I love eating full meals from hotels in Kerala. The number of items may be less compared to a thali meal from Tamil Nadu, but they make that up with their taste and flavor. The platter mostly has rice, sambar, rasam, moru kachiyathu, 1-2 kinds of vegetable side dishes, pickle and pappad. Sometimes they serve this deep fried bittergourd on the side. Its the simplest of the dishes, but yet I can never get enough of it!
Who thought such a simple recipe would yield such delicious results! All you got to do is slice the vegetable, add chili powder and salt and then deep fry it. They fry it until its brown and there is not much of green. You might find curry leaves as well and even thin pieces of coconut in the dish.
I didn’t want to risk burning these, so I added a bit of rice flour for crispiness and took them out of the oil once they looked cooked and crispy enough to my eyes. These looked good enough to be served with tea, but somehow I liked the flavor a lot better with rice.
Ingredients:
- 2 karela/bitter gourd/pavakka
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 2 tbsp rice flour (optional)
- salt
- oil to deep fry
*handful of curry leaves is a good addition to this
Method:
- Slice the bitter gourd into thin rounds. I spread them out on a paper towel evenly for drying.
- Add the bitter gourd pieces in a bowl, add the rice flour, chili powder and salt. Mix well with your hands. You can add whatever masalas you want to the bittergourd, I used only chili powder and salt.
- Deep fry until golden brown in oil and drain in paper towels. Once cool, store in an air tight container. Serve with rice as a side dish or munch on them with a cup of coffee. Personally, I prefer with rice.
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My Kitchen Trials 
my fav way of eating this veggie..looks soo crisp..
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Such lovely pictures rajani! We have this served in our tamil meals as well and agree it tastes great!
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I’m afraid you cant pay me to eat this veggie – but they look so nice and golden and crispy must be delish for those that like this veggie
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I have tried the baked version of these chips and we instantly took to them :) These fried chips look sinful.
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I am not fond of bitter gourd but these chips look amazing.
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I have never tried bitter gourd crisps .Those crisps looks tempting.
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Absolutely crispy and am sure a dangerously addictive chips.. i can munch some anytime..
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Those bittergourd crisps look so tempting and addictive. Will have to try these out some time.
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Wonderful pictures.. Though i’m not a bittergourd fan, it tempts me to try this.
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oh they look absolutely stunning.. amazing click!!
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Somehow I am a great fan of this bitter veggie…these chips look so nice and crisp. Next time try rolling them up in a chapati, add some freshly chopped slices of onions, sprinkle Chaat masala and drizzle lemon juice. It makes an awesome wrap. These crisps are actually tempting me to make this wrap for tonight’s dinner.
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Vaishali, I will try it sometime…
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They look good enough to gobble up. I am not a bitter gourd fan but have taken a fancy towards these chips recently. :)
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