Comfort Food – Bitter Gourd-Tomato-Tamarind Curry
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Comfort food has been discussed to death over here and in many other forums. To me, comfort food is what I won’t mind eating every single day of my life if I had to. In fact I had a post about two years ago asking the readers to share their pick if they had to chose one single meal for the rest of their lives. Hey, that gives me an idea, since I’ve met many new friends after that post, let’s play that again!
So tell me, If you get stuck on a deserted island, and you can pick only one specific meal for the rest of your life, what would you pick? Even if you’ve played before, feel free to share again!
So, why am I talking about comfort food again? Well, because I am posting a bitter gourd recipe today and all of my picks would include at least one dish with bitter gourd. I know, half of you’d think I am weird, but the other half’d definitely understand what I mean. It is one of those polarizing veggies – you either love it or hate it. It doesn’t have to be though. Those who hate the vegetable probably hate it because of the bitterness and there are many ways to mask it in a dish. I don’t mind the bitterness, but I am married to someone who does. I make some real bitter dishes when he is out of town or when I am really pissed off at him. But on those very few days when I am in a lovey-dovey mood, I try to go the extra mile to make it a bit less bitter. I have many techniques for this; all of them involve coconut and/or tamarind. This time I was feeling too lazy to thaw the coconut and decided to try a new combo with tomatoes. I have seen the combo in many sites before. I first sautéed the bitter gourd slices till almost brown, this takes most of the bitterness away. The combination of tomatoes and tamarind will do the rest of the job. This is one of the easiest bitter gourd gravy recipes that I know of. So I just had to share with you all, do try even if a bitter gourd hater, I promise it’s not bitter at all!
Ingredients
- ~2 tbsp oil
- 2 medium sized bitter gourds (~2 cups bitter gourd slices)
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- ¼ tsp mustard seeds
- A few curry leaves
- ½ cup onions, diced
- 3/4 tsp red chili powder
- 3/4 tsp coriander powder
-
Powder these spices
- ½” cinnamon stick
- 2 cloves
- 3 cardamom pieces
- ½ tsp fennel seeds
- ¼ tsp cumin seeds
- 2 large tomatoes (1 cup tomato puree)
- 1 small ball tamarind (1 tbsp tamarind paste)
- Salt to taste
Method
Soak the tamarind in water, if not using the paste. Paste can be added directly.
Puree the tomatoes in a food processor if using whole tomatoes.
Cut the bitter gourds into half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Slice each halves to thin pieces, widthwise.
Heat about ½ of the oil in a sauce pan and sauté the bitter gourd pieces along with a bit of salt till they start to brown a bit, but still soft. Add the turmeric powder and sauté for another minute or so. Remove and keep aside.
Add the rest of the oil to the pan and splutter the mustard seeds. Add the onions and curry leaves and sauté till soft. Reduce the heat to low and add the red chili powder and coriander powder. Sauté on low heat till the spices are brown. Add the pureed tomatoes and mix well to incorporate. Bring it to a boil.
Add the sautéed bitter gourd pieces and ground spices and saute for a few seconds. Add ½ cup hot water and mix well to combine. If using tamarind paste, add that now. If using soaked tamarind, use a spoon to press the tamarind down to get all the juice out of it and add the tamarind water to the pan. You might want to repeat the process with more water to make sure you get all the good stuff out of the tamarind. Bring this to a boil. Adjust the liquid if necessary by adding more hot water.
Close the lid and simmer for about 10 minutes. If the gravy is not thick enough, remove the lid and increase the heat to thicken it a bit more. Check and add more salt if needed. Serve hot with rice and a simple green vegetable stir fry. It is comfort in a bowl – for me.
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Category: Bitter Gourd, India - Kerala, Side Dish - Gravy, Tomato, Vegetarian
I am not a fan of bittergourd, but your picture is making me drool Sig. I have to try this soon.
Shipla, please please give this a try and let me know if you still hate bittergourd. I am on a mission to covert all bg haters to bg lovers, one at a time
My hubby is a big fan of it n gradually I’ve also started to like it..Our big hit is the tangy curry with roasted coconut in it..much like our theeyal..:)..though without coconut ,this looks similar..:)
My comfort food would be egg omlette..I’ve been having it everyday for dinner since I were a kid..
Oh yeah, theeyal is my first love too
But this one is so much more easier, no roasting and grinding coconut. I am glad you started loving bg Varsha! And Omelette, yeah I can eat it every day too 
i cant pick one single meal Sig. its like how Joey tried to choose between sex and girls and finally ended up saying ‘i want girls on bread!’ (From FRIENDS
)
but about bitter gourd, i dont like this vegetable but this time when i went to bombay to TH’s aunt’s place, she had made this thokku that was a perfect blend of flavours. i brought back a naadan pavakka and made it on a sunday night thinking i will take pics the following saturday. it didnt even last until wednesday so no pics
will share very soon becuz that seems to be the only way we can eat this veg!
Bitter gourd is one vegetable I almost always pick up every time I go to the Indian store. I usually make oven-baked chips with it. Bitter gourd chips with a cup of masala chai is sheer bliss.
Gosh, picking just one dish is tough. I’m surely going to get tired of the dish no matter how much I like it if it’s all I’m going to have, so might as well make it healthy. Hmm, steamed broccoli? No, I think I’ll settle for goat biriyani.
Bitter gourd chips in the oven – I like that idea!
narsi loves bitter gourd. i will make this some time next week.
island food = tomato dal..anyday
I LOVE bitter gourd and this curry is a fav at home, Sig. It is my fav with rice, and your picture is perfect because I can see vendaykka and brown rice along with it. A perfect meal:D. My ultimate comfort food would be rice with sardine-with-mango curry. But if veg is the only option then it would be Thakkali Moru curry with rice and papad and kaya thoran. Keep those recipes and yummy pictures coming:-)
Who said veg is the only option? I am adding your sardine curry to my lis
I am making this right now ! I am not a big fan of bitter gourd, but do like it once in way…picked 3 of them yesterday and saw your recipe – perfect timing ! I usually make it with lots of coconut, this sound nice and tangy…
Hey Arch, so how did it turn out? Hope you liked it!
Love bitter-gourd and this recipe is perfect as it combines bitter-gourd with tangy flavors, yum yum yum!
Just one food? That’s VERY difficult
.
Not one food, one meal. So you can get very creative!
I try and pick this vegetable up when S is traveling or something… if I remember to. He doesn’t like it one bit
I will make this sometime. The combination of the flavours seems yummy… some hot rice and I’m all set!
yeah, it used to be a home-alone vegetable for me too, but I’ve made Siv somewhat of a convert.
Also, if I didn’t have to worry about nutrition
I’d pick rice, tomato-lemon rasam and potato fry.
Who cares about nutrition, you are alone on an island…
That sounds like a great meal!
I just love bittergourd and this curry looks really tempting…yeah a real comfort food..
Thanks Priya!
Same case here, The Spouse abhors bittergourd. I don’t adore it but I can eat it. People usually de-bitterise it by smothering it with salt and squeezing the life out of it – I don’t make it, but at home, a yummy stuffed version is made with onions and jaggery.
Yeah the salting and squeezing the bitterness out trick – I’ve done it once and felt so sad! I added all that juice into some chicken curry or something
“I make some real bitter dishes when I am really pissed off at him.”
That is a hoot! i do the same
i of-course make stuff i like, yogurt based dishes..not parrikai..i am with siv on this…i dislike bitternesss..i thought you would have liked to know ;D
Hey, even Siv likes this version.. Don’t be too picky, try it this way, you might just start liking bitter gourd. It is really good for you, you know
Sig, it could easily be my comfort dish too. Looks great. I make it with the same combination of ingredients minus the aromatic spices. Both of us love this dish so I have to find something to cook when I am pissed
LOL… yeah, you should find a dish that the spouse hates…
Cooking a dish like that carries the point across much better than not cooking at all.. 
Well I can eat my Mom’s dal podi every single day…:)..but bitter gourd everyday sounds too much sig..:
And yes your old post did attract some great thoughts..
That bittergourd dish looks fit for a party. I am just back after a dinner of naan, kababs and tawa gosht, wouldn’t mind having it on a deserted island. But honestly there is no single dish I can have for all my life
That does sound great, but a bit too heavy for me to eat everyday. BTW, you don’t have to pick a single dish, you can combine a few and make a meal
Bittergourd is my enemy, never liked it and mom used to be angry with me for not eating them.
Well my comfort food list will be too long.
But i like themost is Rice and dal, with pickles, just writting it makes me drool
Another bittergourd hater
Rice and dal and pickle, there sure is something comforting about that. Actually I prefer rice, yogurt and pickle…
A single dish for the rest of my life? don’t know if i can do that, but biryani for right now:-D
I love karela, but never ventured in making anything with gravy (other than a very light bengali dish)with it. This preparation looks so delicious, more like a meat recipe.. & Sig I have plenty bitter gourd growing in my yard!!
I think biryani is a great choice, if I am alone on the island, who cares how fat I get
And yeah the meat recipe part is not a coincidence, I make a chicken curry like this, just reduced the spices and substituted chicken with bg.
I used to hate bg, but now I see there are possibilities!
I like the fact that there is tamarind in this, will take the edge off eating BITTER!
I would pick any spicy fish curry and rice….I think i can eat that everyday. Plus on an island i guess the fish supply will be pretty good.
Chora, kachi mora, paripppu curry, cabbage thoren, meen vevichathu, eratchi olathathu, papadum and jelebis to round it all off!
Bitter gourd is one of the ‘sweet’ vegies out there.. Like you my darling..I’m in the other half who love it..And this is one of my fav preparations for BG..with tomatoes and tamarind..I never added the garam masala spices though. Looks yum..
Hi Sig, Sorry its been a long time me commenting here, but I am a frequent visitor here, as I have said before, If it comes from you it must be good.. so tried this curry today turned out great, loved it.
Seems like you have forgotten to include in the recipe method where to add the Spice powder… I added it in the end, few mins before turning offf.
Sig I even tried your recent Tamil Style Chicken Biryani, it was delicious, The curry was sooo good I had it prepared again & served with rice/rotis. Thanks for posting it!!!
I will be trying the Uppu Kozhi Varuval sooon…Keep it up Gal…U ROCK!!!
Aruna
Hi Aruna, good to see you after a long time!
Glad to know that you like the curry, I will update the recipe with the missing step. I love the curry of that chicken biryani too, it is great on its on with roti 
Delicious! One meal? Hard one! I love Mexican
I am not a big fan of bitter gourd..but would love to try this curry, the flavors are awesome!
try this recipe of low cal bg chips.
Wash and thinly slice the b.gourd- then salt and season it (i do an auyrvedic spicing… jeera (cumin), turmeric, and corriander powder).
sprinkle very lightly with (olive) oil and toss everything around to coat.
Spread evenly in a large round microwave dish. And nuke at full power for 8 mins or so. (check for crispiness after standing time of 2 mins. it gets burnt very soon).
You can do only about 2 large karelas at a time. But keep going, cause the first dish will finish only in the tasting!
THIS dish is guaranteed to be your new comfort dish. And its bloody addictive.
Will bring down your sugar levels too!
Thanks, I will try it soon!
I am a fan of bittergourd
but usually do the stuffed northie stuff.Now 2 new recipes,thanks to u.Have tried this one today.next the pachdi……thanks again.Great site. 
hey sig,
howas diwali!
This recipe is almost like the gojju we make. but an interesting twist is we dont add the powdered spices. I will bookmark this one and surely give it a try!
Veds
To weaken the bitterness you can try to put the slices in a strainer, put plenty of salt on them, let rest, and rinse with water. The same method works with bhindi. The salt extracts juice and therefore some of the bitterness