Aloo and Besan Stuffed Karela

Method 1:

Aloo Stuffing :

We need 4 medium potatoes; 1 medium onion; salt to taste; 1/4 tsp red chilli powder; masala powders of your taste [i used corriander powder and homemade peanut powder]

Potato stuffed Bitter guard

Procedure :

Boil  washed/peeled potatoes in a pot for 12 to 15 mins.

Drain away all the water and let the potatoes cool down completely and set them aside; chop onion set it aside.

Meanwhile, wash bitter guard, peel off its ridges if you don't like them.

Make slits for each bitter guard and set them aside.

In a pan, take oil enough for saute, let it heat up for just couple of mins, not too much as you will close the lid and cook.

Add the slitted bitter guards to the oil, add some salt, close the lid and let all the bitter guard cook for 10 mins.

Open the lid, flip over all the bitter guard to the other side as well, close the lid and cook again for another 10 mins.

Now, when they are ready [should look almost black as shown in the picture], take out all the bitter guard from oil, set them aside.

Now, in a bowl, take boiled potatoes, mash them to paste [u can just smash with hand], add salt, red chilli powder, masalas of your taste [corriander powder and homemade peanut powder in my recipe].

Mix all the ingredients together 

Now, in the same pan as u sauteed bitter guard, saute chopped onions as well and add the potato paste to sauteed onions.

Take it out of oil, let it cool down a bit, and stuff the mixture in all the bitter guards.

You can sprinkle some cilantro if you like.

Other way of doing this is :  stuff mashed potato masala mixture in raw bitter guards and saute them altogether along with the bitter guards. i don't prefer this one since, the mixture comes out for me when i flip over each bitter guard and my entire pan and oil becomes too messy. If this works out for you, you can go ahead and proceed. In fact, this one is very easy.

Method 2 :

Besan Stuffing :

Ingredients

Bitter guard                              7

Besan Flour(Gram Flour)          1 cup

Salt                                          as required

Red Chilli Powder                     2 tbsp

Garlic                                       3 cloves

Corriander Powder                    1 tbsp

Oil                                           4 tbsp (for stuffing) 1 oz for saute

Besan Stuffed Bitter guard

Procedure:

First peel off the garlic cloves and crush them finely.

Take all the ingredients (except bitter guard), crushed garlic and mix them altogether. This is your besan mixture.

Now, take off the heads/tails of bitter guard and peel off their ridges with peeler (reduces the bitterness) and wash them off.

Cut the bitter guards vertically and provide some slots. Be careful, do not cut them into halves. Just make some gap to put stuffing.

Now, pop in the above besan mixture into each of the bitter guard slots.

Take 1 oz of oil into a pan and let it heat up. Place all the stuffed bitter guards in the oil, sprinkle little bit of salt on top of all the karelas, put the stove on medium flame, and let them cook for atleast 15-20 mins.

Flip over the karelas occasionally so that, they all will be fried evenly.

That’s it, ur stuffed karela is ready.

Hope you will enjoy both of my stuffings.
Happy Stuffing :)