Pakarkaai Pitlai | Pavakkai (Bitter Gourd) Pitlai
Pakarkaai Pitlai (Bitter gourd pitlai) is traditional South Indian rice accompaniment prepared with pavakkai, tamaring extract, toor dal and freshly ground spice mixture
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Servings: 4
Ingredients
- Bitter gourd - 1
- Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
- Toor Dal - 1/2 cup
- Chickpea/Channa - 1/3 cup Soak Channa overnight/ in hot water for 4 hours
- sambar powder - 1/2 tbsp
- Curry Leaves - Few
- Coriander leaves -few
- Tamarind - small Lemon size
- Jaggery - 2 tbsp
- Asofedtida - generous pinch
- Salt - as needed
For Grinding:
- Grated Coconut - 1/4 cup tightly pressed
- Red Chillies - 2 Adjust according to your spice level
- Coriander Seeds - 1 tbsp
- Channa dal - 1/2 tbsp
To temper:
- Coconut Oil - 1 tbsp
- Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
- Fenugreek - 1/8 tsp
Instructions
- Firstly soak channa dal overnight
- Soak toor dal for 1 hour in hot water
- Pressure cook chickpea and toor dal in two cooker separators for 3-4 whistles
- Parallelly pressure cook bitter gourd with a pinch of salt and turmeric powder for 2 whistles
- Soak the tamarind in hot water and extract the pulp
- Dry roast red chillies, coriander seeds, and channa dal till they turn aromatic and golden brown turn off the stove
- Add coconut and mix well. Let everything comes to room temperature ground with little water
- Add oil to the pan, when the oil is hot add mustard seed and fenugreek. let it splutter
- Squeeze the bitter gourd and save the water aside add the cooked bitter gourd and saute for 3-4 mins or until the bitter gourd turns brown
- Add tamarind extract, Sambar powder, hing, a pinch of turmeric powder, and salt and allow the kuzhambu to boil for 15 minutes or till the raw smell goes off the tamarind
- Furthermore, add the ground paste and little mixie water and boil for 5 minutes
- Add the cooked toor dal and channa, cook for another 5 mins, mix well in between
- Finally add hing, jaggery, and coriander leaves; cook for 5 minutes, turn off the stove
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Notes
- Bitter gourd can be cooked in the pan instead of pressure cooking. you can also microwave bitter gourd
- Curry powder can be ground with coconut and made into a paste instead of making fresh paste for pitalai
- Channa and toor dal can also be cooked together
- Recently I started cooking this in the instant pot. Cook toor dal and channa together in manual mode, high temperature for 25 minutes. After the pressure releases naturally follow all other steps in sauté mode
- Adjust the chickpea according to your taste
- Kala channa can be used instead of chickpea
- Adjust the water according to your desired consistency
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