Ridge Gourd (Skin) Thogayal

Last week was a long week for me. I had to do the preparations for my girls' 4th birthday party on saturday. I had 0% strength to cook on sunday morning. Since my father-in-law is with us now, I had no choice other than to cook. I had ridge gourd in my fridge. So thought of doing ridge gourd kootu and thogayal with ridge gourd skin. So here is the recipe for thogayal.

Ingredients:-

1. Ridge Gourd skin - 1 cup (chop it)
   
2. Onion - 1/2 (chopped)
3. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
4. Channa dhall - 1 tsp
5. Coconut - 1 tbsp
6. Asafoetida powder - a pinch
7. Red chillies - 2 (acc to taste)
8. Tamarind - a small piece
   
9. Salt to taste
10. Oil - a drop
    

Take a small pan, pre heat a drop of oil, add mustard seeds when it splutters add channa dhall , asafoetida, coconut and red chillies and fry it till golden brown. Keep it aside. Now in the same pan, put the chopped onion, ridge gourd and saute for 5 mts. Let it become tender. Now put it on top of the fried lentils. Let everything cool. when it is ready for grinding, add required amount of salt and the tamarind piece and grind it into a fine paste or grind it coarsely (depending upon your taste). Now ridge gourd thogayal is ready to eat. Mix one tbsp of thogayal with rice add 1 tbsp sesame oil and mix with well and enjoy. Ridge gourd kootu can be a wonderful side dish for this thogayal rice.