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Thursday, 4 July 2013

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 PitlaPavakya Pulin CurryBitter 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

42 comments:

  1. looks so good and make me hungry!!

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  2. mouth watering.... just love it...

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  3. What a coincidence.. Yesterday I posted pavakkai puli kuzhambu..Love your way of cooking.. Interesting to know u invented a new process ..

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  4. Hey Chitz that pavakka puli kuzhambu looks really yummy.I am sure recipes were invented this way.I love ur combination of kuzhambu with I think that is mathan payar erissery and egg fried.

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  5. I too depend on food processors and blenders, right on about the time factor. I adore such a curry - the mixture of tangy, spices and bitterness from the pavakkai. But somehow with the ingredients you have added, the bitterness gets mellowed down and in return, the beautiful flavors arises.

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  6. Adipoli puliz kuzhambu, Pinnae aa mutta varthuthathu kollam. spicy and fired. yumm meal.

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  7. The gravy looks fabulous! Loved the pics too.

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  8. Awesome bitter gourd gravy.. Great recipe.. Loved this Chitz :-)

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  9. hey, good to see u've changed ur background to white... :) i'm not for bitter gourd at all, but then ur recipe is kind of tempting me... :)

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  10. Chitz, you should start writing Novels, you kinda created a story line with authentic flavor, went all classic/nostalgic and gave a twist at the end that since you forgot the recipe, you invented one, had a hearty laugh. You are doing it right, creating hype and bringing in the twist ;-)
    Also scraping off the outer alligator like skin is a damn good tip, it reduces the bitterness by half!
    Awesome looking gravy, I can have this with fried pappad, perfect!
    Also you are using good succulent tomatoes I guess - all your recipes with tomato in it, the color is divine!!
    Great clicks, love the black wooden background.
    All I do with bitter gourd is a fry and I'm bored. I will try this. What is that by the side - fired egg or some grilled whole veggie?

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    Replies
    1. Haha.. Thanks for the compliment dear.. My sis & Deeps should hear this, they will tease me like hell :D
      Yes, the tomatoes here are just awesome.. Perfect shape & color & the taste too !!
      Haha.. That's a fried egg only :)

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  11. hey dear I liked your invention :)

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  12. Dear this makes me drool :) love the combination of pavakkai and tamarind yum

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  13. i always love puli kuzhambu...

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  14. I totally agree with what u said about authentic dishes,guess all of us tweak it to suit us :)This looks delicious ! Love ur shots ,Amazing !

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  15. Very flavorful and delicious kuzhambu

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  16. Entire platter looks so good

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  17. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  18. Your invention looks perfect and delicious sweety..:-) but I have fallen for that egg.. ohhh drooling :-))

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  19. Your version of puli kuzhambu sounds good n easy..looks inviting too...egg roast looks too tempting :)

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  20. Fingerlicking puli kuzhambu, love love it..I like the taste of pavakka puli kuzhambu always the next day.

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  21. cool cliks n nice presentation...yummy dish.

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  22. Lovely, I am a bittergourd fan. Book marking this :-)

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  23. Nice one . Tempting and wonderful. :)

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  24. I love this kind of bitter gourd curry than deep fried. Having at least once in a week is very healthy. Love the color and really very tempting dear.

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  25. Love regional recipes, amazing flavours

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  26. I am so tempted to try.. looks yummy and spicy

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  27. I loved the way you pen down things dear, and sure i would try it, and loved all your picz looks WOW!!!

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  28. i love this combination...its always a wonderful combo of sourness with bitter...loved it

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  29. lovely pulikulambu ! superb pics too !

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  30. wow healthy pavakkai puli kuzampu

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  31. one of my fav kulambu..my mom used to make this often..loved your version..

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  32. Very flavorful kuzhambhu with bitter gourd

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  33. Thanks all for your valuable & heartfelt comments :)

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  34. The bittergourd curry looks amazing. I love this veggie and am always on the lookout for new recipes. I am going to try this for sure.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Vaishali.. Lemme know how u liked it !

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  35. I love the bitter and sour flavor.... Yum!

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  36. Oh yum. That looks amazing! The bitter sour combo is always a winning formular for me!

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