Hi Everyone,
Karaila (bitter melon/bitter gourd), like okra, is one of those vegetables that you either love or hate. Or, you may have a complicated relationship whereby you can only eat the vegetable if it is prepared a particular way. Me? I have serious love for karaila, and like all true, long, and lasting love, it is always fulfilling when we can re-discover each other. Such is the case with my bitter love. It all happened a couple of months ago.
Like you, I often buy the same set of vegetables each week and quickly find myself in a rut whereby I end up cooking them the same way each time. I debated whether to fry (sauté) the karaila or make kalounji (stuffed karaila). While frying would have been easy, that didn’t seem appealing to me, and kalounji would have been a lot of work with the extra steps of prepping stuffing and then the actual stuffing of the vegetable. Besides, I didn’t have any shrimp, and if I was going to use ground meat, it would have needed to be defrosted. So I decided to try something different – leave the karaila whole (having removed the seeds) and make a curry with it cooked in coconut milk.
(Photo by
Cynthia Nelson)
I mixed together 2 types of homemade ground masalas – tandoori and amchar. This was me playing with flavours and trying to come up with something different. At the last minute I decided to fry the karaila whole as one would do when making kalounji – the stuffed, tied vegetable is fried in a little oil to char the outside. With the karaila all fried, I chunkayed the curry paste and proceeded with making the curry.
The curry was exceptional. It was fragrant and savoury, the gravy thick with a hint of bitterness, mellowed by the coconut milk. The karaila was meaty (as result to the 2-step cooking process of frying and then simmering). I wiped my plate clean with my fingers and then licked them all! The karaila curry was so good that I have had to restrain myself from making it weekly. I called my mother, a karaila lover herself and told her about it. Mommy called a couple of weeks later, “Oh gosh baby, I cook the karaila curry and it taste really nice!” BOOM!
If you like karaila, you’ve got to give this curry a try.
INGREDIENTS
- 6 – 8 karaila (see notes below)
- 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh root ginger
- 3 tablespoons chopped onions
- Minced hot pepper to taste
- 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro/fresh coriander (see notes below)
- 2 heaped tablespoons ground masala (see notes below)
- 1 heaped teaspoon ground turmeric (more if you like)
- Oil
- Salt to taste
- Fresh coconut milk (see notes below)
DIRECTIONS
- Remove the top and bottom tips of each vegetable. Run a knife along one side of the vegetable, pry it open with your fingers and use a teaspoon to scrape out the seeds. Set aside.
- Grind the garlic, ginger, onions, pepper and coriander to a smooth paste. Mix together the paste with the ground masala and turmeric.
- Add 2 – 3 tablespoons of oil to a deep frying pan and place over medium high heat. When oil is hot, working in batches, fry the karaila until it is browned turning a few times. It will not brown all over and that’s okay. Repeat until all the vegetables are fried. Set aside.
- Check that you have about 2 tablespoons of oil in the pan (you may need to add a little after the frying).
- Add the curry paste; reduce the heat to low and let cook until the oil separates from the masala. Add the karaila along with salt to taste, raise heat to medium and toss to coat the vegetable and mix. Cook for 4 – 6 minutes tossing a couple of times.
- Add coconut milk to come 3-quarter way up the vegetable (scrape the bottom of the pan to remove any stuck bits). Bring to a boil, cook uncovered for 5 minutes then reduce the heat to low, partially cover the pan and let cook until liquid has reduced to your desired consistency and a knife inserts easily into the karaila. Taste for seasoning (salt) and adjust if necessary.
NOTES
- If you get really large karaila, cut them in half (cross way) after removing the seeds.
- Use your preferred ground masala mix or a combination. All masala mixes are not the same; each has its own combination of spices.
- If you don’t have access to cilantro/ coriander or chadon beni, use celery.
- Canned coconut milk can be used in place of fresh coconut milk, however, be sure to dilute the canned milk, as it would be too thick to use as is.
Cynthia
