Pagarkai/Bitter Gourd Pitlai

On last Friday, my husband placed a request to me to ban sambhar atleast for a week. he actually said dont make me gemini ganesan. well gemini ganesan is a tamil actor and people call him sambhar satham/thayir satham as he prefer to eat them often.

as we are vegetarians i feel the required nutrients can be given thru sambhar. since my husband asked to ban sambhar i was thinking what to try. On blogging i found this Pagarkai pitlai.yahoo i found- i tried it too.

well this is my ammamma's trademark one. my ammamma is an excellent cook..when she was in the beginning stage of learning to cook..she used to write it in a note book. and she tried each dish once a day. thats the method to learn cooking..isn't it. i have read this pagarkai pitlai in that note.


Coming to the ingredients:

Bitter gourd-1
Tuvar dal-1/4 cup
Coconut grated-5 spoons
Oil-1 tsp
Urad dal-1 tsp
Chana dal-1 tsp
Pepper-1 tsp
Dry red chilli-2/3
Curry leaves-6
Asafoetida powder-a pinch
Mustard-1/4 tsp

Method:

First cut the pagarkai into round slices and boil them in adequate water. after it has become tender, the grinded paste has to be added.

Grinded paste:

Fry the urad dall,chana dall,pepper,red chilli and grated coconut and grind them into a paste by adding little water.

On adding the paste to pagarkai, add the boiled and mashed tuvar dall. add turmeric powder and little salt. now season it with mustard, curry leaves and asafoetida powder.

serve with hot rice.
Give out a try to find out what's that new taste resting in it.