Category: Sides

Sweet and Sour Bitter Gourd/Pavakkai Pachadi

How can bitter gourd be sweet and sour? — I heard you!

One of the most underrated and reviled vegetables, but it deserves being given a chance. The beauty of the bitter gourd lies in its bitterness, at least a tinge of it.

This is one of my favorite pachadis from my granny’s kitchen — well matured and crispy gourds cooked in freshly ground spices! More sweet, more sour, more spice and bitterness of course. I just mix this pachadi with cooked rice and a dash of coconut oil and eat. She also makes another recipe, cooking the gourd in coconut milk with some spices and fry till it becomes crispy. I’ll share it here in the days to come.

The bitter most part is the skin, use a scraper to peel off the warty skin till it’s smooth. Soak the chopped gourd in the buttermilk or coconut milk, it will reduce the bitterness to a greater extent. Counter the rest with spice, sweet and sour elements to make it palatable.

—Ingredients—

2 medium sized bitter gourds
1 1/2 cups buttermilk or coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 large lemon sized ball of tamarind, soaked in water
3-4 tablespoons jaggery
1/4 cup grated coconut
1 sprig curry leaves
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 dried red chillies
Oil as needed (coconut oil is recommended)
Salt as needed

Ground spice powder
5 dry red chillies
1 1/2 tablespoons coriander seeds
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 sprig curry leaves
1/8 teaspoon of asafoetida/hing

—Process—

1. Dry roast all the ingredients for spice powder with curry leaves going in at last. Once it is cool, grind them into a fine powder and keep aside.
2. Use a scraper to peel off the skin until it’s moderately smooth. Halve them lengthways, scoop out the seeds and finely chop.
3. Soak the chopped gourds either in buttermilk or coconut milk for 15-20 minutes and drain (don’t squeeze out the milk completely).
4. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. Once it splutters, add dry chillies, curry leaves, drained gourds and turmeric powder. Saute them on a low flame for 10-12 minutes, sprinkle water around 5-6 minutes.
5. Add the tamarind water, jaggery and salt. Cover and cook until 80% of water is absorbed.
6. Add in the ground powder and grated coconut, saute for a minute or two and serve hot.

*Tastes better with hot steamed rice and a lavish sprinkle of coconut oil.

by Categories: SidesTags: Leave a comment

Murungaikeerai Pirattal/Moringa Leaves Stir Fry

A traditional south Indian side-dish with a lot of nutritional values. I learnt those values only when my colleague in SFO mentioned that they buy moringa leaves powder capsules for $15! Yes, you heard me right.

That was the first time I heard buying moringa leaves. In southern parts of India, we can see this on the roadside with the leaves falling off on the pavement. We have this in our home and my mom makes a lot of recipes with it, but in all my early days, for some reason I gave these leaves a miss. I’ve learnt them from my mom a few years back and will share all of them here in the coming days.

Ingredients
2 cups murungaikeerai/moringa leaves
1/4 cup grated coconut
1/4 coarsely ground roasted peanuts
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon white gram/ulundhu
1 red chilli
1 tablespoon coconut oil
4 shallots
curry leaves
salt to taste

Preparation
1. Heat 1 tablespoon of coconut oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. Once it splutters, add white gram, curry leaves, shallots and red chilli broken into two pieces; stir them for a minute. I’m using coconut oil for the flavor, you can use any oil of your choice.
2. Add the washed leaves into the same pan with a pinch of salt and 1 or 2 tablespoons of water. Put on the lid and cook them in a low flame for 8-10 mins.
3. The color of the leaves will turn deep green if they’re done. Add the ground peanuts and grated coconut and combine.
4. Turn off the heat and leave the lid closed for a few minutes.

It’s ready to serve!

by Categories: SidesTags: , , , Leave a comment