Exactly a year ago I came back to Vegan Bangla by writing one of my father’s favorite recipe to commemorating him. The recipe was Bitter gourd stir fry. After only 10 days, it will be three years when COVID-19 was announced pandemic. I don’t know how the dates fell so closely, may be it is a coincidence or may be its a sign that my father is always with me ❤

Today’s recipe is slightly different than the previous version. Main ingredient is the same – bitter gourd. But the companion veggie is Jaam Alu, which is a special kind of potato from the northern part of Bangladesh. I wrote a special recipe with Jaam Alu previously, which you can check here.

Jaam Alu or Red Potato has distinctive red color and has slightly different taste than potato. For this recipe, we need a very few ingredients as usual – bitter gourd, onion, turmeric, salt, oil and green chili.

First I cut the potatoes in half and then half again. As these potatoes are not very big in size, only a few centimeter each. So its better to cut in quarter than slicing. Then I soaked the 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 pan, I heated some oil and added thickly sliced onion. After turning them a little softer and brownish, I added potato, salt and turmeric powder and turned them to mix all spices well.

After a while, potatoes started to get roasted, when you see the reddish color of potato skin starts to fade.

I added then bitter gourd to potatoes and mix well.

If you like then you can cover the pan with lid and turn the temperature to low. But for this step, I kept the pan lid open and let the bitter gourd fry in low temperature. 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 keep the temperature to low helps to trap the moisture and get the veggies cooked.

After 10 minutes of cooking without lid, the veggies get pretty much cooked. You can see the colour of the bitter gourd changed from dark green to pale green.

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!

Here is a picture of 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: 3-4 big bitter gourd (about half a kilo) 200g Jaam Alu 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 quarter. 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. Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat, drain potato and add potatoes to pan. 6. Stir fry them for 5-6 minutes until potatoes are slightly translucent. 7. Add bitter gourd slice and reduce heat to low; cook them for 10 minutes until bitter gourd changes color 8. After 10 more minutes 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!