Stuffed Bitter Gourd Recipe | Gutti Kakarakaya | Stuffed Karela with Step by Step Recipe

I am not a person who likes Bitter gourd or karela. But when you find that your family likes this vegetable, you will have find different ways to make this frequently. Hubby dear and Athamma loves bitter gourd in any form. I find myself making a saute of this vegetable and I remember that Kakarakayya kura was also quite frequent dish some years ago. I really wonder how and why we stopped making that dish these days.

This Spicy bitter gourd or stuffed karela recipe that I made a while ago, was surely different and very delicious, if I say it myself. I took it for office and my colleagues liked it very much too.

Stuffed Karela

School reopened for the boys today and we felt so bad for them as they had to get up early to get ready. The month long vacation surely had it's effect. I somehow managed to pack them something that they nodded their head, it surely made me realize that I should get some sort of planning to be done.

Step by Step pictures for making Stuffed Karela

Wash and trim the sides

Boil the bitter gourds in a mix of turmeric, curds and salt.

The ingredients for the stuffing. To be ground into paste.

 Fry in a non stick pan until done.

It takes 5 - 6 mins for frying the masala.

The cooked bitter gourds are left to cool down.

Remove the seeds inside

Stuff with the masala

 Roast the bitter gourds in hot pan again.

Fry these stuffed karela again in oil until it is browned on all sides.

Spicy bitter guard or stuffed karela recipe

Ingredients

For boiling Karela

Small bitter gourds / Karela - 3 cups (must have been 300 gms)
Turmeric powder a pinch
Curds / Yogurt - 1 cups
Lemon juice - 1 tsp
Salt a pinch

For the stuffing

Roasted Groundnut/ peanuts - 1/4 cup
Kopra / Dry Coconut - 1/4 cup
Sesame seeds / Til - 2 tsp
Whole dry Red chillies - 4
Salt to taste
Oil - 3 tsp
Cumin seeds/ Jeera - 2 tsp
Garlic - 4 cloves
Onions - 1 big

Coriander leaves for garnish

Method to prepare:

To cook the Bitter gourd.

Wash and trim the Karelas.

Trim on both sides of Karela without cutting in between.

Boil them in sour curd adding with salt, lemon juice, turmeric for 5 minutes. Keep it aside for it to cool down. Squeeze out the seeds from inside.

To make the masala:

Grind onion, red chillies, groundnuts, sesame seeds, salt, coconut and garlic coarsely.

Heat a pan with oil and fry the ground paste till it gets fine aromatic flavour. Remove from the oil.

Stuff the prepared masala in each karela evenly.

Ensure that each karela is stuffed properly.

To make the stuffed Karela

Place them one by one in the same hot oil and fry them on low heat to golden crispy brown.

Turn them gently without splitting inside masala.

Garnish with coriander leaves

This can be served hot with plain rice or with Sambar rice.