Monday, March 31, 2008

Pavakkai Kozhambu /Bittergourd in Tamarind Sauce


Bittergourd/కాకర కాయ
~~~~~~~~~~ కాకర కాయ ~~~~~~~~~~
The day since my mom started giving bittergourd fry for us i developed a sweet and bittery love on this greenish vegetable.Bittergourd tastes great with hot rice and curd rice.Eventhough this gourd is bitter but not from heart and it is very good for health indeed.I always love the bittergourd fry,stuffed bittergourd ,pickle,chips which tastes heavenly when my mom makes.Once i tasted Bittergourd Kozhambu in SaravanaBhavan,Chennai.Later i came to know that even my nannamma (dads mom )used to make this with kakarakaya/bittergourd (home grown) and with another veggies like plantain,okra,brinjal,ustikayalu in thick tamarind sauce (chintapandu pulusu in telugu)aka kozhambu (in Tamil).My husband says no to bittergourd but I started adding it to making kozhambu which is his favourite side dish for rice.He liked the taste the way i make.I have satisfaction that in someway iam giving the healthy veggie in our food instead of ommiting it.
bittergourd kozhambu with parsnip chips
Ingredients:
Bittergourd - 2 no
Onion - 1 no medium size ,chopped
Ginger - ½ " size,crushed
Garlic pods - 3 no,crushed
Tamarind puree - ½ cup
Red chilli powder - ½ tspn
Pepper - ¼ tspn
Sugar - ½ tspn (Jaggery tastes good)
Red chillies - 2 no
Mustard seeds,Menthi seeds,curry leaves for seasoning
Sambar powder - 2 tspn
Sesame oil - ½ tspn
Salt to taste
Oil for cooking
Preperation:
Make puree with tamarind by soaking in hot water.Keep it aside.Add oil to the pan and once it is hot add seasoning ingredients musatrd,methi/fenugreek seeds,red chillies,curry leaves one by one.Let them splutterand add chopped onions and saute well.Add crushed ginger,garlic and fry for a while until raw smell goes.Add cut bittergourd pieces and fry until light golden brown color.Add tamarind puree,turmeric,sambar pwd,water,pepper pwd ,salt and cook until gravy becomes slightly thick.Add sugar,sesame oil /Ghee (optional)and adjust if salt and red chilli pwd according to taste.Serve with hot rice with a dollop of ghee . We had spicy,tangy,bittery bittergourd kozhambu rice with homemade parsnip chips.
sundakkai vatral kozhambu .
Info about Bittergourd .
This recipe goes to Vegetable Of the Week -Bittergourd hosted by lovely Pooja.

7 comments:

Pooja said...

It must be tasting heavenly when combining with tamarind paste, right ? such a lovley dish Vineela , I liked it, may be I will prepare some for D this weekends, he just loves bitter gourd .
thanks for sharing and participating with your traditional recipe to cook bitter gourd.

mitr_bayarea said...

Vineela-

good one, I use jaggery with warm water to add to the cooked pavakkai to bring a more sweetish taste to the kozhambu.

Sagari said...

mouthwatering tamaring sauce vineela

Anonymous said...

Hi Vineela,
kozhambu with bittergourd tastes good.Will u send this to me.
Here iam craving for homefood in nashville.
Gorgeous photos.
Preethi

Vineela said...

Thanks Pooja for hosting on bittergourd.
Mitr
Ya,jaggery tastes better than sugar.In hurry i added sugar.thank you .
sagari - Ya its really mouthwatering. thanks for visiting.
Preethi - Thanks for visiting.

TCE Apps Friends said...

I tried it today and turned out very good. I just added half a tomato in addition to the above ingredients as a variation that too turned out very good. Thanks for the recipe.

TCE Apps Friends said...

Good dish, I added 1/2 tomato in addition to the above ingredients as I do for the other pulikozhambu varieties it turned out good. I also added Gingelly oil to the Kuahambu while removing from heat. It tasted very good. Thanks for the recipe