Sorakaya payasam / Bottle gourd-rice pudding

Don't be amazed to see bottle gourd pudding here. I know you must be checking the title again and scrolling down wondering how it looks like! Yes indeed it is a sorakaya payasam or bottle gourd pudding! even I was zapped when I first heard it from my husband. If you have a sweet tooth then you gonna enjoy this recipe. My MIL taught me this traditional, authentic payasam on her recent visit and you know there is no milk in it! Isn't that wonderful..... payasam without milk! OMG!




Yet another sweet savoury for JFI-Rice hosted by Sharmi of Neivedyam. Jihva for ingredients (JFI) is the brain child of Indira of Mahanandi.




There are recipes that call for milk and sugar and can be find on internet. but this payasam is made out of rice, jaggery and bottlegourd and is served with cooked dal(side dish) and a dash of ghee/clarified butter. What a great treat for those chilly winterly-fall evenings. I am sure you will give it a try and let me know how this tasted in your kitchen.

Source: My Mother-in-law
Cuisine: South Indian, Andhra
Prep time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins
Soaking time: Overnight
Makes: 6 people

Ingredients:
For payasam~
2 cups of rice(pref. Indian Sona Masoori)
1 big sorakaya/bottle gourd, chopped into medium size pieces (see photo)
2½ cups of grated jaggery/gud/bellam
4 Cardamom powder/crushed eliachi seeds
few cashew nuts/almonds for garnishing (optional)
2 tsp of sugar
1/2 tsp of salt
2-3 cups of water, approx
2 tsp ghee
For dal ~
1½ cup toor dal/red gram dal
salt as per taste

Method:

• Wash and soak the rice night before. Grind it first without water and then start grinding by adding 1/4 cup of water at a time. The batter should not contain any coarse rice (rice rava), grind it more to attain a smooth texture by adding little more water, you can see the photo here. The batter should be little thin just like dosa batter.
  

• Peel the bottle gourd/sorakaya and cut them into small bite size pieces like in the picture. Pressure cook them in 1/2 cup of water, sugar and salt for 3 whistles (depends on cooker). To be more specific the gourd should not be over cooked or mushy, it should retain its shape. Once cool transfer the content to a large deep pan dont throw away the water, turn on the heat. Meanwhile boil some dal and add salt once its cooked.
  

• In a large bowl mix the grated jaggery into the rice batter, add cardamom powder and mix well till jaggery/gud/bellam is mixed properly. You will notice the color changes from pure white to light brown color. This color also depends on the type of jaggery used, if it is old one like the one I used in this recipe, it will be little darker. Check the sweet levels, if its mild then stir little more jaggery or as per your taste.

• Add this mixture to the bottle gourd/sorakaya pieces and cook on medium low while constantly stirring it. You will know when the rice in the batter mix is cooked, as the payasam will turn thicker. Once its cooked turn off the heat, garnish with your favourite nuts and serve hot with a dash of ghee/clarified butter and cooked dal.

Mamidikaya annam aka Mango rice

Mamidakaya annam aka Mango rice

Mamidikaya means raw mango and annam means rice, together mamidikaya annam is one of my favorite rice recipe, its tangy and sour to taste and goes well with any pachadi, fritters or pickle. We make it when the raw mangoes are in season in India, during Ugadi (festival) in the month of March - April. Here in US I noticed that raw mangoes are little bit sweeter to taste.

I am making this classic rice entry and today sending this to Sharmi of Neivedyam for JFI-Rice (Jhiva for Ingredients) started by Indira of Mahanandi.

This recipe is also known as Mango rice, Mamidikaya Pulihora. Mango rice is specially cooked on Ugadi in some parts of Andhra and definitely needs generous amount of oil for tempering. Here are few more recipes for this recipes from fellow bloggers Sailu, Shireesha, Shakahari Saapadu, Indira, Bee, Shanthi, Sharmi.

Source: My own
Cuisine: South Indian, Andhra
Prep time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 7 mins
Makes: 4 people
Ingredients:
3 cups of rice, (pref Indian rice aka sona masoori)
1 big raw mango, peeled and grated
½ tsp turmeric powder/haldi
for tempering/tadka:
2 tsp urad dal/black gram dal
2 tsp mustard seeds/rai
1 tbsp chana dal/bengal gram dal
handful of peanuts
1 inch ginger, finely chopped
3-4 torn dried red chillies
4-5 green chillies, cut lengthwise
½ tsp turmeric powder/haldi
few curry leaves
a pinch of asafeotida/hing
2 tbsp of cooking oil
salt as per taste

Method:

1. Cook rice with ½ tsp turmeric powder/haldi, let it stand for 10 mins and transfer to a large mixing bowl.
2. Heat oil in a pan on medium heat. Add the dals, mustard seeds and let it splatter for a minute.
3. Then add the torn red chillies, curry leaves, peanuts, chopped ginger, green chillies and fry them for 1-2 mins.
4. To this add the turmeric powder, hing and salt. Mix well and lastly add the grated raw mango.
5. Stir well and leave it on medium high for about 2 mins or till the mango threads are cooked.
6. Mix this with rice and Mango rice is ready within minutes.
   

Apple Crumb Dessert

Apple crumb dessert

Microwave cooking is always been so simple and easy when Srivalli of 'Cooking 4 all seasons' announced Microwave easy cooking event. Cooking in microwave for me atleast was to make coffee or to reheat the leftovers from the previous day/two. My friend L moving to Denver and initially they stayed in some motel, till they hunted for an apartment over there. She used to cook in the microwave and make our daily dishes like rice, dal, curry. This was that first time I came to know how useful it can be if we dont have cooking gas/stove. Well since then I have been trying my hands on m/w cooking.

Today am gonna prepare dessert with apples, and as this is a "cook any sweet dish" event also I google'd for m/w cooking and found this incredible recipe. I made some modulations in the recipe though, so here it is....

Source: adapted from cooks.com
Cuisine: International
Prep time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 2 mins
Makes: 6 people
Ingredients:
4 cups apples, sliced (any, I used Red Delicious)
½ tsp cinnamon powder
1 cup all purpose flour/maida
½ cup sugar (I used only ¼ cup) or ¼ cup honey
¼ cup brown sugar or 1 tbsp honey
¼ tsp baking soda
1 egg or ½ cup orange juice
3 tbsp of melted butter
Method:

• Arrange apples in an 8"x8"x2" pan, sprinkle with cinnamon.

• Mix flour, sugar or honey, salt, baking soda and egg or orange juice, mix with fork until crumbly. Spoon over apples. Sprinkle with brown sugar or honey.

• Microwave butter, uncovered in 1 cup glass measure on high until melted, 30 seconds to 1 minute.
• Drizzle over apples. Microwave, uncovered on high until apples are tender, 10 to 12 minutes.
• Serve warm.
  

Varalakshmi Vratham

Varalakshmi Vratham is a popular ritual observed by married women in South India and Maharashtra. Goddess Lakshmi – the goddess of wealth and prosperity – is worshipped on this day. In 2007, Varalakshmi Puja is on August 24. According to Hindu mythology, once Goddess Parvati asked Lord Shiva about a vratha that will be beneficial to women. Lord Shiva then mentioned the importance of Varalakshmi Vratha. The conversation on Varalakshmi Vratham between Parvati and Shiva takes place in the Skanda Purana. The Hindu mythological story about this vratham you can find it here.

Varalakshmi literally means the boon granting goddess. Worshipping Goddess Lakshmi on this day is equivalent to worshipping Ashtalaksmi – the eight goddesses of Wealth, Earth, Learning, Love, Fame, Peace, Pleasure, and Strength. It comes in the holy month of Shravan on the first friday before the full moon (Pournami/ Poonam).

We generally buy something in gold and offer to the Goddess Lakshmi. We do Alankaranam with all the jewelery and offer saree, prasadam/ naivedyam, differnet varieties of fruits and Thamboolam – betel leaf, areca nut, flowers, pair of banana/any fruit, turmeric, kumkum, coin, khajoor – is offered to women in the locality and in the evening an arati is offered. To know more about this puja you can find it on telugu bhakti and carnatica and for step by step puja vidhanam click here.

I thought of sharing few snaps of the puja performed at my home, since this puja was followed by weekend and one of our friend visited us, I was not able to post it on 24th August. I made 5 varieties of naivedyam, offered 7 kinds of fruits including coconut and bananas.

Kalasham Puja

performing puja on the silver mahalakshmi coins
can you also see the pasupu ganapathi!

5 varieties of Prasadam/naivedyam offered to the Goddess Varalakshmi
(Pulihora, payasam, halwa, garelu (vada) and chana)

Saree and 5 varieties of fruits, apples, plums, nectarines, grapes, and oranges
being offered to the Goddess

My Puja(worship) corner/room

Thamboolam

Jeera Aloo -- Crushed Cumin with red skinned Potatoes

Its time to treat the king of spices *CUMIN*. Although the small cumin seed looks rather unassuming, its nutty peppery flavor packs a punch when it comes to adding a nutty and peppery flavor to chili and other Mexican and Tex-Mex dishes as well playing an important role in Indian and Middle Eastern cuisine where it is a key component of curry powder. Both whole and ground cumin are available year-round.

Cumin seeds resemble caraway seeds, being oblong in shape, longitudinally ridged, and yellow-brown in color. This is not surprising as both cumin and caraway, as well as parsley and dill, belong to the same plant family (Umbelliferae).

Health Benefits : It is probably not just for taste alone that cumin has made it into the stellar ranks of Indian, Middle Eastern and Mexican cooking. This ordinary looking seed is anything but ordinary when it comes to health benefits. It is a very good source of Iron for Energy and Immune Function, cumin seeds benefit the digestive system and also helps in cancer v and stomach and liver tumors. How many of us remember when we have some vomiting sensation or nausea, chew raw cumin seeds to soothe, at least I used to have them like this. More interesting info about Cumin can be found on WHFoods site and on Wikipedia too.

When Sunita of Sunita's world announced the event for Think Spice....think Cumin this Jeera Aloo sounded a perfect entry. I came across this recipe on Khana Khazana by Sanjeev Kapoor a great chef/cook and a lovely host. If you remember the Mother's Day episode, his mother was invited and this was here signature dish. Since then I had been cooking and enjoying this dish. Very quick and simple one to make and happily goes well with rice, biryani, pulao, rotis/Indian flat bread or simply a side dish instead of Mashed Potatoes, why not?

Jeera Aloo - Crushed Cumin with Potatoes

Jeera Aloo

Source: adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor's Khana Khazana
Cuisine: Punjabi, India
Prep time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 15 mins
Makes: 4-5 people
Ingredients:
6 red skinned medium size potatoes, boiled and chopped into 3/4 th inch cubes
1 tsp of cumin seeds/jeera
2 tbsp of cumin seeds/jeera, roasted and crushed coarsely
1 tbsp of coriander seeds/dhaniya, roasted and crushed coarsely
1 tbsp of raw mango powder/amchur
1 tbsp of ground cumin powder/jeera powder
1 tsp of chilli powder/cayenne pepper/mirchi powder
½ tsp of turmeric powder/haldi
1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
few curry leaves
salt as per taste
2-3 tbsp of oil
mint /cilantro leaves for garnishing
Method:

1. Pressure cook the potatoes, upto 3 whistles be careful not to over cook them, else they will turn mushy-mushy. Cut them into 3/4th inch cubes and keep aside.
2. Take a deep bottom sauce pan/bartan (hindi word). Heat 2-3 tbsp of oil on a medium flame, yes I am right you have to at least take 2 tablespoons of oil and you will know why we require that much amount, common its better than using 1 slab of butter..hehe!
3. To this add the cumin seeds, let them fry for few seconds, then add the curry leaves, coarsely crushed cumin seeds, coriander seeds, fry for a min- remember do not reduce the heat/flame. You must be seeing foam like thing in your pan don't worry thats nothing but the spices are frying grandly.
4. Now add the cumin powder, raw mango powder/amchur, chilli and turmeric powder and lastly salt.
5. Keep on stirring for a min check the hot and salt levels in the mixture and then add the cubed potatoes, mix well so that all the potato pieces are thoroughly coated with the spice mixture.
6. Garnish with mint/cilantro/coriander leaves and serve hot with rice, rice, biryani, pulao, rotis/Indian flat bread.

Crushed Cumin with red skinned Potatoes

Express Italian Meal

Express Italian Meal

I was going mad after thinking what to post for this Summer Express Cooking Event :O then I saw a message left on my previous post from some anonymous giving me the idea to repost the Hearty Salad, Spaghetti with roasted peppers medley and Strawberry cups for this event by Mallugirl.

I was little busy with lot of things going on past few weeks so hope my previously posted recipe will be accepted. This is a super easy, fast and express meal for any time. As I did lot of talking in the previous post, I am keeping mum here so that I can finish on time and post this recipe for the event.

Hearty Salad: Lettuce orange cherry tomatoes salad with honey dijon and lime juice dressing

This refreshing salad is done within 5 mins of time and very refreshing for a hot summer day, only thing is you have to prepare the dressing or can substitute with plain lemon juice. The recipe for the same you will find it here or check the express directions

Ingredients:
6 leaves of Romaine Lettuce, torn
6 cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
1 orange, peeled and cut pod wise
1 carrot, grated
½ red onion, chopped
½ tsp orange zest
4-6 walnuts, toasted and chopped
for dressing:
½ lime/lemon juice
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp sugar
pinch of salt/ as per taste
1 tsp ground black pepper

Method:

0-2 mins

• Mix all the veggies in a bowl, top it with orange zest
• Prepare the dressing by first adding dijon mustard in the lime/lemon juice whisk well.
• Add freshly ground black pepper, salt, sugar, honey mix well.

2-5 mins

• Whisk vigorously while adding extra-virgin olive oil.
• Spread over the salad, mix and cover it with plastic wrap and keep refrigerated.
  
• When ready to eat top it with chopped toasted walnuts.

**********************************************
Main course: Spaghetti with roasted pepper medley and basil



This express meal is done within 15-20 mins if you have all the ingredients handy.

Ingredients:
1 small bunch of uncooked spaghetti (I use Barilla)
3 bell peppers, red, orange and yellow or any roasted bell pepper
4 tbsp of pasta sauce (tuttoroso/ragu)
1 big clove of garlic, chopped
2 shallots, chopped
½ of lime/lemon juice
½ of fresh basil leaves, torn
1 tbsp of roasted peanuts, coarsely grind
1 tsp of chilli powder (cayenne)
1 tbsp of grated cheese
1 tsp of butter
2 tbsp of extra-virgin olive oil
salt as per taste
ground black pepper for seasoning
Method:

0-15 mins

• Cut the peppers lengthwise as shown in the above picture, coat them with 1 tbsp of extra-virgin olive oil, sprinkle some salt and ground pepper. Toss and roast it on a tava or in oven till the edges are browned.
• Meanwhile cook the spaghetti as per the instructions on the box, check al-dente, drain and keep aside.

15-20 mins

• While the peppers are roasting heat butter and 1 tbsp of extra-virgin olive oil in a large sauce pan, saute garlic and shallots.
• To this add the pasta sauce, chilly (cayenne) powder, salt. mix and add the roasted peppers, stir well for a minute or two.

20-25 mins

• Toss in spaghetti and add lime/lemon juice, roasted peanuts, torn basil leaves and let all the flavors combine.
• Sprinkle some grated cheese and serve hot.

******************************************
Dessert: Strawberry dessert cups with whipped cream





Ingredients:
6 dessert cups/short cake cups
5 tbsp strawberry preserve/any fruit preserve
Whipped cream for topping(fresh or store bought)
4-5 fresh bing cherries for garnishing
Method :

0-3 mins

• Place the store bought dessert cups in the serving plate, spread the strawberry preserve evenly on the top of the cup
• Top it with whipped cream as per your requirement. I love little extra topping for mine.
• Garnish with chopped cherries or any of your favorite fruit.
• Serve immediately.

Hope you all will enjoy as mush as I did while making this meal. Now who cleans the dishes? This is my entry for express cooking event.
Ciao!

Poori Chole

Poori and Chole

When Anita of "A Mad Tea Party" announced the celebration of Indian Independence Day week with Poori and bhaji, I was already exhausted making them last weekend and top of that I did not capture them on my camera, pity! touring NY/NJ was already taking toll on me. I had to make my presence in this event as I forgot to email for JFI-Chillies to Nandita. So made sure that we had poori's today for brunch this way I won't miss to post on this event. Its party time at Mad Tea Party, so please gals dress up and see you all there.

We generally make potato/aloo curry to go with it, but pooris are so friendly and can be accompanied by variety of side dishes like shrikhand, amras, pickle, kesar halwa and many more. Pooris are cooked almost in all states across India. Since last week only I had pooris with aloo/potato curry, I made Chole (chickpeas/Garbanzo beans curry) this time. You can see in the last photo my DH is enjoying a *Nivala* (bite).

Source: Myself
Cuisine: Indian
Makes: 4 people

For making Poori's
Prep time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins
Ingredients:
2½ cups of whole wheat flour
2 tsp sour cream or home made yogurt (optional)
½ water or accordingly
salt as per taste
oil for deep frying

Method

1. In a large vessel mix wheat flour, salt first and then add sour cream and little water knead into a soft dough.
2. Cover and leave it for ½ hour. Make this into smooth round even sized balls. Using a roller pin flatten the balls one by one to make it round and flat of medium thickness.
3. Deep fry this in oil till the poori pops fully and then drain and remove it from the frying pan.
4. Serve hot with Chole or any favorite side dish.

For Chole / Chickpeas masala curry
Soak time: 8-12 hrs
Prep time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
Ingredients:
2 cups of Chickpeas/Garbanzo beans, soaked in water overnight or for 8-12 hrs
2 red onions, grated
3 green chillies, cut lengthwise and chop
2 tbsp crushed tomato paste or tomato puree
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp ginger paste
½ tsp of chilli powder
½ tsp of turmeric powder/haldi
1 tsp of chole masala powder
1 tsp garam masala powder
2-inch cinnamon stick
4-5 cloves
few bay leaves
salt as per taste
1 tbsp of oil

Method

1. Pressure cook the soaked chickpeas/garbanzo beans with little salt for about 5-6 whistles or you can use canned ones too.
2. Meanwhile grate the onion and heat oil in a large sauce pan.
3. To this add bay leaves, cinnamon stick and cloves saute till the aroma fills the room.
4. Add the grated onion, chopped chillies, ginger paste, garlic paste and saute for 5 or more mins so that the raw taste of onion is gone.
5. Then add all the powders and fry for a min or so, add crushed tomatoes/puree and salt.
6. Lastly stir in the cooked chickpeas/garbanzo beans, saute till everything is mixed well.
7. Serve hot with pooris.

DH enjoying his share of pooris and chole

Peddamma's Pappu Charu (kinda lentil/dal soup)

Pappu charu is a daily staple in every Andhrite home, but many are not aware of this incredible *Charu*, or else you can say it is a diluted version of sambhar except that there is no sambhar powder used in this. In the west to be more specific it resembles the taste of a lentil soup but little sour to taste as we use tamarind pulp juice/water. There are many variations to it, you can add many different vegetables to it like okra/bendakaya/bhendi, eggplant/vankaya/ baingan or raddish/mulangi/muli etc etc and are respectively called as bendakaya pappucharu, vankaya pappucharu, mullangi pappucharu.

Toor dal/red gram lentil

I learned the art of making pappu charu from my Peddama aka mother's elder sister when I went to Vizag on my 12th std vacation. She is a great cook and has magic in her hands in cooking traditional andhra recipes and non-vegetarian recipes. Today I made the simpler version on the request of Bee from Jugalbandi with just tomatoes, onions and green chillies. You can find on pappu charu recipe at Vindu's, Mom's Kitchen, Sailu's Food, Mahanandi, and Srivalli's sorry if I miss anyone, these are random listings for the recipe, Enjoy!

Source: My Peddamma
Cuisine: South Indian, Andhra
Prep time: 7 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins
Makes: 6 people
Ingredients:
1 ½ cup red gram lentil/dal/toor dal
1 small red onion, sliced thinly
1 big tomato, cut and squeezed
3 green chillies, cut length wise
1 small ball size tamarind, soaked in 1 cup water
1 tsp red chilli powder (cayenne pepper)
½ tsp turmeric powder/haldi
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
2 cups of water
salt as per taste
for tempering/tadka:
1 tsp urad dal/black gram dal
1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
1 tsp mustard seeds/rai
2-3 torn dried red chillies
1 garlic clove, crushed and chopped
few curry leaves
a pinch of asafeotida/hing
1 tsp of oil

Method:

1. Wash and soak the dal for about 20 mins or so. Boil it in a pressure cooker for 3-4 whistles.
2. Meanwhile soak medium marble-size tamarind ball in 1 cup of hot water. Once the tamarind is soft, pulp it with hands and filter it. Keep the tamarind water aside and if there is more pulp in the remaining tamarind repeat the same with 1/2 cup water this time and continue so on till you have squeezed all the pulp out of the tamarind just like you do for sambhar preparation.
3. In a deep sauce pan add the red onions, chillies and squeeze in the tomato pieces. To this add the tamarind water, cooked dal, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt, mix well and if required add water if the mix is too thick. Bring it to a boil or till the onions are cooked.
4. Lastly temper it with seasoning by heating oil in a kadai/round bottom pan add the mustard, cumin seeds, urad dal/black gram dal then add the torn dried red chillies, curry leaves, and garlic. Once they are golden brown turn off the heat and add asafeotida/hing. Immediately pour this seasoning into the dal soup, Pappu charu is ready!
5. Serve hot/cold with rice and curries or pachadi's as a side dish
   

Here is step by step photo explanation of the procedure, I know which would be confusing with out this.

ingredients

cooked dal mixed with tamarind water, onions, tomatoes, chillies, turmeric, salt and chilli powder

Pappu charu boiling on medium high

tempered pappu charu

Our meal today: Rice, pappu charu, cabbage pachadi and aloo methi fry

The recipe for cabbage pachadi and aloo methi fry will follow soon...

Look what I received........tim tam and an award!

Lucky me! I am one of the winner drawn for receiving tim tam from Fiona

Tim Tam

My In-Laws visited us and we were touring the Niagara pilgrimage on August 4th weekend for two days. We had a good time driving the 7 hrs journey to Buffalo, NY from my place. We enjoyed it despite of the crouching 90 degrees heat I was sun-burned in spite of a layer of SPF-55. I know most of our friends having their parents/in-laws are touring Niagara too this summer!

I didn't had access to my laptop during those two days of touring. We came back on 5th and you know how crazy we bloggers are as soon as I landed I rushed to my laptop and was checking my blog. To my astonishment I got a comment from Fiona of Wokandspoon that she has a surprise for me and know what? I was among the 4 foodie bloggers in the draw who gonna receive the tim-tam from Fiona, Lucky Me! Check this out here

received the airmail packet from Australia, thrilling!

Close-up of tim tam and its inside out view

I was so overwhelmed and my joy knew no boundaries of the thought that I am gonna taste those Australian Tim-Tams la la la laa. Yesterday only I received Tim Tam pack air mailed by Fiona from Australia, Thank you Fiona! And I am more than happy to share them (photos only) with you all.

ummmhhaa!

More about this incredible chocolate biscuit you can find here. If you ask my sweet endeavors-- it really melts down in your mouth and you literally feel heavenly while the chocolate makes its way through the throat into your tummy..I guess its enough, you all must be drooling over my tim-tam by now @_@

An Award

I know that sounds crazy of me to start a separate post for this. I was so thrilled when I saw Sandeepa passing me the rocking blogger award (my first time), though I am not sure that I deserve this, being only 1 month old in the foodie blog-o-rama.

But it really lifted up my spirits and gave me truck load of motivation, boosted my zeal. I am really thankful to Sandeepa for thinking about me for this award and would like to pass this on to

Athika of Athika's Curry House
Argus of Argus World
Jeena of Jeena's Kitchen
Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen
Nupur of One Hot Stove
Poonam of Cooking Adventures
Ramya of Ramya's Cuisine
Spandana of Cinnamon Trail
Tee of Bhaatukli
TBC of The Budding Cook

Dear friends congratulations and you all rock !!!!! please ignore this if you have already received the award.

Recipes

List of my Recipes:

Starters
Soups
Main Course
Indian Food
Andhra Cuisine

Berakaya Thokku (Ridge gourd skin) Pachadi

Berakaya/turai thokku pachadi/ridge gourd pachadi

This is an always made pachadi at home when we bring berakaya /ridge gourd from the market. Its very sad to see throwing away the ridge gourd skin when its very tender and soft. So my mother makes this variety pachadi full of fiber from its skin. This is really a very easy pachadi and goes well with hot rice, dal and a dash of ghee.

Berakaya thokku/ridge gourd skin and pieces

Source: My Mother
Cuisine: South Indian, Andhra
Prep time: 7 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins
Makes: 4-5 people
Ingredients:
peeled skin of 3 berakaya(s)/turai/ridge gourd
½ cup of berakaya/turai/ridge gourd pieces
½ onion, coarsely chopped
1 clove of garlic, cut into big pieces
3-4 dried red chillies
1-inch of tamarind
1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp Urad dal/black gram
2 tbsps oil
Salt as per taste


Method:

1. First clean the gourds, trim the ends and then peel the skin of berakaya/ridge gourd. Cut ½ cup of berakaya/ridge gourd pieces, you can use the other pieces for curry/stir fry.
2. Take oil in a kadai/sauce pan, to this add the gourd's peeled skin and pieces. and slowly cook for about 10 mins. Saute in between so that its not burnt.
3. Then add cumin seeds, chopped onions, garlic, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, urad dal/black gram dal and salt and saute it till the skin and pieces are fully cooked.
4. When you turn off the gas, add tamarind and red chillies and cover it.
5. Once cooled coarsely grind to paste.
6. Serve with hot rice, dal and ghee.

Note: adjust your spice level accordingly while using red chillies.

Our lunch today

You all must be wondering what did I do with the remaining pieces of berakaya/turai/ridge gourd. I sauted the pieces in oil along with onions, chillies and ¼ cup of soaked chana dal/bengal gram for about a hour or so. Saute altogether and add salt and chilli powder as per your taste. And here is our lunch today, Rice, Pappu charu (dal), berakaya thokku pachadi, sauted berakaya/turai/ridge gourd and salted Lassi.