Karela Ki Sabji /करेले की सब्ज़ी (Indian Savory of Bitter Gourd)

Karele (Bitter gourd) Ki Sabji

Karela is known as bitter gourd in English. There are many varieties of bitter gourd. Difference is in color and size, All are bitter. The long and light green is more fleshy and can be used for making vegetable by chopping it but the smaller version can be used to make savory by stuffing it (Bhara Karela) or by chopping it to pieces. Though many feel it is too bitter to eat the bitterness can be well balanced by adding appropriate amount of sugar and amchur powder. Bitter gourd vegetable is very tasty and healthy. The juice of bitter gourd is used in naturopathy to cure diabetes. The recipe I am posting today is the version I like most and has been perfected after lots of permutation combination in my earlier stages of cooking. More credit should go to my husband who braved tasting every time I changed the proportions and he gave his inputs.

Preparation Time: 20-30 min.

Cooking Time: 50-60 min

Servings: 4 Large Servings

Ingredients Required For Making Karele Ki Sabji:

• 1/2Kg. Karela (Bitter Gourd)
• 1/2Kg. Onion
• 2 Teaspoon Saunf (Fennel Seeds)
• 1/2Teaspoon Turmeric Powder
• 1 Teaspoon Red chili Powder
• 1 Teaspoon Garam Masala
• 2-3 Teaspoon Amchur Powder
• 10-15 ml. of Mustard oil / any cooking oil
• 2 Teaspoon Sugar
• 50 gm  Groundnuts
• Salt to taste

Direction For Making Karele Ki Sabji (Indian savory of Bitter Gourd):

• Scrape the bitter gourd with knife to remove just the protruded green part, do not peel it.
• Cut thin round pieces with the help of potato chip cutter or thin long 3-4 inches pieces.

Thin slices of Bitter Gourd

• Put a spoonful of salt and mix to the pieces of bitter gourd. Cover and keep aside.
• Roast ground nuts and remove the brown cover of ground nuts.
• Grind coarsely the roasted ground nuts. Keep aside the coarse ground nut powder.
• Cut onions to thin long slices.
• Heat oil in a big thick bottom wok till oil is smoking hot.
• Add
• Fennel seeds
• Broken pieces of whole red chilies
• Let the seeds of fennel splutter and chilies (optional) become dark brown in color. Do not let the seeds and chilies become black. Black color means that they have got burnt and the taste as well as flavor of vegetable will get spoilt.

Fennel seeds spluttering in hot oil

• When the seeds splutter add chopped onion and lower the heat.

Onions in oil tempered with fennel seeds

• Cook the onion to transparent state with frequent stirring.

Transparant state of onion 

• Squeeze the bitter gourd pieces. This will remove the bitter juice from them. Discard the bitter juice and keep the bitter gourd pieces aside.
• When the onions are transparent add bitter gourd pieces and mix nicely.

Bitter Gourd added to onions

• Add
• Turmeric powder
• Salt
• Red chili powder
• Mix and cover with a lid.
• Cook for 25-30 min. on low heat with occasional stirring. This will cook the bitter gourd and make the onions little brown.
• If you like the bitter gourd to be more crisp then cook for another 15 min on low heat stirring 4-5 times.

Ready for Groundnut and Garam masala 

• Add amchur powder and sugar and mix nicely.
• Add
• Coarsely ground groundnut
• Garam masala and mix nicely.

Groundnut and Garm masala added

• Cover and keep aside for the flavors of spices to mix with each other.

Ready to Serve

• Serve hot bitter gourd vegetable garnished with fresh coriander leaves with roti/parantha.

Karele (Bitter Gourd) Ki  Sabji

Tips:

• Make sure the fennel seeds and chili pieces do not turn black.
• Cooking should be done on low heat else the bitter gourd will become brown in color but remain under cooked.
• If you are using mustard oil heat it to smoking hot.
• If you wish groundnuts can be omitted. 

Suggested Variations:

• Groundnuts can be replaced by roasted sesame seeds. Groundnuts and sesame seeds add crunchiness and nutrition to the vegetable.
• Bitter gourd pieces can be blanched in salted water then squeezed. This will make them soft and less bitter also the cooking time will reduce.
• Sugar can be replaced by jaggery.
• 15 ml. of freshly squeezed lemon juice can be taken instead of amchur. But lemon juice should be added just before adding groundnut and cooked for just a minute or two. Lemon juice if cooked for longer time it develops very unpleasant taste.

Mutton-Do-Pyaja मटन दो प्याज़ा (Indian Mutton Savory)

Mutton-Do-Pyaja

Steamed Rice and Mutton-Do-Pyaja

Mutton-do-pyaja is succulent pieces of mutton in gravy made by using onion in two different form i.e. long thin cut onion and well browned onion paste. The amount of onion taken is almost double by weight than that of mutton. I personally feel that since mutton has its own flavor which it imparts to the gravy also thus too much masala (Spices) overwhelm mutton and the muttonny flavor is completely camouflaged. Do-pyaja gravy has its origin in Lucknow in Mughal era. To give it Mughlai aura lots of Cashew nut, Almonds were added. I prefer Mutton-Do-Pyaja without any further addition of nuts so that the mutton can be enjoyed completely.

Preparation Time: 1 hrs.(Marination time not included)

Cooking Time: 1.30 hrs (Approximately)

Servings: 10 Large Servings

Ingredients Required For Making Mutton-Do-Pyaja:

• 1 kg. Mutton (Goat meat)
• 1 and 1/2kg. Onion
• One tomato (roughky 100 gm)
• 10-15 gm Garlic
• 15 gm. Ginger
• 2-3 Teaspoon Powder of Red Kashmiri Mirch Powder(optional)
• 2-3 Lawang (Cloves)
• 2 Bay leafs
• 2 Whole Red Chili
• 4-5 Sabut Kali Mirch (Pepper corn)
• 2-3 cm. Stick of Cinnamon
• 4-5 Teaspoon Coriander seed powder (Dhaniya)
• 1 Teaspoon Turmeric
• Salt to taste
• 4 Red chili powder(Or to taste) (optional)
• 10 ml. Cooking oil (I use mustard oil) 5+5 ml.
• 10-15 ml. Ghee (Clarified butter)
• 100 gm. Thick fresh Curd

Direction for Making Mutton-Do-Pyaja:

1.       Making Marinade:

• Make fine paste of Garlic and Ginger. 
• In a large bowl mix:
• Curd
• 1 Teaspoon salt
• 1 Teaspoon Red chili powder
• 1 Teaspoon Kashmiri Mirch powder
• 2 Teaspoon Dhaniya powder
• Garlic-Ginger paste
• Turmeric powder
• Thick uniform paste of marinade is ready.

2.       Marinating the Mutton:

• Wash mutton thoroughly in flowing water.
• Drain water completely.
• Mix marinade to mutton making sure all pieces of mutton are coated with marinade.
• Keep the mutton with marinade in a covered bowl for at least 2 to 3 hrs. Longer it is kept more will be the flavor of mutton and spices mixed with each other. Or 
• Can keep for marinating before chopping work is done.

Marinated Mutton

3.       Cooking Process for Mutton-Do-Pyaja:

• Peel 1/2 kg of onions and cut them to long pieces. Any thickness will do as they have to be cooked and made to paste.
• In a thick bottom wok take 5 ml. of oil and heat. When the oil is hot add all cut onion and reduce the flame.
• Cook on low flame till brown. Switch off the heat and allow the cooked onions to cool.
• By the time onions are cooking peel rest of the 1 kg. Onions and cut them to long thin slices.
• In a thick bottom wok take remaining 5 ml. of oil and heat on high flame. When the oil is hot, add the thinly slice onions and cook on low flame till transparent. Need not to brown them.

Sliced Onion cooking to trasparent state

• Remove the onions from the wok.
• By now the browned onion must have cooled. Make them to fine paste, adding as little water as possible.

  http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.in/2013/11/onion-masala.html)

• In the same wok (Or other as per your wish) take 5 ml. of ghee and heat on high flame.

Spices in hot Ghee

• When the ghee is smoking hot reduce the flame and add 
• cinnamon
•  cloves
•  pepper corn 
• Whole Red chili
• Bay leafs
• Cloves

 Let them split. (It will take a min. or two).

• Add the marinated pieces of mutton without the thick liquid. Keep the liquid aside for later addition.

Mutton pieces in hot ghee with spices

Left over liquid of Marinated Mutton

• Cook the mutton for 15 minutes with continuous stirring and turning upside down to make sure all pieces are evenly cooked in the oil. This will give the mutton a beautiful reddish brown color. Wonderful aroma of mutton and spices will start coming.
• Add the thinly sliced transparent onions to mutton and cook for another 10 minutes with continuous stirring.

Transparently cooked onions added to mutton

• Add onion paste and mix nicely and cook for another 5 min. this will make your onion mutton slightly brown and the color looks really wonderful.

Cooked onion paste added and mixed

• Add all the liquid left from the marination and bring the flame to high.
• Cook with continuous stirring till all the water evaporates.

Liquid of marination added and reduced

• Bring the heat to low and add:
• Salt (totaste)
• Chili powder (to taste)
• Remaining Dhaniya powder 
• Kashmiri mirch powder

Basically all remainder spices are added at this stage.

• Mix nicely and cook for another 2-3 min.

Ready for water to be added

• Add water as per your requirement and mix. Cover and cook for 15-20- minutes with stirring occasionally. Or you can transfer the mutton from the wok with all the spices mixture to a pressure cooker and add water, cover the cooker with its lid and bring the heat to high till pressure is formed in the cooker. Lower the flame and cook for 10 min (Two whistles from the cooker).

Mutton-Do-Pyaja

• Switch off the heat and allow pressure cooker to cool before removing the cooked mutton-do-pyaja from it.
• Pour the remaining ghee on the top of cooked Mutton-Do-Pyaja and mix.
• Serve piping hot delicious Mutton-Do-Pyaja with steamed rice/parantha/Chapatti.

Steamed rice with Mutton-Do-Pyaja 

Tips:

• The state of mutton when it just starts falling off the bone is best cooked mutton. Over or undercooked mutton would spoil the whole dish.
• Do not add too much water right in one stage as excess af water will have to be evaporated and this can cause overcooking of mutton, where as if more water is required then it can be added anytime of cooking.
• Onion paste masala and ginger-garlic paste can be made before hand and kept in fridge.
  

  http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.in/2013/11/onion-masala.html)

  http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/11/home-made-ginger-garlic-paste.html

• Non-stick/Anodized woks reduce the usage of oil thus I always use them if you are using any other wok then oil requirement may change.
• Always taste the chili powder before adding as the degree of hotness of different brands is different.
• You can garnish the cooked Mutton-Do-Pyaja with finely cut Coriander leafs.
• Curd/Papad/salad served along with steamed rice and Mutton-Do-Pyaja are best accompaniment.
• If you wish you can avoid adding ghee to cooked Mutton-Do-Pyaja but believe me it brings a certain different texture and flavor to the dish.
• The consistency of gravy can be changed as per requirement by adding required water.
• Whole spices should be cooked in ghee not oil to get best result.

Alternate Suggestions:

• If in hurry one hour marination will do.
• Mutton can be cooked along with sliced 1 kg onions. This reduces the cooking time and efforts.
• If you wish then the amount of onions can be reduced to 1.500 kg. (1 kg +500 gm).
• Red Kashmiri mirch powder adds lovely red color so if you do not have it then avoid. Only color will be different not the taste.

• If curd is not available then 8-10 small pieces of raw papaya can be added in marinade. Papaya pieces should be removed before cooking the mutton. Curd/papaya helps in cooking the mutton fast. If papaya pieces are not removed then mutton pieces will literally melt in gravy an unwelcome thing.