Pavakka Kichadi / Tempered Karela Raita

I  am still in that holiday mood after the 3 day bank holiday here and I  don't  feel like getting back to usual routine. The glorious sun  is shining  ever so brightly now and  usually in summer my cooking and blogging suffers a lot , well that was the case till last summer. I love spending most of the time outside and then by the end of the day I always go for some simple cooking !!

This long weekend we decided to be a bit adventurous and went for a Safari, well not that adventurous as it was not a deep forest , it was just  a safari park and there the animals were well fed , so going into the wild was not risky as the animals were too lazy to even get up when cars were passing by !! Can you see those lions lying down dont they looked so full and lazy  ??

Another exciting thing was monkeys, they were absolute cheeky monkeys, climbing on cars roofs, side view mirror and jumping from  cars to cars. Initially they were not jumping on our cars much to  lil A dissappointment. Monkeys only had interest  in brightly coloured cars and big van, so they totally ignored our car. But  just before we left the monkey area we got lucky and few of them jumped on to our car :)

And then yesterday  I had a great day with my blogger buddies Nisha and Finla. It was a fabulous day with lots walking, giggling , shopping and most importantly eating !! The first picture on the left is from a famous restaurant ottolenghi  ,Nisha took us there to taste their sweet treats and we had tough time even  picking a treat from there, then for lunch we went to an Indian restaurant  where we had some cocktails and chicken biriyani and thali ,finally we splitted up with a cup of coffee in the evening !

Coming to todays topic, this is something which I made for my Vishu Sadya last month. If there is one vegetable that I hate most ,then it has to be Bitter gourd or Karela or Pavakka or kaipakka as we call it , and the only preparation I like with this veggie is this Pavakka Kichadi as the bitterness from the vegetable is harldy noticable because of the way its cooked, so if you hate this veggie because of its bitterness then give this a go ! 

Ingredients

Pavakka /Bittergourd - 1 (large )

Green chillies - 2 (optional ) I didnt use 

Curd / Yogurt - 1 cup

Curry leaves- few sprigs

Whole red chillies

Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp

Oil (preferably coconut oil ) 

Method

• Slit the pavakka into two by running a knife in the middle and remove all the seeds from inside.Wash and clean.
• Slice it very  thinly and keep it aside.
• In a non stick pan add oil and saute the pavakka slices until brown in colour, it takes 10- 15 minutes.
• Once its brown, add curry leaves and green chillies (if using ) and saute for 2-3 minutes and remove from fire.
• Let it cool down for some time and then transfer it  into a serving bowl.
• Add slightly beaten curd/yogurt to pavakka pieces and give it a good mix.
• Meanwhile in a small pan add little oil and add mustard seeds, when it sputters add whole redchillies, and curry leaves and once the whole red chilly turns dark in colour turn of the flame and pour the tempering into pavakka mixture.