Bharwa Karela (Stuffed Karela)

Day 65 of Lockdown

As a kid I hated Karela or anything bitter in my meal. Whenever we went to my grandpa's home during vacation, I remember my grandma used to make a dish with Karela/ucche which was one of her signature dish. It comprised of Karela and Shol fish cut into small pieces. That curry was a hot favorite among all the family members apart from me and my cousin who were kids. I was like seriously? You spoil a good fish by putting it into a bitter gravy? Adults - go figure!

But when I grew up and learnt to appreciate Karela there was no looking back. I also tried incorporating it into various dishes including fish dishes and to tell the least I fell in love with it too ultimately. But I still think I cannot match the love that my mom has for karelas. She can have it almost every day even boiled. This recipe is one of mom's which she picked up from some show. I tweaked it a bit according to my liking and here is the final version of it. Hope you enjoy it as well.

Preparation Time : 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Serving : 2-3 people

Ingredients :

• Karela - 8 to 10
• Hing (Aesofotida) -  2 pinch
• Dry Red Chilli - 4-5 
• Whole coriander seeds- 2 tbsp
• Jeera - 1 tsp
• Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
• Coconut shaving - 2 tsp
• Onion - 2 big, chopped
• Besan - 1 tbsp
• Turmeric - 1 tsp
• Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
• Raisins - 10-12
• Tamarind pulp/ Amchur powder - 1 tsp
• Salt and sugar to taste
• Refined oil
• Ghee - 1 tsp

Procedure: 

1.  First of all scrape the skin of the karela. Wash the scraped karela and add half a tea spoon of salt and rub well on each. Let it sit for 30 minutes. The salt will help in minimizing the bitterness.

2. After 20 minutes, take the karelas and wash under tap water. Shake off the excess moisture form each and make long slits on one side of the karelas. Using the back of a spoon or a knife you can carefully take out all the seeds.

Tip: if you are just making a dry version of the bharwa karela, then you can preserve the seeds and add it to the filling to give an extra crunch. But I am making gravy version of it with same masala so I discarded the seeds. Seeds in gravy would not make for a good texture so avoid in gravy

3. Now take a pan and enough water to submerge all the karelas. Add turmeric to the water and blanch the karelas till about half cooked.

4. Drain the water and take out the karelas. They should look something like the below picture. They are half cooked but still firm. Let the karelas cool

5. Now take a flat pan and dry roast the masalas - 2 tbsp coriander seeds, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp fennel and 5-6 dry red chillis.

6. Once cool, grind the roasted masalas to a fine powder like below.

7. Take a work, take 3 tbsp of refined oil and when its hot, temper it with a pinch of hing

8. When aroma of hing comes add chopped onions. Add some salt and give it a nice stir

9. Add about 2 tbsp of fresh coconut shavings and fold in.

10. Add 1 tsp of turmeric and 1 tsp of chilli powder and fold in. Adjust salt and sugar. Cook the onions till it starts to release oil

Tip: If you are making dry bharwa karela, then you can add the crushed seeds at this stage.

11. Once the onions turn brown and starts releasing oil, add the ground masala prepared above and fold in. Add 1 tsp of ghee to bring out the flavours better.

12. Add the raisins at this point and fold in. Add a little water if you feel the masala is sticking to the wok.

13. When the mixture releases oil it will look like below

14. Now add the besan. Fold in. The besan will make the overall consistency thick and dry.

15. Finally the filling will look like below. Let the filling cool down a bit before stuffing. Take 1/4th of the filling and keep it aside, we will use it to make the gravy. 3/4th of the filling will be used for stuffing

16. By now the karelas would have cooled down. Stuff the karela with the stuffing.

16. Tie a thread around each of these stuffed karelas, to prevent the stuffing from coming out while frying.

17. In the wok heat oil. When the oil is hot, add a pinch of hing and saute for a couple of seconds. Then add the stuffed karelas one by one. Fry them by gently turning them around. Keep flame low or medium, to prevent burning.

Tip: Don't cover and fry, it will help in maintaining the green color of the karela

18. Once all the karelas are fried, keep them aside. Now start making the gravy. Add the 1/4th filling back to the wok and heat it up a bit. Then add two cups of hot water and stir in everything uniformly. 

19. Add 1 tsp of tamarind pulp. If you don't have the pulp, you can replace it with amchur powder. Let it simmer till the gravy reaches a thick consistency. Adjust the salt and sugar levels.

20. Now add the fried stuffed karelas into the gravy and simmer on low flame for 3-4 minutes.

Garnish with some roasted sesame seeds and serve. Goes well with any Indian flatbreads or simple dal chawal. To eat just untie the threads and enjoy!

Do try this out and tag me (@curriesnstories07) on Instagram on your photos whenever you try the recipe and I will give a shout out to you.