Bottlegourd Molagootal

Molagootal is a very common dish in a Kerala Iyer family.  In my mom's house, people prefer molagootal than Sambar or rasam. Even now my mami makes this twice or thrice a week. I like molagootal with some thogayal. This is bottle gourd molagootal I made couple of days before. I started using bottle gourd when we were in Delhi last year. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Bottle Gourd - 1 1/2 cups (chopped into small cubes)
2. Toor dhall - 1 cup
3. Turmeric powder - 1/2 + 1/4 tsp
4. salt to taste

To Grind:-

1. coconut - 1/4 cup
2. Green Chillies - 4 or 5 (acc to taste
3. Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp

To Temper:-

1. Oil - 2 tsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
3. Curry leaves - few
4. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
5. Hing -  few pinches
6. Red Chillies - 1 (optional

Pressure cook toor dhall with 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder and keep it aside. In the mean time, take a pan, put the bottle gourd pieces and required amount of water, salt & turmeric powder and let it cook for 5 to 7 minutes. Bottle Gourd usually takes less time to cook.  Grind the ingredients given "To Grind" to a fine paste and keep it aside. When vegetable is half done,  add the grounded paste to it and let it boil for 5 more minutes or till the raw smell of green chillies go away. Now add the cooked toor dhall to the ingredients and add required amount of water to adjust the consistency. Now the molagootal/bottle gourd dhall is ready to serve.  Take a small pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall curry leaves, red chillie & hing to golden brown and pour it on top of the molagootal.  Serve it hot. It goes well with steamy rice or even with rotis/chapathis.

Drumstick Molagootal

Molagootal is a very comforting dish for me. Molagootal rice with paruppu thogayal is my mom's favorite. After her death, I stopped eating this molagootal and thogayal. Today, after a very long time, I made this thogayal along with drumstick molagootal.

Ingredients:-

1. Drumstick - 10 pieces (1 1/2 " piece)
2. Toor dhall - 2 tbsp
3. Moong dhall - 1/4 cup
4. Coconut - 1 tsp
5. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
6. Rice - 1 tsp
7. Green chillies - 2 (acc to taste
8. turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
9. Salt to taste

For Garnishing:-

1. Oil - 2 tsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
3. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
4. Asafoetida powder - a pinch
5. Curry leaves - few

Pressure cook moong dhall and toor dhall adding a pinch of turmeric powder and keep it aside. In the mean time, grind coconut, green chillies, rice and cumin seeds into a fine paste. Keep it aside. Take a pan, add drumstick, add required amount of water, turmeric powder and salt and let the drumstick cook. When it is 3/4th cooked, add the grounded paste, a little water and let it cook for another 3 mts. Now add the cooked dhall to it and let it cook for another 5 mts. Add water to adjust the consistency. Take a small pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall, asafoetida powder and curry leaves to golden brown and pour it on top of molagootal.

This molagootal recipe goes to CMT-Dhall/kadi/sambar/rasam, hosting by Priya, event by Jagruti

Zuchini Molagootal

I have never tried molagootal with zuchini. But after visiting our relative's place, I wanted to try this time with zuchini. It came out really well and tasted good. Here is the recipe for molagootal.

Ingredients:-

1. Zuchini - 2
2. Snake Gourd - 1/2
3. Toor dhall - 3 tbsp
4. Moong dhall - 1/4 cup
5. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
6. Salt to taste
7. Coconut - 2 tbsp
8. Green chillies - 2 (acc to taste)
9. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

For seasoning:-

1. Oil - 1 tsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
3. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
4. Red chillies - 1
5. curry leaves - few
6. asafoetida powder - a pinch

Pressure cook Moong dhall and toor dhall adding a pinch of turmeric powder and keep it aside. Take a pan, put zuchini, snake gourd, add required amount of water, turmeric powder, salt and let it cook for 7 to 10 mts. In the mean time, grind coconut, green chillies and cumin seeds to fine paste and keep it aside. Do not over cook the vegetable. When its 3/4th done, add the grounded paste and add required amount of water and let it cook for another 3 mts. Now add the cooked dhall to it and let it cook for another 3 to 5 mts. Take a small pan, pre heat oil, add mustard seeds, when it splutters add urad dhall, red chillies, asafoetida powder and curry leaves and let it fry till golden brown. Pour it on top of molagootal. Enjoy it with white rice.

Kootu - Cabbage Molagootal

This is a very common dish of Kerala Iyers. Its easy to make and yummy to eat. This is a non-spicy gravy, so everybody can eat including kids. Molagootal can be made with spinach(keerai molagootal), Winter Melon (Elavan molagootal), Pumpkin (mathan molagootal), Cabbage (kosu molagootal), Suran (chena molagootal), Banana stem (vaazhathandu molagootal) etc.. Even mixed vegetable molagootal can also be a choice. Today I am going write about cabbage molagootal. The main ingredients are as follows:

1. Cabbage - 1 cup(washed and chopped finely)
2. Toor dal - 1/2 cup
3. Moong dal - 1/4 cup
4. Fresh coconut - 3 tbsp
   
5. cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
6. Red chillies - 2
7. Salt to taste
   

For Seasoning:

1. oil - 1 tsp (some people use coconut oil - can use whichever you want)
2. mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
3. urid dal - 1/2 tsp
4. curry leaves - 10 leaves
5. asafoetida - a pinch

Take a small pan and pour a drop of oil, add coconut+cumin seeds+red chillies to it and fry it for less than a minute. Grind it and make it a paste. Keep it aside. Pressure cook both toor dal and moong dal. Keep it aside.

In a big pan, cook the cabbage (or any vegetable) with turmeric powder for 6 to 8 minutes. Now add the coconut paste, salt and the mixture of toor dal and moon dal and let it boil till it comes to pouring consistency. In a small pan, heat the remaining oil, add mustard seeds, when they splutter add urid dal curry leaves and asafoetida and pour it in molagootal. Now molagootal is ready to serve.

This Molagootal can be used as side dish for chapathi, poori, dosai (I use this as a side dish for adai:-) also). Many people only use Toor dal in molagootal. I once tried using both Toor dal and Moong dal and I liked the taste. Try this and lemme know your comments