Karela Chips

Karela Chips

People find it strange when I tell them that I love all things bitter. It is customary in Bengali tradition to have bitter neem leaves in the month of March-April. 

Neem is an effective way of keeping infections at bay, especially chicken pox. I remember my grandmother making “Neem Begun” every year. As spring sets in the neem trees sprout tender, green leaves. They are the bitterest of the lot.

 Every day my grandfather would pluck a bunch of these leaves and give them to my grandmother to cook. To balance out the extreme bitterness some “begun” or brinjal would be added. Both the neem leaves and chopped brinjal would be fried in hot mustard oil. It is an acquired taste but those who enjoy “neem begun” are die hard fans of the taste.

Another extremely bitter vegetable is the karela. There are many recipes where the karela is peeled and boiled to remove the bitterness. I find it extremely funny when people do that. I love the taste of karela. I can have it boiled, fried, cooked with other vegetables. Infact the bitter taste is an integral pasrt of the Bengali cuisine. Karela is used generously in dishes like “Shukto” and “Chapri Ghonto”.

This recipe is a very simple one. Fried karela goes very well with hot rice. However that soaks in a lot of oil. You can make this recipe with as less oil as you want. You can simply grease the pan with oil and drain any excess. I personally like drizzling some oil once the karela is cooked.

Ingredients

3-4 karela, sliced paper thin

Heat some oil in a pan. Toss the sliced karela in it. Spread it evenly all over the pan so that most of the slices are in direct contact with the pan. 

Put the flame on low and let the karela cook. Do not cover the pan. This process takes some good amount of time. After every 10 minutes toss the karela again and spread it out.

 After some time you can sprinkle some salt and turmeric powder on it. Cooked on lowest flame the karela takes about 30 minutes to be ready.