PITLAI / PAVAKKAI PITLAI / BITTERGOURD PITLAI

Pitlai is a great recipe from South India with freshly ground spices, and the consistency will be slightly thicker than sambhar / kuzhambu and slightly thinner than kootu. It has a little more vegetable than in sambhar.This is mixed with hot rice and ghee in a South Indian thali. Often this is done with pavakkai (bittergourd).

INGREDIENTS:

Pavakkai (Bittergourd) - 100 gm (1 big)
Tamarind - half the size of a lemon
Toor dhal - 1/4 cup
Gram dhal (kadalai paruppu) - 1 tablespoon
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp.
Salt - as per taste

To fry in oil and grind to a paste:
Oil - 1 teaspoon
Coriander seeds - 1 tablespoon
Gram dhal - 1 teaspoon
Dry red chillies - 2 or 3
Coconut scraped - 2 tablespoons
Hing - a pinch

To temper :
Oil - 1 tsp.
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp.
Dry red chilly - 1
Curry leaves - a sprig

METHOD:

Chop bittergourd. Boil in water with salt and turmeric powder. When cooked, drain the water completely and keep aside.

Pressure cook toor dhal and gram dhal separately with turmeric powder.

Soak tamarind in water and extract juice from it. Keep aside.

Fry the items(except coconut) given in "To fry in oil and grind to a paste". Grind along with scraped coconut to a paste.

Heat a kadai, pour in the tamarind extract and allow it to boil for a while. Now add in the cooked bittergourd, ground paste and pressure cooked dhal. Allow it to boil till thick. Temper with the given ingredients.

Pavakkai pitlai is ready to be served with hot rice and ghee.