Preparations:

Wash and clean the bitter gourds. Make a slit longitudinally on each bitter gourd. Remove the seeds from the vegetable and keep them aside. Discard the hard seeds and chop the remaining seeds in a mixie. Break the red chilies into small pieces. Heat a pan and add cumin seeds and dry roast for few seconds. Then add red chilly pieces and roast again. Add curry leaves and roast till dry. Now add the Bengal gram flour and fry. Take this mixture into a mixie jar, add turmeric powder, salt and grind to a powder. Add dry mango powder and mix well. Take this powder into a flat plate and add the chopped bitter gourd seeds. Mix the mixture well with fingers.

Method:

Heat a pan and add oil to it for deep frying the bitter gourds. When the oil is sufficiently hot slowly add the bitter gourds and fry. Fry for just one and half minutes. Drain them and keep aside. By doing this jiffy frying the bitter gourds get half cooked evenly. As the oil is hot, the vegetable gets sizzled in the hot oil and thus gets cooked. As we are removing the bitter gourds from the hot oil after just one and half minutes they remain half cooked. We are not deep frying the vegetable till crisp, so it will not absorb any oil. Strain the oil back into the container and you will see that we got back the oil with which we have started the recipe.

Spray some water in the stuffing powder to make it wet so that when we stuff the powder will not fall back. Stuff all the bitter gourds with this semi wet powder. Arrange some bitter gourds in a microwave safe flat bowl. Cover the bowl with a cling film. Prick the cling film at two three points for the vapor to escape while cooking in a microwave oven. Cook the bitter gourd on high power for 5 minutes and then on low power (30%) for 5 minutes. Give standing time 5 minutes before removing it from the microwave oven.

Heat a pan and add 2tsps oil. When oil is hot, arrange the remaining stuffed bitter gourds and cook covered till the vegetable is cooked. Once the bitter gourds are cooked, remove the lid and fry on low flame till crisp. You will find brown spots on the bitter gourds when they are fried. Remove and arrange them in a serving plate. Serve with hot rice.

Points To Be Noted:

You might have observed that in Guttivankayakoora we have fried the brinjals for just 30 secs., buti n this curry we are frying the bitter gourds for one and half minutes. Brinjals are softer, so they take less time to get fried—whereas bitter gourds take a little longer time to get fried to reach the half cooked stage. In both the recipes we are frying the vegetables till they are half cooked.

Children generally do not like bitter gourd curries as they are bitter. Prepare the stuffing without adding the chopped bitter gourd seeds. The curry will not taste bitter and your children also can enjoy it.

Here I prepared this curry with less oil. For those who are not calorie conscious, add around 10 tsps of oil and fry the stuffed bitter gourds on low flame till crisp. Then the dish tastes excellent.

Bitter gourd is good for health. Experts say they kill the worms in stomach. So do eat this vegetable once in a while to ensure good health of your family members.