Bitter Gourd Stir Fry with Peanuts

Bittergourd - did the word make you flinch? or did it make you wonder whether there was one more recipe you could add to your repertoire?

This is one vegetable which you either love or hate - there is no middle way. I love bittergourd - my parents (especially Mom) do too and I guess they passed it on to me and my brother. I got lucky in that hubby also loves bitter gourd - my brother wasn't as lucky - SIL hates it!

So we eat pitlai, pavakai kozhambu, porial, stuffed bittergourd - the usual suspects in a South Indian home. Other than that, I have this recipe for a mezhukkupuratti (Kerala style stir fry) from Sig which I have added - both of us love the crispy, coconutty flavours of this dish.

Indosungod of Daily Musings (love her posts which sit up and make you think!) posted this recipe from Sukham Ayu - the second cookbook by the wonderful duo who gave us Cooking with Pedatha. I knew I had to try it out the moment I saw it, and I wasn't wrong.



Made this the same day and stuck to the dry version. The combination of garlic, onions, peanuts and amchur make for a lovely flavour and I think the best part of this is how the bitter gourd retains its flavour and shape (I cooked it for about 12 minutes initially and then another 5 minutes after adding the spices and it still had a little bit of crunch to it) with the spices just complementing its taste. I left out the jaggery since both of us don't mind the bitterness and in fact don't like the sweet taste of jaggery to "mar" the bittergourd.

We had this with a dal - moong dal(split green gram lentils) cooked with turnips and tempered with finely chopped onions and tomatoes - and rice. I had used five bitter gourds thinking we would have it for lunch the next day - there was hardly any left! This is actually good enough to snack on - maybe making it a bit crisper if needed.

Recipe for Bitter Gourd Stir Fry with Peanuts - HERE