Pavakka (Bitter Gourd) Pickle

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.

 

Kerala Egg Curry

Ingredients

1.           Eggs – 15

2.           Onions – 2 big, sliced

3.           Green chillies – 3, chopped

4.           Ginger- 1, 2 inch piece, minced

5.           Garlic – 10 cloves, minced

6.           Curry leaves – 2 sprigs, around 20 leaves

7.           Tomato – 3 medium, chopped

8.           Coconut milk – 1 can

9.           Coriander powder – 5 tspn

10.        Turmeric powder –1 tspn

11.        Red chilli powder – 1 tspn

12.        Garam masala – 1 tspn

13.        Chicken masala – 3 tspn

14.        Whole spices – 5 cardamom, 1 whole anise seed, 5 cloves, 2 inch cinnamon stick

15.        Cilantro – 1 bunch, washed and chopped

16.        Oil – 4 tbspn

Method

1.           Wash and boil/cook the eggs. Turn off the heat, drain and replace the hot water with cold water and keep aside. After the eggs have cooled down, peel the shells. Keep aside.

2.           Heat oil in a deep vessel, add the whole spices. After about 1 min on medium flame, add the chopped ginger, garlic, and green chillies.

3.           Once the raw garlic smell has gone (around 5 mins on medium flame), add the chopped onion.

4.           When the onion pieces appear translucent and light brown, add the masala powders from steps 9 to 13 in ingredients list.

5.           After the raw masala smell has gone (around 3-5 minutes on medium flame), add the tomato pieces, and chopped cilantro.

6.           After the tomato pieces appear mushed up (i.e. the tomato juices have evaporated) after about 5 mins, add the coconut milk.

7.           Let this curry cook for additional 5-10 mins till you reach the consistency you want. Add the boiled eggs to the curry (with a knife if you want you can make 2-3 random serrations just limiting to egg’s white surface prior to adding to the curry).

8.           Mix the eggs well into the curry. Turn off the heat once the curry starts boiling again.

9.           Enjoy with rice, chapathis or parathas!