Pavakkai Pitlai / Bitter Gourd Pitlai / Bitter Melon Pitlai with Sambar Powder

Pavakkai Pitlai is a spicy Indian curry with little variations from regular sambar. This Pitlai is not something common in every household. I heard about this recipe through some of my friends and ofcourse through blogosphere. 

I've made what all I can do to reduce the bitterness of the bittergourd. And finally, when I was eating it, I was very happy as its bitterness is almost gone. Now I can proudly say I can handle this vegetable well and good. Having made this for few times recently, thought why not have I tried this earlier. 

Those who are following my posts, (of course, I post very few ) would know that I cook bitter gourd at least once a week. And this recipe is going to be in my weekly plan at least for few months to come. 

Something that I really like about this recipe is there is no tomato added. I somehow, have the feeling nowadays why are we using tomatoes in almost all recipes. When I don't include tomatoes in a recipe (like Puli kuzhambu), it gives me a traditional feeling as tamilians (not sure about all other states) cooked curries only with tamarind and not with tomatoes; they got themselves included in our diet since just few decades.

Source: Vahchef

Ingredients:

Bittergourd (Long) 1
Toor Dhal (Thuvaram paruppu) 1/2 cup
Channa (Kondai Kadalai) 1/4 cup
Sambar Powder 2 1/2 tbsp
Grated Coconut 1-2 tbsp
Grated Jaggery 1-2 tsp
Lemon sized tamarind - two (one for soaking; one for cooking)

To temper:

Mustard Seeds 1/2 tsp
Urad Dhal 1/4 tsp
Fenugreek Seeds 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves few
Chopped Pearl Onions 1/2 cup
Asafoetida a generous pinch
Turmeric Powder 1/4 tsp
Dried Red Chillies 2

Preparation:

Soak channa in water over night. Soak Toor Dhal in water for atleast half an hour. (Not necessary, if your toor dhal cooks faster.)

Cut bitter gourd into small pieces. Soak in tamarind water for atleast one hour.  

Meanwhile cook channa for 3-4 whistles in pressure cooker and keep it aside. Cook Toor Dhal for 2-3 whistles in pressure cooker and keep it aside. 

Chop onions. Grate Coconut and Jaggery. Grind grated coconut with little water to form a paste. Keep it aside.

Rinse the chopped bitter gourd with the water extracted from the same tamarind 2-3 times well.

Method:

Soak another lemon sized tamarind in water for at least 15 minutes. Extract the pulp using two cups of water.

Heat oil in a pan. When hot, add Mustard seeds. When they complete popping up, add Urad Dhal, Asafoetida, Turmeric Powder, chopped onions, slit dried red chillies and curry leaves. Fry till the onions turn translucent.

Now add the chopped and rinsed bitter gourd slices. Add little salt and fry for atleast 5 minutes. (This helps to remove bitterness). Add the tamarind pulp extracted using two cups of water. Allow boiling until it is cooked.

Now add the cooked toor dhal, channa, sambar powder, grated jaggery, salt and water. Mix well and when it is almost done, add the coconut paste and allow boiling until everything combines well to reach the desired consistency.

Serves: 3
Serve with any stir fry.

Notes:

Do not cook bitter gourd along with other dhals. Cook it separately or as mentioned above.

Once cooked, add all the other dhals. Rinsing the bitter gourd with tamarind water 2-3 times and cooking with the tamarind pulp extracted helps to remove the bitterness.

This is off to South Indian cooking event at The Big Sweet Tooth.

Baked Bitter Gourd Chips ~ Indian Fritters

I prefer cooking Bitter Gourd at least once in a week just for its health benefits and we do not hate his bittery vegetable much. It has been a long time wish of mine to bake bitter gourd. But due to lack of time (or lazy me), I was just preparing either stir fry or deep fry with bitter gourd. This time I compulsorily made myself free to bake this gourd. It came out as crispy as deep fried ones.

Adapted from here.

Ingredients:

Bitter Gourd 2 Long
Chilli Powder 1/2 tsp
Sambar Powder 1/4 tsp
Rice Flour 1/2 tsp
Ginger Garlic Paste 1/8 tsp
Salt
Oil 3 tbsp

Preparation:

Cut Bitter gourd into thin dics. (not very thin).

In a bowl, add tamarind and little salt. Crush tamarind to extract its pulp. Do this for few times so that all pulp is extracted. Add sliced bitter gourd. Allow soaking for at least for an hour. This is done to reduce the bitterness of the vegetable. 

Remove the slices. Drain and then add Ginger Garlic paste, Chilli Powder, Sambar Powder, Rice Flour and Salt. Mix well and keep it aside for at least ten minutes. Segregate the thinner and thicker discs separately. The middle of the bitter gourd is slightly thicker.

Pre heat the oven at 180 deg C for 10 minutes.

Line a baking sheet in the baking tray. Arrange the slices with little space in between.

Now bake it for 15 minutes at 180 deg C. Remove and then turn each slice to the other side. Bake it for another 15 more minutes or until done.

Remove the done chips.

                                   

Pre heat the oven again for 10 minutes. Meanwhile arrange the undone thicker slices.

Bake it for 15 minutes at 180 deg C. Remove and then turn each slice to the other side. Bake it for another 15-18 minutes or until done.Store in an air tight container.

Serve it as a snack or as an accompaniment to steamed rice with sambar/curd.

Notes: You can also bake all the slices together and then bake those undone thicker slices for some more time. I found this method quite easy.

If not using sambar powder, add a combination of cumin powder and coriander powder or just cumin powder alone.

I forgot to add jaggery. You can a tsp of grated jaggery while mixing the vegetable with masala powders.. 

This goes to Love 2 Bake event happening at spicy treats. We share baked recipes every Monday.

Pavakkai / Bitter Gourd Bajji

Just now I felt like I had Bitter Gourd. My Hus has bought it again. Though it has been a week, I could not complain as he picks vegetables whichever stays fresh and good. I was not interested to make chips or stir fry this time. I am not much fond of putting it in curries too. Then I thought why I not make something like a bajji. I tried and it came out very well. But still I like the chips a  lot. :)

Ingredients:

Bitter Gourd 2

Besan Flour (Kadalai Maavu) 1/2 cup

Rice Flour 2 tblsp

Chilli Powder 1 tsp heaped

Cumin Powder 1/4 tsp

Tamarind - size of a small lemon

Salt

Water 

Oil for deep frying

Preparation:

Chop Bitter Gourd into thin slices.

Using a cup of water extract juice from Tamarind. Soak the Bitter Gourd slices in it for at least half an hour.

Squeeze and drain.

Method:

In a bowl, combine besan, rice flour, chilli powder, cumin powder and salt. Mix well. Add water little by little to form a thick batter without lumps.

Heat oil in a pan for deep frying. Dip the bitter gourd slices and coat them well with the batter. Deep fry until done. Make sure you deep fry in batches with little space in between each piece, or else they would stick together.

This bajji is less hot. Include more chilli powder according to your taste.

This is off to Vegan Thursdays. We are a group of bloggers who share only vegan recipes. To know more or to join click here.

Participate in my own event 'Eat Vegetables; Stay Healthy' and win JUSTEAT.in vouchers.

Pavakkai / Bitter Gourd Chips

Bitter Gourd is something that I prepare every week; either as chips like these or as a stir fry. I avoid adding it in any curries as I fear I would not be able to include it in larger quantity. I've fried these many times, but fortunately I could click only yesterday.  Though deep fries are not my favorites, I feel it doesn't matter much if we have it less. 

Ingredients:

Bitter Gourd 1/4 kg
Chilli Powder 1/2 tsp
Rice Powder 1/2 tsp
Ginger Garlic paste 1/4 tsp (optional)
Salt

Method:

Chop Bitter Gourd into very fine pieces.

Combine all the other ingredients. Leave it aside for 15 minutes.

Deep fry until brown.

Serve as a snack or as a side dish to rice.

This recipe goes to Vegan Thursdays initiated by Priya Suresh of Priya's verstaile recipes. We are a group of bloggers who share only vegan recipes. To know more, click here.

Participate in my own event "Eat Vegetables; Stay Healthy" and win JUSTEAT vouchers.

Pavakkai Poriyal / Bitter Gourd Fry for Vegan Thursday

Bitter Gourd is the most hated vegetable amongst us. But for its health benefits, I feel we have to take it quite often. If prepared by good old methods, it is possible to reduce the bitterness of the vegetable. Soaking in tamarind water before cooking it or adding jaggery while cooking or deep frying the gourd helps reduce its bitterness.

Selecting the vegetable is also important. The bitter gourd which is light green in color or the one that have its major portion as light green is quite less bitter when compared to the dark green bitter gourd.  Usually I make varuval (deep fry) with this bitter gourd as my toddler son likes that very much, but just for a change made this fry. As expected, he didn't even touch it. But the fry was less bitter and we liked it much.

Here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

Bitter Gourd (Pavakkai) - long -2

Sambar Powder 1 tbsp levelled

Chilli Powder 1/4 tsp

Turmeric Powder

Pearl Onions few

Tamarind - size of an amla
Grated coconut 3 tsp

Salt

Water

Oil

To temper:

Mustard seeds
Urad Dhal
Curry Leaves

Preparation:

Cut Bitter Gourd into thin slices. Make sure they are uniform in size and as thin as possible.

Soak Tamarind in water and extract its juice using one cup of water. Remove the pulp, add little salt and soak chopped Bitter gourd slices for atleast half an hour. Use the same pulp to extract the juice with 1/4 cup of water.

Method:

Heat oil in a Pan. When hot, add mustard seeds. When they start popping up, add urad dhal, curry leaves and pearl onions. Fry for a while and then add drained bitter gourd slices.

Add Sambar Powder, Chilly powder and salt. Mix well and fry for a while. Now sprinkle the extracted tamarind juice (1/4 cup). Fry on a medium flame until the water evaporates.

Now simmer the flame and fry till the gourd turns brown. Add grated coconut and fry for few minutes until done.

Serves: 2

Serve with steamed rice and sambar or any less spicy gravy. I served this with Peerkankai-Pasiparuppu koootu. (Ridge Gourd - Split Moong Dhal stew).

Linking this recipe to vegan thursdays. We are a group of food bloggers who share only vegan recipes without using animal products or even its derivatives on first and last of every month. To know more or to join please click here.

Linking also to Healthy Diet - Diebetic friendly recipes event happening at Priya's versatile recipes.