Bitter Gourd and Potatoes with a Twist

Bitter Gourd (Pavakka) is my favourite vegetable. Simple pavakka mizhukkuvaratti (Bitter Gourd stir fry) is heavenly. I also like making Pitla with it. (Will post recipe for Pitla some other time). My husband also shares my love for Pavakka (thank god for that).

When making Pavakka these days, I am always reminded of an incident that happened a couple of years ago. My now 2.5 year old son was around 8 months at that time. He had started eating solid food - vegetables and fruits in puree form. He used to crawl to us when we were eating food and ask for what we were eating. We used to let him get a lick of the Indian cooked dinner. We were a little scared of giving him all that spicy food at that age. One day the dinner was pavakka and when my husband gave him some mushed pavakka, we were sure he is going to spit it out. But my DS loved it. He kept smacking his lips and asking for more. :-)

I was looking for some different recipe for making Bitter Gourd in other blogs and came across a Bitter Gourd Masala recipe in Priya's website. I made some changes to the recipe and created my version below. Check out the original recipe in her website.

Ingredients

Bitter Gourd 3 finely chopped

Potato 1 big pealed and cut into small cubes

Onion 1 big finely chopped

Ginger, garlic, green chillies all finely chopped

Mustard 1 tsp

Turmeric 1 tsp

Hing

Oil and Salt to taste

For Grinding to a powder

Poppy seeds 1 tsp

Quinoa 1 tsp

Channa dal 1 tbsp

Whole pealed urad dal 1 tbsp

Coriander seeds 1 tsp

Cumin 1 tsp

Red chillies 3

Method of Preparation

1. Dry roast the poppy seeds and quinoa and keep aside.

2. Add a little oil and roast the channa dal and urad dal. When it starts to brown, add the coriander seeds, cumin and red chillies and roast for a minute.

3. Grind all the above into a fine powder.

4. In a pan, add some oil and add the mustard to it.

5. When it sputters, add the turmeric, hing, onions, green chillies, ginger and garlic and sauté till onion is browned.

6. Add the bitter gourd and cook for 5 minutes.

7. Then add the potatoes and cook till it is almost done.

8. Add the ground powder and salt and cook till the vegetables are cooked well.

9. Serve with roti or rice. we enjoyed this with roti.