Karavila Badum (a.k.a Fried Bitter Gourd )

Growing up my parents ensured I got the opportunity to eat pretty much everything edible. They tried their best. My mother is a pretty good cook and I always had something fun and yummy  to eat as snack, breakfast, lunch and dinner. We grew most of the vegetables and some were even found growing in the wild (like different green leafy vegetables). We ate fish, chicken and goat. Beef was a rarity as we had milking cows at home and my mom never liked the idea of cooking beef. I ate pretty much all vegetables except for Karavila. But, there was an exception to it. That was the salad my mom would make with fried Karavila. She would first fry the Karavila and then later mix it with some green chilies, tomatoes, onion and lemons juice with salt/pepper and made this amazing salad. Now that, I ate. It’s been a long time since I ate that salad. Not sure why I never attempted to make it. Perhaps it’s because my hubby loves to eat Karavila fried as a stir fry with a spice powder and some tamarind/jaggery. This is a Telugu version of Karavila known as Kakarakaya Vepudu. Being married to a telegu Brahmin I learned many different varieties of Andhra food. Things my husband grew up eating. 

Long story short I decided to fry up the Karavila one day. First day I fried them and made a salad like mom used to. Ofcourse forgot to take pictures. 

Second time I decided just fry it and add salt and chili powder to accompany dhal and rice. It was a very addictive item at our table. We could not have enough of it. Slight bitterness of the chip with dhal, ghee and rice with some avakaya (mango pickle) was the perfect meal on a cold and gloomy day. 

Without further ado, here’s what I did: 

My Karavila was a little on the mature side. Washed it and wiped them dry. Then cut them into circles. Including the seeds as these seeds also would fry up and become super crunchy and tasty. No bitterness whatsoever. 

Make sure they are not too thin. Then pat them dry to ensure there is no wetness. 

Then I heated up oil in a pan and when the oil is really hot I add the Karavila chips batch by batch. 

Make sure you do not add too many and crowd the pan. That will take longer to fry and give a steaming effect, which will result in soggy chips.  

I wojls fry them for about 3-4 minutes depending on the thickness of the rounds.  

End result is:  

Perfectly fried chips. They are crispy and crunchy with seeds on them.  

This is a perfect way to use mature Karavila. If they are tender and especially small ones, I used my mother in-laws recipe to stuff them and stir fry them. That recipe for a different day.  

You can pair these Karavila chips with hot rice, ghee and a dhal.