Midhi Pavakkai Poriyal | Baby Bitter Gourd Fry | Karela Fry

During my recent trip to Salem, my MIL gave me a handful of baby Bitter gourd that was grown in our house backyard. We call this as midhi pavakkai in Tamil. Some people also call it as Kuruvi thalai pavakkai as it resembles the head of sparrow. This is the first time I am seeing such a small sized Bitter gourd. As I am a big fan of Pavakkai, I was tempted to try some interesting recipes in my kitchen.

Actually my MIL suggested me to make pitlai in a slightly different way from my usual Pavakkai pitlai recipe. Before making that, I tried this simple and easy stir fry recipe to know the actual taste of midhi pavakkai. As expected, this baby bitter gourd is less bitter when compared with our regular bitter gourd. So you don’t need to remove the bitterness by slicing thinly, soaking in curd and squeezing the water. The quantity of onions and other ingredients we use in this recipe helps to make this stir fry tastes less bitter.

Now lets see how to make this South Indian style Midhi pavakkai poriyal recipe. In this recipe, I have pressure cooked baby bitter gourd before making the stir fry to use less oil. For variations, you can saute the bitter gourd in more oil till it shrinks in size and cooks soft in oil. Ok, now lets see how to make this baby bitter gourd stir fry also known as Karela fry in Hindi and Kakarakaya fry in Telugu with step by step pictures and a video.

Check out my other Bitter gourd recipes below

Bitter gourd Biryani / Pavakkai sadam

Chettinad Bitter gourd puli kuzhambu

Andhra style Kakarakaya pulusu

Karnataka style Hagalakayi gojju

Bitter gourd poriyal with moong dal in a pressure cooker

Bitter gourd poriyal with onion, garlic

Bitter gourd masala curry 

Pavakkai pitlai

Bitter gourd chips with wheat flour

Bitter gourd chips with besan flour

Bitter gourd podi

Pavakkai thokku

Bengali tetor dal / Bitter gourd dal

Bitter gourd rasam

Midhi pavakkai poriyal recipe | Baby bitter gourd fry

Midhi pavakkai poriyal recipe | Baby bitter gourd fry for rice

 

Cuisine: South Indian

Category: Side dish

Serves: Serves 2

Prep time: 10 Minutes

Cook time: 20 Minutes

Total time: 30 Minutes

 

Chitra Ganapathy

INGREDIENTS

Baby bitter gourd / Midhi pavakkai - 15 Big onion - 1 (Finely chopped) Tamarind - Small gooseberry size Sambar powder - 1 tsp Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp Salt - as needed Jaggery - 1/2 tsp Water - as needed Grated coconut - 1/4 cup Lemon juice - few drops To temper Cooking oil or sesame oil - 1 tbsp Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp Urad dal - 1 tsp Chana dal - 2 tsp Curry leaves - few Asafoetida / Hing - a pinch

HOW TO MAKE BABY BITTER GOURD FRY

1. Wash and chop the head and tail portion of baby bitter gourd.
2. Slit in the middle till half the way and set aside.
3. Take them in a pressure cooker along with tamarind water, salt.
4. Pressure cook in low flame for 1 whistle. Open the cooker after the steam is released. Drain the excess water and set aside.
5. Heat oil and temper mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal, curry leaves, onion and saute well.
6. Add the cooked bitter gourd pieces, sambar powder, turmeric powder, salt and jaggery. Mix well and cook it for few minutes till onions turn golden in color.
7. Switch off the flame and add grated coconut. Mix well and squeeze little lemon juice if needed.

METHOD - STEP BY STEP PICTURES

Wash and chop the head and tail portion of bitter gourd. Slit in the middle till half the way through and set aside. Soak tamarind and take 1/4 cup of extract using it. Take a pressure cooker and add in the slit bitter gourd, turmeric powder, salt and tamarind water. Mix well and pressure cook in low flame for one to two whistles. Open the cooker after the steam is released. Drain the excess water and keep the cooked bitter gourd aside. Heat oil in a kadai and splutter mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal, curry leaves and hing. Add onion and saute till transparent. Add the cooked baby bitter gourd, sambar powder, salt, jaggery and turmeric powder. Mix well and cover cook in low flame till onion turns golden in color. Switch off the flame. Add lemon juice and grated coconut. Mix well and serve with rice. Enjoy !

Note

You can make the same poriyal with regular bitter gourd as well but make sure you chop the bitter gourd finely or as thin rings for less bitter taste. Instead of pressure cooking the baby bitter gourd pieces, you can saute in oil till it shrinks in size and becomes soft. You can also garnish with coriander leaves at the end.

Try this easy and yummy Midhi pavakkai poriyal and enjoy with sambar rice or curd rice.

 

Technorati Tags: midhi pavakkai poriyal,baby bitter gourd fry,midhi pavakkai poriyal recipe,bitter gourd recipes,bitter gourd recipes indian