Bottle Gourd Sabji

Yuvaraj (my brother) is fond of this sabji that I had made when he visited us once; he was surprised because probably he had not eaten anything from me that good before my marriage. My mom used to tell it is so gratifying to serve my brother as he tastes well and appreciates dishes unlike anyone else in our home. I realized this truly when I started cooking; hearing about the food (be it appreciation or criticism) from the one who tastes it is an honor for the one who cooked it. I adapted this recipe from madhurasrecipe.com; however the original recipe includes potato.

Serves: 2 -3

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Bottled gourd or lauki – 1 medium

2.    Tomato – 2

3.    Green chili – 1

4.    Curry leaves – 1 sprig

5.     Coriander leaves for garnishing

6.    Oil – ½ tbsp

7.     Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp

8.    Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp

9.    Asafoetida – 1 pinch

10.            Turmeric powder – 1 pinch

11.   Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp

12. Chili powder – 1 tsp

13. Coriander powder – 1 tsp

14. Cumin powder – ¼ tsp

15.  Garam masala – 1 tsp

16. Salt to taste

Method:

Step 1: Peel and cube the bottle gourd, chop the tomatoes and green chili.

Step 2: Heat oil in a pan splutter mustard & cumin seeds, sprinkle asafoetida & turmeric, add green chili & curry leaves, add ginger garlic paste and sauté tomato in it.

Step 3: Add chili powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and sauté for a minutes and then add cubed bottle gourd.

Step 4: Pour a ladle of water & add enough salt; mix and close to cook in simmer for 10 minutes.

Step 5: Open the lid, check if the vegetable is cooked, and add garam masala and mix well.

Step 6: Garnish with coriander leaves and serve it with phulkas.

Paavaikai Pitlai

Bitter gourd is called Paavaikai in tamil and paavaikai pitlai is a traditional curry that is usually coupled with rice but it can be had with rotis. This curry is my predilection when it comes to bitter gourd because I do not know any other recipe that uses less oil or no jaggery/ sugar to make a bitter-less bitter gourd dish. I tried this first long back and I can say this is almost the only dish I prepare with karela/ bitter gourd these days. Bitter gourd is highly beneficial in insulin resistance conditions and hence is advised for diabetics. I will strongly recommend this for bitter gourd haters because Kundan was one earlier to eating this.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Bitter gourd – 2

2.    Tomato – 1

3.    Onion – 1

4.    Oil – ½ tbsp

5.     Dry chilis – 1

6.    Bengarl gram – ½ cup

7.     Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp

8.    Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp

9.    Asafoetida – 1 pinch

10.  Curry leaves – 1 sprig

11.   Curry/Sambar powder – 1 tsp

12. Coriander powder – 1 tsp

13. Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

14.Tamarind pulp or juice as required

15. Salt to taste

16. Jaggery or sugar – 2 pinches (optional)

17.  Ground coconut – 1 tbsp (optional)

Method:

Step 1: Chop bitter gourd into semi circles, cut onion and tomato roughly.

Step 2: Blanch the bitter gourd in salted water and cook Bengal gram separately until soft but not mushy. Keep these aside.

Step 3: Heat oil in a kadai, splutter mustard seeds, cumin seeds, sprinkle asafoetida, put in the curry leaves & broken dry chili and sauté onion in it until translucent. Then sauté tomato in it and add turmeric powder to it.

Step 4: Pour a cup of water and tamarind pulp, add curry powder & coriander powder, add salt as per taste and let it boil for few minutes until raw smell goes off.

Step 5: Add the cooked channa dal, bitter gourd and ground coconut and then mix well to boil for a couple of minutes more. Adjust spices and add jaggery or sugar at this stage if necessary.

Step 6: Serve hot with rice.

TIPS:

*You can  roast coconut, red chilies, coriander seeds and a spoon of tur dal separately in a drop of oil and grind it into coarse powder; add this instead of curry powder. This is the traditional procedure but I do it little simple.

5 Condiment Chutney

This chutney was an instant idea that I got for dinner today; however, this combination of the ingredients is a familiar one to us as gravy-base. The proportion is what I have tweaked to give a chutney form; I basically tried to prepare ginger chutney and eventually added other ingredients. Ginger is the base and I added onion and garlic for flavour, tomato for tanginess and coconut for texture; it worked perfectly well. It is not only easy and tasty but also healthy because the ingredients are raw ground and sautéed minimally to keep nutrients intact. I cannot call it an invention but it definitely is an innovation.  Kundan just loved it.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Ginger - 4” piece

2.    Garlic – 6 cloves

3.    Shallots – 5

4.    Tomato - 1

5.     Coconut – 2 tbsp grated

6.    Gingelly Oil – 1 tbsp

7.     Mustard seeds – ½ tsp

8.    Asafoetida – 1 pinch

9.    Chili powder – 1 tsp

10. Turmeric powder – 1 pinch

11. Salt to taste

Method:

Step 1: Clean and roughly chop peeled ginger, garlic, shallots and tomato.

Step 2: Grind into a coarse paste the chopped condiments along with grated coconut.

Step 3: Heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, sprinkle a pinch of asafoetida and add the ground paste.

Step 4: Add enough salt, chili powder and turmeric and stir for few minutes.

Step 5: Serve with idli or dosa.