Crispy, evenly fried bitter gourd with very mild bitterness!!!!
This is one of the simple recipes to make with bittergourd. Whenever you fry this veggie, you will have very mild bitterness or nil bitterness. I have already posted a pavakkai fry recipe without frying in deep oil. I removed the bitterness by soaking in yogurt. But for this recipe, you don’t need to do that is the plus of the frying part for this bittergourd. I would say the tip to get them crispy is adding rice flour and not any other flour. And also one more tip is to slice them thinly. If you slice them evenly, you will never go to shops to buy them, they are so perfect!
I used to avoid bitter gourd till my college days, and then started to have it after my mom packed in my lunch box. Then I never bought this veggie here as I have to travel a little bit, and also never felt like having this 😉 ! My boyfried loves veggies in all forms 😀 so I started to make for him and then tried to include these veggies in our meal somehow. And as we all know, it’s really good to include vegetables and fruits in our daily life. I wanted to make it a habit but sometimes I am so bored to chop them as I don’t take frozen vegetables much, I tried to skip them.
They can be served with rasam/sambar/kuzhambu or any gravy with rice. Or as a snack for tea time snack.
- Bitter gourd / Pavakkai – 5
- Sambar powder – ½ tbsp.
- Chilli powder – ½ tbsp. ( or just use any one – chilli powder or sambar powder)
- Rice flour – 4 tbsp
- Turmeric powder– ¼ tsp
- Salt – 1 tbsp
- Water – 1 tbsp( approx..)
- Oil – For deep frying
- Wash and remove the ends of the bitter gourd. Slice and thin evenly the bitter gourd, so that we can cook them evenly.
- Add the rice flour, turmeric powder, chilli powder, salt and water to the chopped bitter gourd.Mix well and keep aside.
- Heat oil in a pan and when it is hot, add the sliced bitter gourd evenly like in a sprinkled way. Do not crowd the pan as it may reduce the heat of the oil and make the bittergourd oily and not crispy. Cook in medium to high flame until the bitter gourd turns golden brown. Turn it and when both sides are golden brown, drain in kitchen tissue.
2. Do not add more water; bitter gourd will ooze out some water too. The water is just to make the rice flour stick to the veggie.
Taste best with rasam/sambar/kuzhambu.
