Pavakkai Puli Kuzhambu | Pavakkai Kara Kuzhambu | Tangy Bitter Gourd Gravy - with coconut

Bitter Gourd cooked in tamarind with coconut sauce

Can we say anytime that we are preparing an authentic dish?? Actually speaking, no right? Coz we may not have some ingredients at hand or we may substitute some costly or high fat content ingredient with some healthy or that which is readily available ones, na? Most of the times, we give consideration to our taste buds & tweak the recipe accordingly. And other times, it is the comfort factor involved in preparation. Mixie & grinders have replaced our traditional mortar & pestle, fresh ingredients are replaced with dry & dessicated & packaged & tinned & bottled !! We neither have the time nor the patience to try something the authentic traditional way ;)

You may be wondering what's the point I am trying to make here?? Actually nothing :D In simple words, I forgot the way that my friend makes this dish & ended up inventing my own one, but which still tastes great !! Too much talk for that right? ;) My friend K used to prepare some awesome dishes for us at our PG. Mostly we wud be her helpers, assisting her in chopping & cleaning :) The beauty is that, all her dishes would require minimal & simple preparation & would taste heavenly !! That inspired me to make some bitter gourd puli kuzhambu one day, but I could vaguely recollect how she did it.. U see, I was busy chopping & grinding then ;) But could remember the ingredients, so went ahead & made this kuzhambu. The highlight of the story is that Deeps liked the gravy & I was showered with all praises. So this time, I learnt from my mistake & I jotted down the way I did it. After that I have been preparing this gravy quite often & every time we relished it !! So this time, I decided that this should feature here.. It is a tangy gravy with maximum effort concentrated on reducing the bitterness of the bitter gourd.. So someone who is on the look out of such a recipe, here it is !! Some other recipes with bitter gourd that are there in the blog are Pitla, Pavakya Pulin Curry, Bitter Gourd Fry & Khatta Meeta Karela..

Serves: 2-3 persons

I Took: 40 minutes

I Used:

Bitter Gourd	-	250 gm / 3 medium sized ones
Onion	-	1 - medium sized - Chopped
Tomato	-	1 - medium sized -Cut into 8
Grated Coconut	-	¼ cup
Tamarind	-	A small goosberry sized piece
Jaggery	-	2 tbsp
Red Chilly powder	-	1 tsp
Coriander powder	-	2 tsp
Turmeric powder	-	½ tsp
Green Chilly	-	2 nos
Cumin Seeds	-	½ tsp
Mustard	-	½ tsp
Curry leaves	-	A sprig
Oil	-	2 tbsp
Salt	-	As Needed

The Way:

1. Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds. When it splutters, add tomato & saute till the raw smell goes off & it becomes a little mushy
2. Lower the flame to minimum & add red chilly powder & coriander powder & saute well. Switch off the flame once it is mixed well. Take care not to burn
3. Add grated coconut to this sauteed tomatoes. Add 3-4 tbsp water & grind to a smooth paste
4. Soak the tamarind in ¼ cup of water for 15-20 minutes. Extract the pulp from the tamarind & keep aside
5. Wash the bitter gourd & scrape off the small thorns on it. Cut the bitter gourd into half and de-seed (remove the soft mushy part as well) them. Slice the bitter gourd into ½ inch pieces
6. In the pan, heat 2 tbsp oil. Splutter mustard. Add onions & saute
7. When the onions become translucent, add the bitter gourd pieces and saute well for around 4-5 minutes
8. Now add turmeric powder, salt & the ground paste. Mix well. Add ¼ cup of water,  cover & cook till done which should take around 8-10 minutes
9. Finally add the tamarind pulp & jaggery (Refer Notes) and allow it to come to a boil

Serve hot with steamed rice & a kootu of your choice :)

Notes:

Addition of jaggery is to reduce the bitterness of the bitter gourd. For the dark green bitter gourd, you may require a little more. Adjust according to your taste

Cheers,

Chitz