Pavakkai Pitlai

Ingredients

• • Bitter gourd - ¼ kg
• • Tamarind (soaked & extracted) - lime size
• • Turmeric powder - ¼ teaspoon
• • Salt - as required
• • Jaggery - as required
• • Coconut oil (for frying) - as required
• • Coconut (grated, fresh) - 2 tablespoons
• • Thuar dal (cooked, mashed) - 1 cup

Ingredients For Grinding Together

• • Red chillies - 10
• • Coriander seeds - ½ teaspoon
• • Urad dal - 1 tablespoon
• • Black pepper - few

Method

• 1. Fry the "For Grinding together" spices in little oil and grind with 1/4 cup of grated fresh coconut.
• 2. Select thin skinned, less greener bitter gourd.
• 3. Cut into round pieces, add little salt and keep aside for half an hour.
• 4. When salt is added, gourd oozes out little water, throw away that water. Squeeze pieces and take.
• 5. Cook bitter gourd pieces in thin tamarind extract to which turmeric, salt is added.
• 6. When gourd becomes soft, add mashed dal, ground paste, jaggery and cook till gravy becomes thick.
• 7. Fry grated coconut in coconut oil and add at the end just before removing from fire.
• 8. Garnish with curry leaves.

Variations

• • Use brinjal, Raw banana, Malabar yam or pumpkin to make pitlai like this. Add less thuar dal.