Karlyache Wafers

By Aruna Kaki

I chose to share this recipe of Karlyache wafers by my aunt as there is a similarity between the vegetable and my aunt.

Karla/ Karela / Bitter gourd is everyone's most hated vegetable atleast as a child that you actually might grow up to like. Its bitter taste may not satisfy the jivha but the nutritional values you cannot ignore. Check here.

Aruna Kaki is just like that very straight in feedback only when asked but will cure one undoubtedly. When a company selling packaged papaya juice claimed it to be real mango juice she held them by their tusks and rejected their import export license. How did she know that? I had visited their factory in my Pollution Control Technologist avatar some years ago. I had narated my disgust at the dinner table that night. She recollected that when she was processing that company's papers. She singly faced the wrath of the company. Sad to say in India the Erin Brockovich types don't get the recognition they deserve. The corporates won and Aruna Kaki took voluntary retirement. If she wished she could have made this a media dance and become a politician. Yeah that's the way things go.

So now she dotes on us when ever we visit and treats us to sumptuous meals she never had time to make when she was working. Now she makes the karlyache wafers too. I took this picture when I last visited Mumbai.

Ingredients

1/4 Karli/ Karela/ Bitter Gourd

1 table spoon salt

Slice the Bitter Gourd thin on a V- slicer. Remove the seeds you will get rings like in the picture. Rub in the salt and spread out the wafers on cloth for drying in the sun. In 2-3 days you will get crisp wafers. Fry them and sprinkle with red chili powder. Serve at meal times or munch with tea. These wafers last all the year round if stored in an airtight container.