Bittergourds do not find many takers on account of the lingering bitterness in the dish,but there are so many interesting ways to prepare them , to make them more appetizing.

Pavakkai Pitlai is my favourite , a Palakkad speciality actually, so my mom who is a true blue Palakkad born brought up unfailingly amazed us with this dish. So at a very young age we loved the dish and never bothered about the faint bitter taste . As kids we actually relished this and now I do the same, make it very often and my daughter loves bittergourds!!.Thanks to Pavakkai Pitlai and other bitter gourd recipes which my mom churned out.

Ingredients

2 bittergourds
1/2 cup toor dal
sprigs of curry leaves
1 small lemon size tamrind.
pinch of turmeric powder.
salt to taste.
Pinch of asafoetida powder.
1 tsp jaggery.

To  roast and grind

6-8 red dry chillis
2 tbsp dhania seeeds /coriander seeds
2 tsp udad dal
2 tbsp chana dal
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 cup fresh grated coconut

Handful peanuts to cook along with Bittergourd. You can add cooked chana too .

For tempering

2 tsp oil/ preferably sesame oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds

Method

1. Extract juice from tamarind by soaking in some warm water.

2. Chop the bittergourd to thin slices after removing the seeds. 

3. Keep the bittergourd slices smeared with salt and keep aside for some time.

4. Cook the toor dal in a pressure cooker and mash it when cool.In a pan add some oil and roast ingredients mentioned under roast and grind.

5. Let the dry ingredients turn golden , do not roast the coconut at this stage.After roasting the dry ingredients, roast the coconut , curry leaves and asafoetida till they become golden brown and aromatic.

6. Now when all the ingredients have cooled down, grind to a paste in the mixie and keep aside.

7. Take a a pan and first sautee the chopped bittergourd pieces after squeezing out the salt water as they would have removed some bitterness after marinating for sometime. 

8. Suteeing also helps. to reduce the bitterness . 

9. Keep it aside.

10. Extract tamrind water around 1 1/2 cupscurry leaves,, and after spluttering the mustard seeds with some oil , add the sauteed bittergourd pieces, asafoetida, salt ., turmeric powder,pinch of asafoetida powder,and allow the mixture to boil for few minutes till the raw smell disappears.

11. Then add the mashed toor dal the ground paste and stir well, reduce the flame and allow the mixture to boil for couple of minutes.

12. Remove from flame and serve hot with rice.

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