Bharay Karaelay - Bitter Gourd turned into Yummy Stuffed Gourd

Qeema Bharay Karaelay – Bitter Gourd turned into Yummy Stuffed Bitter Gourd

August 29, 2012

Who didn’t hate Karelay when they were young? Even though I was always lectured on how if you eat Karelay you will get less mosquito bites etc. I still just wouldn’t eat. Until the day I ate these stuffed bitter gourd made by my Nani Khala – Gogi.

While researching on Bitter Gourd, I found out two interesting things 1: Bitter Gourd is not a vegetable but a fruit- the bitter-est of them all for sure! It also doesn’t grow on a tree but a vine (bail) 2: I found a DRINK made from bitter gourd. Now who drinks that? Karela surely looks nice there.

Bitter Gourd- Karela Drink! SERIOUSLY?

Ofcourse, how can I not mention here the famous proverb ‘Karela, Aur Neem Charha’ in Urdu. Have you heard it somewhere? This proverb is used to describe a person’s attribute. It means ‘not just as bitter a bitter gourd but with added bitterness of Neem’ (a tree with extremely bitter leaves). Basically when a bitter gourd vine grows on a Neem tree it gets that added bitterness. Gets? ‘ Ehem!

Anywayz, lets get to the recipe part:

You will need

1 kg Karaela- Bitter Gourd(small sized as shown in the picture below)
1/2 kg Qeema – Minced Meat
2 onions
2 tbsp Garlic Ginger Paste
2 tbsp Anar Dana (Pomegranate seeds)
4 Tomatoes
4 Green Chillies
3 Lemons
1 cup Oil

Here we go:

Part 1: Cooking Minced Meat Stuffing

Brown 2 onions in 2 tbsp oil and put minced meat in it. Cook minced meat by moving the spatula after every 1 minute. Put Garlic-Ginger paste, Anar daana, salt and red chillies. Now cook it and yes, you would have to cook it really well till the oil comes up. Add like 2 tbsp water in between and keep mixing it till the minced meat is perfectly cooked! Cooking minced meat not so easy eh! Make sure the minced meat is dry.

Part 2: Stuffing the Bitter Gourd

Take the Karaelas scratch out the surface of the Karelas. Just a little bit. Slice them just from the centre and take out the seeds and extra white part.Wash them with salt and squeeze water out of the Karaela. This will get the bitterness out of this fruit.

Washed, De- seeded

Now take one bitter gourd, one at a time and fill it with stuffed minced meat. Wrap it with thread (yes the normal thread we use to sow clothes). It should be tight enough so the filling doesn’t come out.

The better way to go about is how Rohi aunty does it. We had a chance to make some yummy bharae Karaelay this sunday and we stitched the Karaelay with a thread and a needle! What it does is , it helps in easing the pain of unwrapping the Karelas while eating. You can just take out the thread with one hand!

Surgery on the Karelas

Beautifully Stitched

Now fry them in wok, till they turn a darker shade. Don’t use too much oil, just enough for them to fry.

Part 3: The final touches

Cut an onion, tomatoes, green chillies in a wok on top of bitter gourd and put them on slow heat. Also, sprinkle juice of 2 lemons and 1/2 tsp salt.

Let the Karelas cook till the onions and tomatoes become soft. It can take about 15 minutes. If you are not using a non-stick pan, make sure the Karelas don’t stick to the bottom of the pan. You can also put like 2 tbsp of water to form steam for the Karelas to cook.