bitter gourd stuffed with beef mince,and grey days

The Monsoon season has started some days ago,and even though we haven't had a decent downpour of rain yet  the skies are full with moisture laden,heavy clouds and the winds leave you touseled and a bit battered every time you leave the house.And for most parts of the day it is quite grey,which honestly is a relief after nearly 3 months of ueber-bright sunlight,and heat.
Monsoons bring about a sense of coziness,with the desire to light up a candle and find those recipes packed away under a note,saying:'for when its cooler,again'...
One of  those recipes would be 'bitter gourds,stuffed'!With minced beef,that is.This is a dish really everybody at home enjoys,which says quite a lot about its taste,as our family of 12 has quite some variation when it comes to culinary likes and dislikes.
The first time I watched my aunt prepare them,I was quite daunted by the rather lengthy preparation process,but when I finally did come around to preparing bittergourd,I didn't find them so challenging.Over the years there are two things I learned about bitter gourd cooking:
  1) never wash bitter gourds before trimming and peeling their knobbly skins,nor ever after di-seeding and cutting them!  and
 2) never add any water while frying them! As you can see,keeping bitter gourds well out of reach of water is key in making sure they don't end up tasting like a horrible,bitter pill.
I will lead you through the preparation and cooking process step-by-step,so don't worry,they will turn out really delicious!

Scrape off the knobbly skin on 2 kg of Bitter Gourd.Cut a slash into the concave side of each gourd and scrape out all seeds and most of the flash carefully,while trying not to tear the skin.Rub 1 heaped teasp. table salt on skin and the inside of the cleaned vegetable.Set aside while preparing the filling.

Ingredients for the stuffing:

                                       4medium size onions, 1kg lean beef mince, half a kg ripe tomatoes, 5-6 cloves garlic, one large piece of ginger, a bunch of coriander leaves, a bunch of fresh mint (or a teasp. dry mince), 5-6 curry leaves (these are not essential,but add a nice flavor), a couple of green chilies (use them according to how spicy you like your food), 1 teasp. white cumin, half a teasp. of dried chili flakes and some salt to taste.

Peel and chop the onions.Prepare the mince meat (as to whether you wash it or not is up to your liking,I usually do not wash minced meat.) Wash,de-seed and chop the tomatoes.Grate garlic and ginger together,or blend them into a paste in the blender with a little water.Pluck the mint leaves,wash them and chop roughly.Wash the fresh coriander bunch,cut off the stalky bit and chop up the remaining buch.Wash your fresh curry leaves,if using.

Heat 3 tablesp. Vegetable Oil in a frying pan,add the chopped onions,cumin seeds and curry leaves and fry on medium heat till onions turn light golden brown in color.Add the chili flakes and ginger-garlic paste.Fry for 5 minutes or till the ingredients in the pan are a bit dry.Add the tomatoes.Keep frying a couple of minutes,till they become a bit mushy.Now add the mince meat to your pan,and turn up the heat to max.Fry on high flame till nearly all the meat juices are evaporated and the suffing turns fairly dry.This is important,otherwise you won't be able to handle the Bitter Gourd once its filled.Add all the remaining ingredients and a bit of salt,turn down the heat to low and cover with a lid.Let cook for 5 minutes.Remove from stove and turn the mince meat stuffing onto a big platter to cool.

While the stuffing is cooling,wring out as much excess water as possible.The easiest way doing this is with a clean muslin cloth or thin dish towel.Wrap the cloth around the Bitter Gourd and wring.Just be careful not to rip the skin too much.Additionally pat dry with kitchen paper.Set aside to stuff.

Save a bit of stuffing for serving,than fill each Gourd with 3-4 tablesp. of cold stuffing.Join together on the cut and tie together the entire vegetable with unbleached,un-dyed cotton thread.Secure loose ends in a knot.

Heat Oil for shallow frying in a pan.To check if the oil is hot enough drop a piece of stale toast into the oil,it should turn golden after3-4 minutes.Carefully slide each stuffed Bitter Gourd into the hot oil,just be careful not to overcrowd your pan.Fry for 6-7 min. on each side till they are light brown and smell 'done'.

Lay on kitchen paper to absorb a bit of the oil.Reheat the saved amount of stuffing till hot,lay all the stuffed pieces on top of hot mince and serve with Naan and plain Yogurt on the side.

Enjoy stuffed Bitter Gourd with Beef Mince!