Bottlegourd Curry

When it comes to weird combinations of side  dishes, no body can beat our very own Hotel Saravana Bhavan.  We attended a baby shower function last month and the host  ordered food from HSB. This was the side dish in the menu. First I thought this was snake gourd curry but then one of our friend's mom said its bottle gourd. In our family, people never use this bottle gourd for cooking.  I came to know about the goodness of this vegetable when we were in Delhi for one year. I started using this bottle gourd in my cooking atleast couple of times a month. This time, after seeing this very new side dish, immediately I wanted to try this at home. Here goes the recipe.


Ingredients:-

1. Bottle gourd - 2 cups (chopped)
2. Onion - 1 chopped
3. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
4. Oil - 2 tsp
5. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
6. Urad dhall - 1 tsp
7. Red chillies - 1
8. Hing -  a pinch
9. Salt to taste
10. Coconut - 1 1/2 tbsp
11. Green chillies - 2 (medium sized- acc to taste)
12. cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Chop bottle gourd into a bite sized pieces. Take a pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall, red chilly & hing. Now saute' chopped onion to golden brown. Add the chopped bottle gourd to it, add turmeric powder, required amount of salt and sprinkle hand full of water to it and cover it with a lid for  5 minutes. Now grind coconut, green chillies & cumin seeds together without adding water. Keep it aside. Check the bottle gourd  in between because it takes very less time to cook. When its 3/4th done, now add the grounded coconut mix. Mix evenly and let it cook for another 3 minutes in low flame. When the raw smell of green chilly goes away, turn off the stove. Garnish it with curry leaves. Serve it hot.