Bitter gourd + Onion subzi with gram flour - a zunka of sorts with my favorite vegetable

Olympics games in Rio come to a close :-(, another 4 years of wait for the next round of heart warming sportsmanship, rush of medals, breath taking competition.. I am not a huge sports fan, there are select games that I enjoy watching and when it is Olympics, gymnastics catches all my attention. I had fun watching the US women's team and the fabulous girls that not only bagged the medals but also stole hearts of the viewers. This year, I also closely followed the badminton finals :-). Since it was during work hours, I had to satisfy myself my periodic updates and not really watching the game. 2016 games are memorable also because of the 3 unassuming girls from my home country that had an entire nation rally behind them, each playing a different sport, each from a different region of India, but each one showing what true sportsmanship was, here is to Sakshi, Deepa, Sindhu and Aditi, may they continue their passion in the games.

For the past week, all my social media feeds have been abuzz with the stories, jokes, controversies and news of how the girls are saving the Indian subcontinent from shame in the games, they secured not one but two medals in the games, the only two that Indian team got to take home. Every time some one speaks about gender inequality, I think of my father. Growing up between 2 completely boyish brothers and an older sister, he never for once treated us any differently than his boys. I got lucky in marriage too. I think my personal experiences sometimes make me blind and gives me the false sense that girls are treated equal to boys all over. Whenever the discussions happen, my first reaction is disbelief and then I cringe if someone talks derogatively of girls/women. Hopefully the recent accomplishments of these achievers will help a generation of girls and women back home and every where else too.

I have something yummy today (as always :-)), made with a vegetable that doesn't have a very huge fan following. I am an exception and so is BH, we both love, love the bitter gourd. If you are not convinced of our love for this veggie, look up the recipes on this blog to find the variations I make with this vegetable, there are already too many of them to list. But I understand completely when people say no to anything that spells bitter gourd in the list, it is bitter and not many people like the taste, I get it. So, why am I posting another recipe with the same vegetable again? Hmmm, let me think.. oh I know, it is because I am sure I will have some converts when you taste this recipe, it is that good.

Don't believe me? here is a simple anecdote, the parents do not like the bitter gourd at all, I have never seen amma buy it or make anything with it. They are very sweet and polite though and slyly avoid the dish if I make something with it. So, normally at home, I will make an additional choice of vegetables if bitter gourd is on the menu. Now that the inlaws are visiting, I always remember this rule of additional non bitter vegetable :-). But a couple of months back when I made this dish, the entire content vanished right infront of my eyes and nobody even seemed to care for the other item on the menu (I don't even remember what that was). Thinking about it, I was convinced that the other item was so bad that made the bitter gourd recipe a better choice. But I made it the second time to see the same results and then realized that they infact liked it. So I have 2 converts at home now and I have made it more than a couple of times in the past few months.

Zunka/Junka is a dry subzi from North Karnataka and Maharashtra regions in India. This is a preferred side dish for the jowar (pearl millet) rotis. It is easier to make, stays good for a couple of days and easy to pack for travels. Zunka is made with just onions or spring onions and then there are a few versions of zunkas with bell pepper too. The hero of the dish is gram flour and the whole idea is that you make a side dish without a vegetable. But I added bitter gourd and onion in almost equal proportions, I like the crunchiness that onions impart while also further reducing the bitterness of the dish. But the treatment to the cilantro takes this recipe to a new height, don't sprinkle or garnish cilantro on top after the dish is made but add it to the hot oil so it leaves the flavors and aroma right into the dish. Go ahead, try it and let me know how you liked it.

I won't hold you to use the same proportions I have below, look at this recipe more as a 'method' than as the exact proportions. You can tailor it to your liking. Here is the ratio of ingredients I prefer, change it any way you like. 1 cup chopped bitter gourd, 3/4 cup chopped onion, 3/4 cup gram flour, 1/4 cup chopped cilantro. Rest of the ingredients according to taste :-). The idea is to have enough gram flour to coat every bite of bitter gourd and complement the bitterness of the gourd with an equal amount of sweet onions.

What do you need? 
3 medium bitter gourds/haagalakaayi/kaakarakaya = 2 cups chopped
1.5 cups thinly sliced onions
1.5 cups gram flour/besan
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
5 Tbsp oil (Oops, this is one recipe I won't advise skimping on oil)
a quarter size tamarind
1/8 Tsp turmeric powder
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1-2 green chilies (adjust to taste)
1 Tsp mustard
1/4 Tsp cumin
1/4 Tsp asafoetida (be generous, it enhances flavor and also helps digestion)

How do you make? 

• Wash and pat dry bitter gourds. Remove the two ends and scrape the skin lightly with a peeler.
• Slit the gourds vertically and scoop out all the seeds from the center. 
• Discard the peeled skin and seeds and gently wash the gourds. 
• Cut each half further vertically and chop into thin slices. You can chop the gourds any shape and size you like but this works well for me. 

• Take a microwave safe bowl, add the pieces into it, add water so the pieces are all submerged in water along with turmeric, tamarind and 1/4 Tsp of salt. MW it for 6-8 minutes or until the pieces are fork tender. 
• Take it out and let it stand for 15 mins before straining out all the water, pick out the tamarind pieces and discard. Squeeze the gourd pieces to remove any extra water and keep aside. 
• Remove the stalks of chilies and cut them into small roundels.
• Heat a non stick kadhai/pan, add 2 tbsp of oil. 
• Add mustard, cumin, and asafoetida and let the seeds pop. Add the green chilies and let them cook for about 30 secs.

• Add most of the chopped cilantro (keeping a spoonful for garnish) into the hot oil and fold it in. 
• Add the sliced onions along with the remaining salt and let it sweat a bit until onions are soft. You do not need to brown them. 

• Add the gram flour and mix it well with onions & cilantro. 
• Add the cooked bitter gourd pieces. 

• Mix everything together until well combined, add the remaining 3 Tbsp of oil, cover the pan, reduce heat to low and let cook for about 12 minutes, stirring every 3-4 minutes to avoid burning. 
• After about 12 minutes, you get the nice cooked smell of gram flour and the mixture in the pan seems light when you stir/fold it. 

• You can even taste and check for salt at this stage and also confirm gram flour has lost its raw smell. 
• Switch off, garnish with remaining cilantro. Serve warm with roti or rice. 

Notes: 

• Use tender bitter gourds that are green and firm to touch.

• I am ok with the MW technology for short durations, if you don't use MW go ahead and cook the pieces on stove top until tender. 
• I like to keep onions and bitter gourds about the same size and shape, someone it makes the distribution even and aesthetically good :-)
• You can use 1/2 - 3/4 Tsp red chili powder instead of green chilies. 
• Using non stick pan helps reduce the oil usage a bit and also ensures that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. 
• Pre cooking bitter gourd with turmeric, tamarind & salt reduces the bitterness, so does the scraping of the skin and the double washing. 
• If you don't have cilantro in the fridge, use curry leaves chopped fine. My preference is for cilantro and especially when it is blistered in the hot oil, it leaves the aroma that lifts the dish a notch up. 

Hagalakayi (bitter gourd) palya - An unusual love affair

Happy Valentine's day everyone! Hope you all had a good celebration of the precious love in your lives and I hope it continues to get stronger through the rest of the year and life.

We had a good Sunday, got up late, cooked a storm in the kitchen and had a great brunch. Nothing typical of what you would expect on a Valentine's day lunch plate :-) but everything me & my valentine love in food was there. Other than that it was any normal Sunday.

Since the blogosphere is bursting with overdose of sugar for the Valentine's day, I thought I will step in and save the world from the risk of mass diabetes and deviate from the theme a wee (more than a wee) bit with my post. We were talking to parents in India on Friday and amma reminded me to make some payasa on Saturday as it was Ratha Saptami. Dutiful DIL that I am (and since we were both craving for something sweet and yummy :-)), I immediately followed up on it and made a delicious anna-payasa or rice kheer which after an hour on the stove became creamy and irresistible. I had every intention of making just a cup of it but with the rice and jaggery and milk, I ended up with substantial quantity that extended into Sunday too :-). Once cold in the fridge, it was so delicious. Thus our Valentine's day started with a ready to eat sweet item. And I didn't have to specially make anything sweet for the Valentine's day.

Somehow the concept of Valentine's day didn't grow on me, we used to make cards and cookies when DD was in grade school so she could take it to all her classmates and teachers but she outgrew that too. The innocence of bulk valentine day cards gave way to adolescent "yew, who gives cards and heart candies to boys" soon. Today I message her in the morning and wish Happy Valentine's day and she writes back a hurried 'Mwah, mwah". I am an insistent mom and ask her, "what is special for Valentine's day"? and get a "what Valentine's day? Mom, I have assignments upto my nose and am studying for my psych exam next week, stop being silly". I know some day it will change again :-) and I am not in any hurry for her to get there either. For me personally, celebrating love on a specific day feels restrictive, being in love is eternal, is a life long thing for me :-). Not that I don't appreciate flowers and gifts on the day but I prefer to take the pressure off of us of having to do something cute on this day to stay cool. More than anything else, it is also a great excuse for not having to come up with creative ideas to celebrate Feb 14th which suits the lazy me very well :-)

So on this Valentine's day I have a to make a confession of my our love to this vegetable. Not many people love it and it doesn't make the main stay in meals but I have openly talked about my feelings for this vegetable here, here, here, and here on the blog. If that is not sufficient proof of the intensity of this love affair, what is? We love to eat bitter gourd any form or shape though there are a few 'favoriter' recipes that have an edge over others. And then I keep adding to my repertoire of bitter gourd recipes as I come across them. Some make a mark and stay on and some just breeze in and out of my kitchen with a single occurrence. I first found this in a cookery book, the source mentioned it as a Gujarati dish, then I also saw it on an online Telugu cookery show. I combined the best of both worlds, made a few changes to suit my palate and viola, created a keeper recipe I have made multiple times.

The Gujarati version called it bitter gourd dry chutney and the Telugu version called Kaakarakaya chutney podi :-). Gujarati version was low on chili powder but added lot of crushed peanuts while the Telugu version skipped peanuts and poured red chili powder to the delight of a hard core spice lover. I chose to tread the middle path and combined ingredients from both. My version is not as dry as a spice powder and I don't think it fits a 'chutney' label, so I am kind of undecided on the category. I am ok calling it palya (stir fry) or subzi for now. No matter what you call it, it tastes delicious and if bitter gourd is one of your valentines (that is an overloaded statement right there, we will get back to that later :-)), give it a try and I am sure you will fall in love all over. The flavors are intense from the gourd, peanut powder and the sesame. Pair it with a mild yogurt based curry like majjige huli and enjoy.

Disclaimer: For those of you who are not bitter gourd fans, don't try to judge me for posting a recipe with this vegetable for Valentine's day, "har prem kahhani anoukhi hoti hai, jaroori nahin ki sub log use samjhe" (every love story is unique, not that others always understand it) :-). Each to his or her own taste.

What do you need to make bitter gourd palya? 
3 medium sized bitter gourd
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
1/4 Tsp tamarind paste
2 Tbsp oil
1/2 Tsp red chili powder
3/4 Tsp salt
2 Tbsp finely chopped onion
1 Tbsp peanut powder or coarsely crushed peanuts
1/2 Tsp mustard
2 green chilies - chopped
6-8 curry leaves - chopped
1 Tsp crushed jaggery/brown sugar
1 Tsp chopped cilantro
pinch of turmeric powder
1/8 Tsp asafoetida

How do you make bitter gourd palya? 

• Wash, cut the ends and scrape the outer skin on bitter gourd lightly. 
• Slit them vertically into halves and remove the seeds. 
• Reserve about a Tbsp of tender seeds for later use and discard the remaining. 
• Grate the bitter gourds on the big hole side of a grate or process them in a food processor or chop them finely. Idea is to get really tiny pieces without making a paste. 
• If you want to reduce the bitterness, add a pinch of salt and turmeric to the grated gourd, set aside for about 20 minutes, squeeze out all the juice that is generated. Wash the bitter gourd under running water and squeeze out the vegetable. While this removes the bitterness, it also removes a lot of nutrients.
• I like to retain the natural bitterness and go to the next step directly. 
• Heat 1.5 tbsp oil in a pan, add mustard and let it pop. 
• Add sesame seeds, chopped green chilies and curry leaves and let roast for 30 secs.

• Chop up the tender seeds reserved and add them to the pan, let them roast for a minute. 

• Add chopped onion followed by salt, asafoetida and turmeric powder and let the onion sweat and soften up. 
• Add the tamarind paste and jaggery.

• Add the grated bitter gourd and spread it in the pan in a thin layer - this helps to roast quickly and lose moisture. 
• Cook on low flame, stirring frequently to avoid burning. Use the remaining 1/2 Tbsp of oil as needed.

• Once the extra moisture is gone and the bitter gourd is soft, continue cooking until it reaches your desired dryness and crispiness. Mine took about 25 minutes for the quantity above. 

• Add red chili powder and the peanut powder at this stage along with chopped cilantro, mix well. 
• Let cook for just a minute, switch off and serve. It tastes great as an accompaniment for roti/chapatis and also mixed with steamed rice. 

My lunch box with Majjige huli, anna with bitter gourd subzi

• You can store this in a dry container in the fridge for a week. 

Notes: 

• Use tender and firm bitter gourd for this recipe
• I prefer a non stick pan if I am making a large batch so I can use less oil and still fry it without getting sticky at the bottom. 

• I used my home made peanut powder for this recipe, you can also just add coarsely crushed peanuts for crunch. 
• The seeds used give a nice crunch and the tender ones are usually not bitter at all. If you do not like them, skip this from the recipe.