PAVVAKKAI (BITTER GOURD )PITLA

Ingredients(for four Persons)

150 gms Bitter gourd

Lemon sized ball of Tamarind


Little Jaggery


For Grinding

Half Coconut scraped

1 tbs Channa dhall

1 tbs Urad dhall

4 Red chillies

1 tsp oil

1 tbs Coriander seeds

For Seasoning

1 tsp Mustard

2 tbs Scraped coconut

One sprig of curry leaves

1 tbs oil


Preparation

Soak the tamarind and squeeze the pulp. Cut the bitter gourd into semicircle pieces. Fry all the ingreidients for grinding to a paste in a mixture. With little oil fry the bitter gourd pieces in a frying pan. Transfer the vegetables to the tamarind pulp and cook it with little turmeric powder and jaggery. Add salt to taste. Once the bitter gourd is cooked add the ground paste with water and allow it to simmer. Season it with mustard, scraped coconut and curry leaves with oil. Add the seasoning to the Pitalai.

Variation

The same pitalai can be prepared with Brinjal. Same ingredients and the same preparation but only the vegetable vary.