Hagalkai gojju ( Bittergourd gojju)

Hagalkai ( Bitter gourd in English) gojju is one of my uncle's favorite dish. Whenever he visits my mom in India, this gojju is a much have lunch / dinner menu. Today I picked up few Hagalkai while grocery shopping. After a quick call to mom and lots of helpful hints from her, I am ready to cook this gojju in my kitchen. Wish my uncle was here to taste it ;) I took many pictures of this gojju but none matched to the taste it really is.

Ingredients :-

One Hagalkai (Chopped and soaked in turmeric and salt water for one hour)
one cup coriander leaves or cilantro leaves
few strands of curry leaves
hing powder - few pinch
4-5 green chillies or to your spice level
Jaggery about a golf size
Tamarind about 4 spoon
salt to taste
tempering with udral, channa and mustard seed

Method :- Chop hagalkai into small pieces ( without seeds) and soak them in turmeric and salt water for about one hour (This is to help minimize bitter taste of hagalkai). In a pan, pour little oil fry coriander leaves, green chillies and curry leaves. Saute them and now add chopped hagalkai ( by squeezing turmeric/salt water of out it). Cover the pan and fry it til hagalkai are cooked. Turn off the fire and allow it to cool down. Now grind them coarsely in a grinder ( by adding little water as needed).

Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, Channa dal, and Urdal dal. Once dals turn golden add the grind hagalkai paste. Add tamarind paste and jaggery. Cook well, add salt. Turn off the fire after boiling it for about 2-3 minutes. Gojju is ready ... enjoy it with white rice.

Helpful hints :- This gojju requires lot of green chillies, tamarind and jaggery to off set the bitter taste of hagalkai. Add them accordingly depending upon the how bitter hagalkai is. I love to eat it with coconut oil and hot white rice ... yum yum!