Crispy Oven Baked Bitter gourd Chips is a healthier version of enjoying these little morsels.

If you happen to be visiting Malaysia, do try eating at an Indian restaurant that serve rice on banana leaf. Definitely you will find this crunchy chips placed at one corner of your banana leaf. Bitter gourd chips, a thinly sliced bitter gourd, fried to perfection that gives you the crunch.

The waiter then spoon other vegetables like cabbage, some pickled, chutney, papadum next to your mountain of steam white rice. Then he'll come around with pots of curry or dhal to go with the rice.

Early spring last year, we placed 8 bitter gourd seeds into the ground, thinking our success rate could be... just the ONE that will sprout.

... we had all 8 sprouted :), due to space constraint, we had to pulled out 4.
Happy with lots of sun, water and some fertiliser...they started to take over the whole area...
soon we could see little gourds taking shape.
One, two, three, four...
I think in total today ...we had harvested at least 30 bitter gourds.

What else can we cook?
Turn them into chips :D

I have tried all methods: deep fried, acti-fry and oven. Of course deep fried turned out the best ;P... but there is always alternative...right? ;P

just a little note: use mandolin if you have one... :D

Crispy Oven Baked Bitter gourd Chips

400g bitter gourds
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground tumeric
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon curry powder
4 tablespoon rice flour
1 tablespoon canola oil (for actifry)

1. Washed, sliced into 2 and remove innards. 
2. Thinly sliced, pat dry and leave for 2 hours to 'dry'
3. Pre heat oven to 180C. Line a large baking tray (or roaster) with greaseproof paper.  
4. Mix all the dry ingredients in a food grade plastic bag. 
5. Add the thinly sliced bitter gourd into the bag. 
6. Tie or clip at the open end and shake well, making sure that sliced bitter gourd are covered with flour mix. 
7. Arrange in the baking tray. 
8. Spray with canola oil. 
9. Bake for 15-20 minutes. 
10. Do check every  5 minutes as they tend to get burnt easily.

Alternative 1 ~ add oil to Actifry, add the bitter gourd and cook for 10 minutes or more until all are crisp. Using chopsticks,  separate bitter gourd  that stick together.

Alternative 2 ~ deep fry until golden in colour