Bitter
gourd is not very much liked my most of my family. But when you convert it to a
pickle, it’s a whole different story!
This has become my new favorite pickle because the bitterness along with the tanginess make an awesome duo! What
you need is the whitish light green variety bitter gourd, but since I could not
find any, I got the darker kind. The darker kind is more bitter than the
lighter one. But it tastes just as good!
Ingredients
1. Bitter gourd – 5 pounds, washed, deseed, and
cut into small pieces (See pic)
2. Ginger – 4 inch minced
3. Garlic – 25 cloves, minced
4. Mustard seeds-2 tspn
5. Fenugreek seeds – 2 tspn
6. Masalas – Kashmiri red chilli - 2 tbspn, turmeric powder – 2 tspn, asafoetida – 1
tspn
7. Sesame oil – 1 cup (or more as
needed)
Method:
1. Add around 3 tspn salt to the cut
gourd pieces. Heat around 1 cup oil, fry them in batches. Add more oil as per
needed. It should be darker in color, and crispy. Keep aside.
2. To the same hot oil, add mustard,
fenugreek seeds. Once it splutters, add the minced ginger, and garlic.
3. Once it turns light to dark brown in
color, and the aroma of raw garlic is gone, add the masalas.
4. Mix it all together, add the fried
bitter gourd pieces.
5. After around 2-3 minutes, add 1 cup
vinegar. Mix it all together, taste for salt and tanginess and add as per
needed.
6. Turn off the heat. Once it
completely cools down, store in air tight container in refrigerator for couple
of months. Enjoy on the side with rice, chapathis etc.