Kalara Chop (Karela Tikki)

Everytime my MIL comes to Blore, bittergourd or karela becomes an integral part of our meals. As she is a diabetic and bittergourd is the most beneficial vegetable for her, we keep finding/trying out new recipes with it. After we got bored of having it in various avatars like stir-fried, stuffed and mashed, we tried out an odia style chop with it. Yeah, we love our chop and make it with almost everything. Potato, green banana, cauliflower, cabbage, mushroom,prawns, chicken, fish. The list is endless. The North Indians lovingly call them 'tikkis' but I prefer to stick to the old-fashioned chop.

Read on for the recipe -

Preparation Time - 20 mins

Ingredients -

• 2 medium sized bitter gourd
• 1 large potato
• 1 medium onion
• 1-2 green chilis
• 1 tsp mustard oil
• 1 1/2 tsp chopped coriander leaves
• salt to taste
• oil for shallow frying
• 3 tbsp cornflour for dusting
• lemon juice (optional)

Preparation - Wash and transfer the bittergourd and potato into a cooker along with 1 cup water and salt. Cook for 2-3 whistles.
Keep aside till steam escapes. Open lid and drain off excess water.

Peel the potatoes, transfer to a mixing bowl and mash them. Cut the bittergourd open and remove the seeds if any. Mash it and add to the potatoes.

Chop the onions and green chilis and add to the mixing bowl. Also add 1 tbsp cornflour, 1/2 tsp mustard oil, salt and coriander leaves. Mix well.

Shape into small flattened dics.

Cooking - Heat a tawa. drizzle it with 2 tsp oil. Place the discs on the tawa and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side. (Once you notice an even browning,

remove them from the tawa.)

Drizzle with lemon juice. Serve with white rice.