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You are here: Home / Bitter Gourd / Amma’s Pavakai Pitlai / Bitter Gourd & Toor Dal Curry / Karela Curry

Amma’s Pavakai Pitlai / Bitter Gourd & Toor Dal Curry / Karela Curry

September 20, 2013 By Aarthi 15 Comments

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Can you believe that this is the first bitter gourd recipe in this blog. I am getting so many request from my viewers to post bitter gourd recipe. So here i am sharing my mom’s special recipe. Bitter gourd is one of the vegetable which retain its bitterness even after it is cooked. But this doesn’t even have a little bitterness in it. I dont know how it happened, may be it is because of cooking it in a pressure cooker or because of the jaggery and tamarind. But you have to trust me in this. So here you go to the recipe..



Preparation Time : 10 mins
Cooking Time : 40 to 45 mins
Serves – 5 to 6


Ingredients:

Onion – 1 large sliced
Bitter Gourd / Pavakai – 1 large cut in half and sliced
Toor Dal / Tuvaram Paruppu – 1/2 cup
Oil – 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Tamarind Pulp – 3 tblspn or to taste (Click here for recipe)
Jaggery / Sarkarai – 3 tblspn or to taste
Chilli powder – 1 tblspn or to taste
Coriander powder / Malli podi – 2 tblspn
Turmeric powder / Manjal podi – 1 tsp

For Seasoning:
Oil – 1 tblspn
Mustard Seeds / Kaduku – 1 tsp
Urad dal / Ulundu Paruppu -1  tsp
Curry leaves a spring
Coconut – 3 tblspn grated

Method:

Heat 1 tsp of oil in a kadai. Add in onions and bitter gourd and saute for 5 mins or so till it turn translucent.

Now take toor dal in a pressure cooker and add the sauted veggies in it. Cover with water and pressure cook it for 3 whistle. Simmer the cooker for 5 mins. Turn off the heat and let the steam go all by itself. Open the pressure cooker and mash the veggies and dal slightly.

Transfer this entire mixture into a kadai. Add in salt, tamarind pulp, jaggery, chilli pdr, coriander pdr, turmeric pdr and mix well.

Bring everything to a boil. Simmer the flame and let it cook for 15 mins.

Now make the seasoning. Heat oil and crackle mustard, urad dal, curry leaves and coconut. Fry it till golden.

Pour this over the curry and mix well.

Serve this with rice.

Pictorial:

Saute onions and bittergourd in a tsp of oil

saute till onions turn translucent

Take some toor dal

Add to pressure cooker and add water

Add the sauted veggies

put over fire

Pressure cook
Now everything is cooked

Mash everything lightly

Pour it into a kadai

Add some tamarind juice

Season with salt

Add in jaggery

Chilli powder

coriander powder

turmeric powder

mix well..Let it simmer

Now make seasoning…Crackle mustard

add urad dal

curry leaves

coconut

fry it in oil

till golden
now the curry is done simmering
pour the seasoning
mix well
serve
Enjoy

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Filed Under: Bitter Gourd, Recent Recipes

About Aarthi

Over the past few years I’ve been on a mission to find and create recipes that I can make from scratch. I hope you enjoy the recipes on this blog as they are tried and true from my kitchen to yours!

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Comments

  1. Rumana Ambrin

    September 20, 2013 at 6:42 am

    very tasty and new to me…

    Reply
  2. Tamilarasi Sasikumar

    September 20, 2013 at 11:04 am

    Looks so good…Love this curry:)

    Reply
  3. Janani

    September 20, 2013 at 2:10 pm

    I never touch or make this veggie urs makes me rethink lovely and flavorful recipe

    Reply
  4. Hamaree Rasoi

    September 20, 2013 at 2:14 pm

    Healthy and comforting bitter gourd dal. Wonderfully prepared.
    Deepa

    Reply
  5. Priya Suresh

    September 20, 2013 at 4:40 pm

    Wow, amma's version sounds quick and very delicious than the usual pitlai.

    Reply
  6. Pretend Chef

    September 20, 2013 at 11:22 pm

    Looks delicious!

    Reply
  7. Anonymous

    February 22, 2014 at 3:43 pm

    man,
    it's just unfair being in a different landscape. you should be getting helluva deal from PUBLISHERS if the dishes are western or something..

    we Indians never BUY any BOOKS (including yours humble myself)..

    let me also confess i will never SHARE anything to PUBLIC(because of laziness) like you do. it takes a hell lot of kindness to share it for free..

    you dishes are worth a million bucks! you are the best!!

    why? it works like a charm

    have a long life dear!

    Reply
  8. Anonymous

    November 5, 2015 at 7:48 pm

    Super aarthi….u r doing great job….god bless u and ur family…

    Reply
  9. Unknown

    August 3, 2016 at 5:20 am

    Good recipe. Something different from the usual varient we make with bitter gourd.. tnx 🙂 Ammu Bhadra

    Reply
  10. trish kumar

    November 30, 2016 at 6:13 pm

    Tried today…..Very nice….Thanq…..

    Reply
  11. Anonymous

    March 10, 2017 at 3:12 am

    Wow… cud Nt believe tat was bitter gourd… became a fan of tis veggie… tnx a lot for tis recipe aarti…

    Reply
  12. Vani

    May 7, 2018 at 7:19 am

    Sema… Too awesome. I was surprised its not bitter and tasted so good. Thanks a lot. Savior of my bad cooking.

    Reply
  13. Sowmya Ashwin

    March 13, 2019 at 1:53 am

    Hi Aarthi,The pictures show that you have not deseeded the pavakkais while cutting..are the seeds edible??Does this recipe require that we need to cook the paavakai with seed or can I deseed it and use??

    Reply
  14. Aarthi

    March 22, 2020 at 7:03 pm

    Can i skip the coconut?

    Reply
    • Aarthi

      March 30, 2020 at 3:08 pm

      u can. coconut adds toasty flavour

      Reply

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