Bitter Melon] Gravy

This Recipe is for preparing at home Karela [Bitter Melon] Gravy. This is an authentic Indian dish, has unique flavor and is a main course dish.

Preparation Time:30 Minutes
Serves: 4 Persons

Ingredients
250 gms Karela
100 gms desiccated coconut (kopra, ground or grated)
50 gms Jaggery
50 gms Tamarind (soak and extract a cup full of pulp)
1 inch piece of Ginger
3-4 Green Chilies
1 Tea spoon Turmeric powder
1 Tea spoon Garam Masala (Everest)
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

Preparation
Scrape the skin of the Karela and slit them longitudinally and fill 1 tea spoon of Salt in each of them. Keep them under the rolling board or grinding stone for about an hour.
This helps to reduce their bitterness. Then heat oil for frying, cut the Karelas in to 3” pieces, wash them thoroughly, squeeze the water out and deep fry till light brown.
Grind Ginger and Chili to a paste. Fry this paste in 1 tea spoon of Oil till golden in a frying pan. Add coconut and fry for 2-3 minutes. Then add Tamarind pulp, Jaggery, Turmeric powder and Garam Masala. Add Salt enough for just gravy, because the Karelas are already salted. Put fried pieces of Karela in the gravy and pressure cook for exactly 5 minutes.

By Sujata Nerurkar

I am an Expert Indian Chef, Food Columnist and Adviser. I write on food and recipes on my site and conduct cooking, candle making, chocolate making, dry cleaning, decoration and other art classes. The recipes and food themes given by me are unique and original and appear regularly in numerous reputed periodicals, newspapers and magazines.

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