Bitter gourd Curry

Many of you would be knowing that bitter gourd is a favorite veggie at our home and of course not for me,it is favorite to everyone at my in laws place.This vegetable finds its place at least once in a week and especially during week end lunches.Most of the times I make fry out of it and I even opt for a quick,faster and a low cal version.Oven works best for me for making any of these vegetable fries with out consuming so much oil,it consumes hardly a tsp of oil.My husband can eat bitter gourd fry as a snack as he likes it very much,so most of the fry which I make will go into his plate and I just take a small portion to taste it.
Coming to this recipe I had adapted this version from one of my cook book's collection as I found the recipe simple and I know that bitter gourd and onion goes well with each other.The outcome was good and even I enjoyed it having with rice.If you are a bitter gourd lover you will definitely love it and even though if you are not you might start liking it,so better give a try.

Ingredients:
4-5 medium bitter gourds
2 big onions
a lemon size tamarind
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp grated jaggery
a sprig of curry leaves
salt to taste
2 tbsp oil

To grind:
1 1/2 tbsp chana dal
4-5 red chillies
3 flakes of garlic
3-4 small onions
2 tbsp dry coconut,grated

Method:

• Chop bitter gourd into small cubes and add turmeric to it and leave it aside for half an hour.Squeeze the bitter gourd pieces and keep them aside.
• Extract tamarind pulp and dilute with enough water to cook bitter gourd pieces.
• Boil the thin tamarind water and add salt,turmeric and bitter gourd pieces to it and cook until soft.Strain the pieced and keep them aside.
• Mean while finely chop the onions and keep them aside.
• Heat a tsp of oil and and add bengal gram(chana dal),red chillies and fry well.Add dry grated coconut and fry again.
• At the end add garlic and shallots and fry for a minute and let the mixture cool down a bit.Add little water to it and grind to a smooth paste.
• Heat remaining oil in a pan and fry onions until light golden in color.Add curry leaves and cooked bitter gourd pieces and fry on a slow flame until it is slightly crispy and brown in color.
• Add ground paste,jaggery and salt and fry until the mixture dries up and coats the bitter gourd pieces properly.

Serve it hot with hot piping rice,dal,rasam and papad.