Parikkai Poriyal

Kerala Cuisine : From the Kitchen of a Kerala Pattar. 

The botanical name for this vegetable is Momordica Charantia, widely grown for  its edible fruit, which is among the most bitter of all vegetables.  One has to cultivate a taste for this Bitter Gourd, which incidentally is its English name, and in India it is known as Karela,  Parikkai, or Pavakkai. 

 

Doctors say it is good for health and it controls the sugar in human body and that it produces insulin akin to bovine insulin.  What ever be its medicinal properties I love this bitter vegetable and whenever my wife is hard pressed for time, she cooks this delicious fry.

Take two long green karela from the above pile and clean it thoroughly under running water.  Slit in the center and de-seed it, without damaging the fruit.  Cut the length into four pieces, and chop it fine after cutting it into slender ribbons.

Take two long slender chillies, and chop it fine, so that there is no difference between the bitter gourd and the chillies in appearance. 

Salt to taste.

Half a teaspoon of mustard. 

Half a lime [Elumitchai]

In a small kadai or cheena chatti, pour a couple of teaspoonful of oil, (Sundrop) and add the mustard seeds when the oil is hot.  The moment the mustard splutters, add the chopped karela and the green chillies and fry it on a slow  / medium flame.  Slowly, the moisture content in the vegetable will evaporate and the quantity of the content would shrink.  This is important to make a note  of, since inexperienced housewives would add more salt rather than the required quantity.  Slowly the colour of the vegetable would turn from green to green and black, meaning that the browning is not uniform.  But by this time the vegetable would have cooked and giving a minute more to be on the safe side, you can remove this fry, from the oven. 

Even though this is a side dish, we prefer to mix it with hot rice and a spoon of ghee and have it with Nendran chips as side dish.  Instead of Sambar, we make a very "sadhu" kuzhambu like Moru porichukotti, or Mulakushiyam or the Gujarati Kadi wirh small cubes of Chow Chow.

After the first helping of rice and Parikkai fry, we have a second helping of rice with the Moru porichukotti, and the Parikkai fry as the side dish with or without the chips. Finally, the third helping of rice is with butter-milk, with Narthangai Oorugai (salted) or Nellikai Oorugai(with red chillies).  Bangalore Ikkili or the Karpooravalli plantains completes the lunch.

Notes:

1.   I cannot stand chillies, so instead of chopping it fine, my wife slits it in the middle and makes four pieces so that it is visible and can be removed safely from the Thali.

2.   Because of my age I am restricted in the use of ghee.  You may add more.

3.    I always squeeze half a lime with the first helping of this lunch and it brings out a unique flavour. (Make it a point to buy a few Elumitchai Pazhams and stock it in the fridge)

4.   Plantains, is a must with our lunch.

5.   It does not make one  feel heavy or drowsy after the meals. 

6.   Oorugai (Ooru + Kai = Oorugai = Pickles)


Regards. 
Rajaputhran.