 What's up people, Manu here. Coming to you with a video. This time we are going to be making stuffed karale or stuffed bitter melons. It has a very distinct taste. It is extremely delicious and it's extremely healthy for you. The first thing that I've done is I've washed them thoroughly and I'm taking these small sticks out because these are not edible. Now once we have washed them and chopped the ends, I need to scrape off the top skin off it and we are going to reuse it. In addition to that, I've also sliced half an onion. This one was a large onion. I've sliced it. We're going to be putting that into a pan and we're going to be cooking the filling or the stuffing inside. So step one, wash and take off the stem that was holding the fruit. Once that's done, take the onion, chop it up into lengthwise pieces. Now that we have that, I'm just going to take a peeler and start peeling off or scraping off just the top layer. We're just taking the top layer off so that the bumpy portion of this can be off. Do not discard it. This has a lot of flavor. It has a lot of fill in it. We do plenty use it. I personally prefer the melons, the bitter melons, also known as kareli in Hindi, to be bitter. If you don't like them bitter, what you can do is you can cover them with salt and that takes a bitter part out of it. Personally, me, I don't mind that at all. So this is from one. Do the same thing for the other. The scraper that I have, I know how sharp it is, so I'm able to do it this way. If the scraper that you're using is sharp, just be careful. And once we have peeled off or scraped off this part, do not discard it because this is useful. We are going to be using it in the cooking. Just put it in a side plate. Get a peering knife out because the next step is going to require that. And again, this is a bitter dish and the way that you want to pick up the kareli or the bitter melon darker the better. If it's lighter, it's going to have a slightly okay taste, but darker the better. And now what we want to do is we want to take the knife and make a small incision right down the middle. And we want to take out whatever is inside there. So again, be a little bit more aggressive with it. It has a thick skin and we want to peel, we want to open that up and we want to scrape out all these seeds and the pods that are inside. Use your thumb if you need to just go in there. These are like pods and they will come right out and the inside should be left clean. And sometimes the seeds are going to be red. That means that then it's not that they are bad. It just says it's a little bit more aged or they've actually got a little older, which is okay too. They are okay to eat. This is a very unique dish. People all over India eat it. In the US it's not easy to find this in the restaurants because they don't sell them because the shelf life of this dish is very short. Within 24 hours if you don't eat, they go bad and they go soggy. It's better to make it at home. And please be careful when you're doing this because it's easy to cut yourself. So know your knife, know your tools. And if you don't like the seeds to be too big, you can always take a knife, cut them in half. These seeds are very tender with an exception on the red ones, which can be slightly tough if they are. Just omit them. Just take the seeds out, but leave the flesh in. These are the inside seeds. Just remove them. They're going to be slightly tougher. But keep the top shell because that has a flavor in it. Again, the red ones are tougher. So don't use those seeds. You can just toss them out. Fun fact, you can just put them in the garden. They do grow and this is like a vine. It just climbs everywhere. So hot or summer season crop. In the winter time, it's not going to flourish. In the summertime, this will grow and it will take over. So be careful when you plant it. Okay, now in a wok, we're going to be putting some oil to your liking. There is really no amount just enough that can cover the onions. Wait for the oil to heat up. If you like at this point, you can salt the stuffed or the cut carrelle that way the bitter flavor can go out. Take about half a teaspoon of mustard seeds. Toss them in there. And yes, these are whole mustard seeds. Take a half a spoon of cumin seeds. Toss them in. Also just roll it around. And as soon as you start hearing the mustard seeds crackle and pop, this is when you need to toss in the onion. And be careful when you toss and get in. Toss it away from yourself. Once you toss it in, just mix it up. That way the cumin and the mustard seeds do not burn. Just break up the onions a little bit. I like to cover the onions as they are on the heat. That way it speeds up the cooking process. As soon as the onions are started to take on the color or they're becoming translucent, this is when the green chilies are going to be coming in. I'm using about three or four Thai green chilies diced. You can also use, if you like, hollow peanut peppers. If you don't handle your heat properly, you don't need to use the Thai chilies at all. You can just get the respect. And again, you have to respect each ingredient. You have to let it cook a little. And at this point, the seeds that we took out or the stuffing that we took out from the bitter melon goes in. Now is the perfect time to add crushed black pepper to your taste. And also salt. We're going to be adding salt. And keep one thing in mind, if you did salt the skin of the bitter melon, use less salt. This is when we're going to be adding in the green part. Put the heat off. Taste the salt. And now we're going to be adding in the spices, red chili, crushed red peppers. And because this is a very sour dish, we're going to be adding a little bit of humchur powder. The tanginess cuts out the sourness also. So just about a half a teaspoon of humchur powder goes in there. Keep key point. The heat is off. Now we're going to stir in the spices. We're going to level it off. And the cover goes back on. And we're going to let this thing simmer for the next five minutes. All right. So this thing has now reduced. It has cooked thoroughly. It'll be a perfect time to taste to see if you need any extra spices, if you need any salt or pepper. Once you've tasted it and everything seems to be fine, now just take it out in a bowl or a wide pan. And this needs to go in the fridge to cool down really quick. And just don't wash this karahi just yet because we're going to be using it to cook the karela in. Just spread your thing on a plate and put it in the fridge so it can start cooling off. All right. Our mixture is now cooled. It's easy to pick up. It's not hot at all. And now we're going to be taking this and stuffing this cooked mixture inside the bitter melons. So just open them up. You can use your hand. You can use a spoon. I personally prefer to use hands. That way you'll know exactly your stuffing it properly because your fingers are able to go in and push everything in the crevice. It doesn't have to be perfect. The main intention is just to get as much of a stuffing as you can in it without it breaking. And the reason why we are not using this small sliced onion and we're using the big long onions is that way they don't come out easily. So this much will be just perfect. Just put it on the side. Move on to the next one. Stuff them through. Put it on the side. Again, open it up. Take a handful. Start dropping it in. If it falls out, don't worry about it. Just put it back in. This is a very unique dish at the Indian subcontinent. You don't get these at the Indian store or even at their restaurants. They just don't make them. In order to eat it, either you need to cook it yourself or you need to get an Indian friend that's willing to invite you. The other ways that people do often is they will batter it in a basin better and deep fry it. I personally prefer it. It's your deep frying the food that is supposed to be healthy for you. But hey, to each their own. And yes, it's a messy process and yes, you're using your hands. But hey, you're cooking for yourself, right? And these bitter melons you can find at Indian grocery store. You can also find them locally in Tampa Bay at MD market, which is an Oriental market or any Chinese or Japanese store. They will carry them. Do try them out just because it looks like old looking vegetable. Don't get scared by it. Adventure, live a little. And if extra is left, just go back and see if any of them had a little room left if they did. Or if you didn't stuff them properly, initially just go back and put them back in. All right, the end result should look something like this. If you have a budget wine, you can use that. If not, just use a toothpick, pierce it through that way it doesn't open up. And it also helps it to stabilize and stay on top. All we're trying to do is go through the top portion of the skin. Do it gently. You don't want to break it. And again, right from the top, just go right through it. And if it's over stuff like this, just take the filling off. You don't need that extra. It's going to fall out anyways. On the same pan, we're going to be adding, we're going to be putting it on medium high heat, adding a little bit of oil, squashing it around. You can use olive oil. You can use actually a low temperature oil because this is going to be a very forgiving dish. Just put it on medium high heat that the air or the temperature come up to a slow heat. And the way that you want to put it is top side up. Preferably put the small ones towards the outside and the big ones in the middle, that way they get a chance to cook and heat more evenly. Like so. Again, medium high heat. The main intention is that each and every one of the bitter melons should be touching some portion of the wok. Now we'll cover it, let it slow cook for about 10 minutes. The color has started to change. This is going to be the perfect opportunity of flipping them. Preferably use tongs if you're not able to handle the heat. Just hold the toothpick and rotate. Just hold the toothpick and rotate. Look at that golden color. And if it comes out, just put it back in. Don't worry about it. Once you flip them, just cover them back up and let's start cooking them again. And it did come back and open the karahi or the wok and I'm going to rotate them. This side is perfectly done. That's the color that we want. I'm going to roast the other side also to the similar texture and the similar color. And these should be ready to eat. Traditionally, these stuffed karelas or the stuffed bitter melon are served with chapatis. You can have them with paratha or puri. Don't serve them with rice. They don't go well with rice. You need something like a tortilla or a flatbread or a naan to go along with that. And as you can see, these are golden brown and delicious. While they are not crispy, they are not supposed to be crispy. They're just supposed to be done. That's the color that you're looking for. As always, like, comment, subscribe. And I will see you guys and girls on the next one. Little people. And don't forget to thumbs up. Bye.