A few days ago I went to the store with my youngest daughter and I stopped to pick out some vegetables. One was green and had more bumps on it then a pickle. For those who do not know what a pickle is a pickle is a cucumber that is in brine for a few weeks and it is quite bumpy at times if you seen a whole pickle. This type will be in a future post Inshallah. They are the main condiments that is very popular here in USA for various sandwiches.
However it may be confusing for my daughter at least and I explained it to her It is called karela in Urdu. In English it is called either bitter gourd or bitter melon. Later she seen me clean it by cutting it in half, removing the seeds and cutting them in to small pieces.
I use the front end of a potato peeler to help me loosen the seeds that is inside the pod. That is all it is is a pod. The seeds are inedible and gets thrown away. They are karela pieces are quickly put in a colander where I would put 2 handfuls of table salt or kosher salt on it and rub it all over the pieces of karela.
I let them set for at least 10 minutes then rinse and rubbing as I go until all of the salt is rinsed off. This removes the bitterness from the karela (bitter melon). I also have 4 cast iron skillets ranging from very big to extra small. I used one that was between large and medium for this and the yield of karela I used was 10 to 15 small karelas.
I turned on the heat to high and added 1/4 cup of olive oil. I added the karela in two batches of handfuls to 3 or 4 at a time and I fried them until it was a little red then put this in a small pot to set this aside. Repeat until there is really no more karela to fry.
In a mortar and pestle I added 1 pinch each of fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, corander seeds, black peppercorns, mustard seeds, 1 small broken piece of amchur (dried mango skins), 1 black cardamom, 2 each of cloves and kabab chini. Grind until it is a coarse powder and set it aside.
Add 1 oz more olive oil on high heat to cast iron that the karela was fried in. Add 1 drop of either mustard oil or coconut oil, 1 pinch of hing, 1 onion or shallot cut in to half moon slices. Cook these until they are caramelized. Wash, peel and mince 1 small piece of ginger, 4 pieces of garlic minced, 1 green chili deseeded. Cut the green chili in half and remove the seeds before you chop them in to small pieces.
Add these to the onion mixture, the contents of the mortar and pestle, 1 pinch each of turmeric, red chili powder, kasoori methi (fenugreek leaves) fresh or dry, pink salt, 1 tomato chopped and cook this down until it is mushy.
Add 1 lb or 1 kilo of keema also spelled queema in Urdu. It means mince or ground meat in English. The mince can be chicken, turkey, lamb, beef, goat or veal. Place the mince in a strainer and rinse it in cold water and let it drain very well. Add this to the masala mixture along with the fried karela which also gets readded back to the skillet at this stage.
Cover and let cook until the mince is very well cooked. This would take about between 10 to 15 minutes on low heat. Be sure to stir in between. Keep a constant eye on it to make sure that it doesn’t burn. As you see here, I have used chicken keema. Mr. Riaz raved about it and wants me to make it again.
In my family karela is one of our favorite vegetables and we eat this a lot. Enjoy this with lassi, chapati and other Pakistani rotis and achar (pickle) of your choice.
