Bitter Melon Chips

Ingredients

• 2 large Bitter Melon Squashes (aka – Karela) from Indian grocery

• 1 teaspoon Salt

• ½ teaspoon Turmeric Powder

• ½ tablespoon Tamarind paste (from health food store – should have organic) or can make your own

For Batter

• ¼ cup Besan Flour (black chickpea flour) or plain chickpea is fine if that’s what you have

• 1.5 tablespoon Rice flour

• 1.5 teaspoon chopped fresh ginger

• ½ teaspoon brown sugar or sucanat

• ½ teaspoon Cumin powder

• ¾ teaspoon Salt or add to batter to taste

• Water as required

• 1 tablespoon Olive oil or ghee

• 1 pinch Hing/ Asafoetida

Seasoning

• 2-3 sprigs Curry Leaves (if you have them – can get on Amazon-fresh)

• 1 teaspoon olive oil or ghee

• ½ teaspoon Salt

Instructions

• Remove ends of bitter melon

• Cut bitter melon into thin slices (approx. ¼ in thick)

• In a bowl add sliced bitter gourd, add salt, turmeric powder, tamarind paste and mix well. This is optional step.

• Set aside for minimum 30 minutes or more, preferably 60-90 minutes is better. This step will remove excess fluid so that the baked chips are crispier.

• After 60 minutes, squeeze out excess juice and move bitter melon slices onto a plate.

• Remove matured / hard seeds from the bitter melon slices and leave soft/younger seeds, if any.

• Preheat oven to 390° degrees Fahrenheit

• In a mixing bowl, add besan/gram flour, rice flour, chopped ginger, cumin powder, salt, sweetener of choice, hing/asafoetida and mix well.

• Add water part by part gradually and whisk well to get a flowing consistency batter (not thick, nor thin).

• Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil or ghee and mix well.

•  Now slide in bitter melon slices and mix well so batter coats slices.

• Arrange the batter coated bitter melon on a greased pan or parchment paper and bake for 25-30 minutes in preheated oven at 390° F. Alternatively, you can also deep fry in ghee/oil of choice until its crisp.

•  While this bakes, take 2-3 chopped curry leaves in a bowl, add 1tsp of olive oil and ½ teaspoon salt, mix well and set aside.

•  At about 25 minutes in, remove bittermelon from the oven. Flip to the other side, spread curry leaves on top and bake for another 4- 5 minutes until curry leaves and bitter melons are crispy.

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