Karathe che Koshimbir

Bitter Gourd or Karela is called as Karathe in Konkani. Koshimbir is a Konkani and Marathi word for salad. So this dish literally translates to Bitter Gourd Salad. But don't get confused by the name- this salad in no way looks or tastes like the one you would normally have had. What I've seem to think of is that, in our cuisines, anything raw or partially raw side dishes are called koshimbir. At our home, we call a mix of all vegetables, salt and masala as koshimbir. In addition, if we mix vegetable in a coconut, onion, red chilly mix, then thats also called a Koshimbir. Karathe Koshimbir follows the latter recipe. This side dish goes very well with curd rice. You can also eat it with chapathi. Here's a delicious recipe from my mom-in-law. Hope you enjoy it.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Bitter Gourd - 2

Oil - 2 tsp

Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup

Onion - 1/2 (chopped)

Red chilly Powder - 2 tsp

Salt

Lemon juice - 2 tsp

Sugar - a pinch

Preparation:

1. Remove the outer skin of the bitter gourd and chop it into very small cubes.

2. Heat oil in a pan and fry the chopped bitter gourd.

3. In a container, add coconut, onion, red chilly powder, salt, lemon juice, a pinch of sugar and the fried bitter gourd and mix them with hand.

You can make this similar koshimbir with fried papad or with dry shrimps (my mom used to make this with dry shrimp during my childhood). For making with these, you can skip the lemon juice and sugar.