Day 156 - Asparagus Pitlai

Pitlai or Pitlay is a hyper traditional South Indian stew. I believe its 'domiciled' in the South Indian region of Tanjore. Tanjore, the seat of the ancient Chola empire was ruled by the Marathas from Western India who introduced their own native cuisine into the region. There are plenty of dishes from both regions that share a common name and Pitlai is one of them. Another example would be the usal/usli.

The classic vegetables used for this savory coconut stew are bitter melon, egg plant and occasionally green tomatoes. Given the bounty of asparagus in my refrigerator, There was no way I was going to leave this vegetable untested. My mother successfully incorporated asparagus successfully into most of the other south Indian sambars, kootus and stir fries when we lived in Johannesburg, South Africa in the 1990's. I just extrapolated to the Pitlai.
 I'm posting the details of the dish on my main blog, I'll link the recipe from that site.