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Bharwa Karela recipe

Anardana stuffed Bharwa Karela Recipe

blessmyfoodbypayal
Shallow fried Bitter Gourd stuffed with a gooey paste of dry pomegranate seeds (anardana) and onion makes this tongue tingling "Bharwa Karela recipe", a household name in India.
5 from 9 votes
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Course Main Course, sabji
Cuisine Indian
Servings 4

Ingredients
  

FOR SHALLOW FRYING KARELA/BITTER GOURD

  • 500 grams Karele/bitter gourd about 13 pieces
  • 4 tbsp oil

FOR CRUSHING STUFFING

  • 1/4 cup anardana
  • 3 onions big
  • 4 green chillies
  • Handful of coriander leaves

FOR COOKING STUFFING

  • crushed anardana mixture
  • 1 tsp oil
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 tsp red chilli powder
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
  • 1 tsp coriander powder
  • 1 tsp garam masala

FOR STUFFING KARELE/BITTER GOURD

  • Cooked stuffing
  • Fried bitter gourd

Instructions
 

This recipe involves 5 steps :

  • Cutting and Washing of Bitter gourd
  • Frying Bitter gourd
  • Crushing the Ingredients used for stuffing.
  • Cook the crushed stuffing along with spices and
  • Filling the stuffing in fried bitter gourd.

CUTTING AND WASHING BITTER GOURD

  • Either using knife or peeler, scrape the skin of bitter gourd.
  • You may cut those bitter gourd into two halves which are too long in length.
  • With the help of knife, slit bitter gourd length wise from the center keeping the base intact.
  • This cut creates a pocket in the bitter gourd.
  • Remove the seeds from within the pockets, ie from inside the bitter gourd.
  • And then wash all the bitter gourd under running water in a colander.. Keep aside so that water drains from them.

FRYING KARELA/BITTER GOURD

  • Heat oil in a pan.
  • Add bitter gourd in such a way that they don't overlap with each other.
  • Cover the pan with a lid and let bitter gourd shallow fry.
  • Once they attain fried spots (blackish) underneath, turn their sides using a tong.
  • Once all the bitter gourds fry properly from all sides, remove them out of the pan.

CRUSHING THE STUFFING

  • Take a mortar and add anardana, green chillies and coriander leaves. Instead you can use the electric blender.
  • With the help of a pestle, start crushing the added Ingredients.
  • When the anardana and other Ingredients are almost crushed, start adding onion (already cut into chunks) little at a time (see notes below).
  • Keep on adding little onion, crush it, then more onion and again crush that and likewise crush the entire onion. You will get a fine paste. (notes). Keep aside.

COOKING THE STUFFING

  • We have used the same pan for cooking the stuffing, in which bitter gourd was shallow fried. This pan already have about 1 tsp of oil leftover so not adding additional oil.
  • Add cumin seeds into the pan and let them splitter.
  • Transfer the crushed anardana mixture into pan and let mixture cook on low heat.
  • Add red chilli powder, turmeric, cumin powder, garam masala and salt. Mix.
  • Keep cooking the mixture until it turns dry and start leaving the sides of the pan. You may add a spoonful of water if the mixture is still raw but sticking to the base of the pan.
  • Once mixture gets properly cooked, switch off the heat and let mixture cool down to the extent that you can touch it comfortably. This is our stuffing.

FILLING KAREKE

  • Pick a bitter gourd and using your fingers, fill the sufficient amount of stuffing in the pocket of it.
  • Likewise fill all the bitter gourds with the stuffing.
  • As the bitter gourds have turned completely cold by this time, transfer them in the same pan, keeping filled side UP.
  • Put a lid and let them become hot on a very low heat.
  • Anardane wale karele are ready.
Keyword bharwa karela, bharwan karela, stuffed bitter gourd