It has been more than a year since I wrote my last recipe blog! I have been postponing it many times already and it took me so much courage to start writing again. Whenever I was thinking to start over again, I don’t know, something like guilt or shame overcast my mind. However, I am finally here, commemorating my father, his homeland and trying to compile the abundance of vegan recipes from there.

Today’s recipe was especially my fathers favorite – Bitter Gourd Fry or Korolla bhaji. There are two kinds of people in Bangladesh- people either love it or hate it – there’s no middle ground. I am definitely in the first group and love to say that I learned the best recipe of bitter gourd from my father.

As usual, we need a very few ingredients to cook this stir fry bitter gourd. Many would not add potatoes here but I love the combination of the bitter gourd and potatoes.

First I sliced the potatoes very thin as I will not use any water to this dish. Then I soaked the sliced potatoes in water to stop browning.

When you cut open a bitter gourd, there you will find lots of seeds inside. If the gourd is not too mature, the seeds gonna be softer, which are edible. Otherwise you will find deep red colored seeds. So what I do is use a spoon and scoop out the seeds. It is much easier and saves a lot of time than take out seeds one by one.

After scooping out the seeds, I sliced the bitter gourd thinly. I also sliced the onion but little thicker, as I like the texture of onion in this stir fry.

Now in a colander, I drained the potatoes and in the same colander with the potatoes, I added sliced onion and bitter gourd, turmeric, salt and sliced green chili. I mixed them very well so that the veggies get well coated with spices. Many people like to fry the onion first and then add potato and bitter gourd but this is my father’s recipe so I like to do it this way.

Now in the frying pan, I heated the oil and then add all the veggie mix in the pan. The temperature should be medium high so that the veggies don’t get burned.

I sauteed the veggies for a while (5 minutes) until the potatoes become translucent.

Then I covered the pan with lid and turned the temperature to low. This step is very important because I am not adding any extra water here and the veggies need to get cooked with it own water. So covering with lid helps to trap the moisture and get the veggies cooked. Another important thing is to keep the temperature to low hit so that it does not burn and keep stirring from time to time.

After 10 minutes of cooking with lid on, the veggies get pretty much cooked. You can see the colour of the bitter gourd changed from dark green to pale gree and potatoes became soft.

You can stop cooking at this point but I like to keep on cooking for 5 more minutes in high heat to make the potato little more fried. But remember to stir gentle as the potatoes get smashed very easily.

So, it is ready to serve. There is endless health benefit to this amazing vegetable. True that it is an acquired taste but once you get the hang of it, it is truly delicious!

Finally I would like to dedicate this post and all upcoming posts to my beloved father, who always was fond of healthy eating. I really miss you Baba and wish if I could, I would make your favorite food for one last time….

Recipe: 4-5 Servings Prepping time: 10 minutes, Cooking time: 25-30 minutes

Ingredients: 6-8 big bitter gourd (about half a kilo) Spice and Condiments: 20ml Vegetable Oil (Mustard/white oil, anything will do) 1 medium Onion 1tbs fine Salt 1tsp Turmeric powder 2-3 green chili (optional)

Instruction: 1. Wash and cut the potatoes in thin slice. Soak them in water to stop oxidizing. 2. Cut open bitter gourd and scoop out the seeds. Slice them in thin. 3. Slice onion thickly. 4. Drain out the potato and mix them with sliced onion, bitter gourd, salt,chili and turmeric powder. 5. Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat, add veggies mix. 6. Stir fry them for 5-6 minutes until potatoes are slightly translucent. 7. Cover the pan and reduce heat to low; cook them for 10 minutes until potatoes are soft. Check salt and add more if needed. 5. Uncover pot, check if veggies are soft and cooked through. Cook for 2 more minutes until excess moisture evaporates. Roast them more if you like. 6. Turn off heat and take korolla bhaji. Enjoy with rice or flat bread or tortilla!