Honestly, I don’t like bitter gourd. Although, it’s a very healthy vegetable. Its strong bitterness keeps me stay away from it. However, my husband likes it. So sometimes I use bitter gourd in my cooking but have very few of them during the meal. My opinion towards bitter gourd changed when last time my husband and I had lunch in a Malay restaurant. They served fried bitter gourd slices. I tasted it and it was really nice. Not very bitter and also crunchy. Of course, my husband liked it immediately. Then I searched the recipe online but found some special ingredients are needed, like chick pea flour ( I don’t know what that is). I decided to cook my own fried bitter gourd slices.

1. Cut bitter gourd into slices. I also remove all the seeds. Place them in a bowl. Sprinkle salt. And set them aside for about 40 mins to let bitter juice come out.

2. Dry bitter slices with kitchen towels. Slightly squeeze them to make them very dry.

3. Place dried slices in another bowl. Sprinkle paprika powder, a little salt, black pepper and flour. Just make sure each slice is coated with thin flour mixture.

4. Heat oil in the pan. Fry them till golden brown.

Very crispy and much less bitter than usual.