Bitter Gourd – Karela Pickles

Bitter Gourd – Karela Pickles

Bitter Gourd are packs with several important Nutrients. Also known as Bitter melon which is a great source of several key nutrients. It is equally known as bitter melon, bitter cucumber, balsam-pear, bitter apple, or bitter squash. This vegetable is also called karela in India, nigauri in Japan, goya in Okinawa, ampalaya in the Philippines, and ku-gua throughout China.

Health Benefits:

Can Help Reduce Blood Sugar.

May Have Cancer-Fighting Properties.

Could Decrease Cholesterol Levels.

May Aid Weight Loss.

Versatile and Delicious.

There are several varieties of bitter gourd, but the two most common are Chinese bitter gourd and Indian bitter gourd. The Chinese variety more closely resembles a pale green cucumber with crimped, bumpy skin. The Indian variety has narrow, tapered ends and sharp, angled ridges all over its surface. The differences between these varieties are mostly visual, and both offer similar flavor and health benefits.

Karela Pickle recipe - an easy and quick bitter gourd pickle

Ingredients:

Karela - 300 grams

Salt - 1 tsp

Raw Mango - 1 no (150 grams)

Salt - 1 tbsp

Fennel Seeds - 2 tbsp

Fenugreek seeds - 1 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Carom seeds - 1 tsp

Split Yellow Mustards - 2 tbsp

Mustard oil - 1/2 cup (125 ml)

Turmeric Powder - 1 tbsp

Asafetida - 1/4 tsp

Kasmiri Lal Mirch - 1 tbsp

Black Salt - 1 tsp

Kalonji – 1 tbsp

2-lemons juice extract,

2 tbsp of vinegar

Take 250-grams of karela, wash and dry them. Discard both ends of the karela and slice it into 1/2 cm width circles. Take medium size karela of good variety for preparing pickles.

Transfer the sliced pieces of karela into a bowl, add 1 tsp of salt to it, and mix well. Cover the bowl and leave the karela slices for 1 hour. This way, the bitterness of the karela will reduce as the pieces will release water.

After an hour, strain the karela using a strainer to drain out the released bitter water. Leave the pieces in the strainer for 5 minutes.

Take a tray. Lay a cloth over the tray and place the sliced pieces on the tray one-by-one. Dry the karela pieces under the sun for 1 hour or under the fan for 2 hours.

I have dried the pieces overnight, and they are completely dried out.

Grated mango and keep a side.

Heat a pan. Add fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, carom seeds to the pan, and sauté the spices over the low-medium flame while stirring constantly.

Within 2 mins of roasting, the spices will turn aromatic. Add split yellow mustard seeds, and roast them lightly for a minute.

Don't over roast the spices; take them out once roasted, and allow to cool.

Put the spices in a mixture jar and coarsely grind them.

Cook mustard oil in a pan. Cook the oil till you see smoke coming out of it. This way, you can get rid of the oil's bitterness.

When you can see visible smoke coming out of the oil, turn off the flame and allow the oil to cool down a bit.

Add turmeric powder, pinch of Asafetida, grated mango, karela slices, ground masala, Kashmiri red chili, salt, black salt, Kalonji, and mix everything properly.

When the pieces are well-coated with masala, transfer them to a bowl, add lemons juice extract, vinegar, and mix well.

Cover the achaar and keep it in the sun for 3-days or else you can keep the achaar in your kitchen counter as well if there is no sunlight.

After 3-days, you will get a mouth-watering piquant aroma from the achaar. Add some more oli if needed in the achaar if it seems short of oil.

Store the achaar in any glass container and enjoy it for more than a year.

Enjoy Karela pickle with paratha or any dish.