Sorakaya Kobbari Karam kura (Bottle gourd/ Lauki Coconut Curry)

It snowed the whole day today. Winter is going strong and is not tired even a little bit. But all of us have had enough and can't wait for some warm weather. The roads seemed treacherous today with the snow sticking to the ground and turning slushy, luckily we didn't have to go outside because the schools were closed and the husband worked from home.

Also, luckily I had the ingredients for today's curry already in the fridge and that's what we had a cozy lunch today. I watched this recipe on a Telugu cooking show recently and noted it down to try.

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Sorakaya thokku pachadi (Bottlegourd peel Chutney)

I told you about the 3 ft sorakaya/ bottle gourd from my cousin's garden last week. The skin or the peel of that gourd was so tender I didn't feel like throwing it out. Also since I knew that it was grown without any harmful pesticides -- I wanted to make a chutney/ pachadi using it.

Peel of bottlegourd and ridgegourd (beerakaya) are often used to make chutneys. I usually throw the peel out because I'm not really sure what the vegetable went through before it came into my kitchen. But the peels are really healthy with good does of vitamins and also fiber. Finally with my cousin's organic bottle gourd I got to make this thokku pachadi (peel chutney). Had to ask my mom for the recipe, hence linking it to Valli's 'Cooking from Cookbook Challenge' event.

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Sorakaya Palu posina Kura (Bottlegourd curry with milk)

Continuing with my 'Cleaning my fridge' series that I started last week, I am cooking with the bottlegourd/ sorakaya today. My cousin brought her super long bottlegourd from her garden recently, it was longer than my almost 3ft daughter. I wish I took a picture of both of them together because I had to cut into 3 pieces to share with my sister and cousin. Anyway the 3rd of the bottle gourd I had left in the fridge went into this simple to make curry.
My mom used to make this milk based bottle gourd curry quite often, I'm not sure if I really liked it back then. Now I crave for it once in a while, but I rarely make it because of my dairy-hating husband doesn't like the milky taste.

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So I waited and made this dish when he was away on travel. It is super simple to make, slightly sweet and you can definitely make it more spicy and less sweet. It is great to eat with steamed rice or even roti.

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Simple Vegetarian Tamil Nadu Thali

Blogging Marathon# 40: Week 4/ Day 1
Theme: Bookmarked recipes from BM# 39
Dish: Tamil Nadu Thali

Today we are starting the final week of blogging marathon# 40. After posting the unused posts from last month's mega marathon, this week's theme is still related to the mega marathon. I'm going to post the bookmarked recipes from my fellow marathoners for the next 3 days.
Mega marathon was sure mega in lots of different ways -- mega research, mega posts, mega yapping on Whatsapp and then mega bookmarked posts after the marathon itself. I had bookmarked a lot of dishes, which I'm sure I will not be able to get to if not for this theme. After seeing so many amazing thalis during the marathon, I'm kind of obsessed with the thali concept. So for the next 3 days, I decided to do 3 thalis with bookmarked recipes.
For the first day, I have a very simple thali from Tamil Nadu. Initially I was planning to make an elaborate thalis like the ones Sandhya & Nalini posted. But one the day I planned to cook, one dish after the other got dropped out of the list and in the end it was an extremely simple thali with everyday dishes. In case you are wondering what I took off the list, I planned to make masala vada/ paruppu vadai, sundal and a lentil based dessert.

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Sorakaya Pesarapappu Podi Kura (Lauki/ Doodhi Moong dal Subji)

Blogging Marathon# 29: Week 4/ Day 1
Theme: Bookmarked Recipes
Dish: Soraka Podi Kura from Sharmi's Neivedyam

We are in the final week of June (can't believe we are about to hit the mid year mark soon--this year seems to just fly past) and also the final week for this month's BM# 29. My theme for this week is 'Bookmarked Recipes' and I tried 3 different recipes that have been in my bookmarks folder for a very long time.

For the first I made this dry Sorakaya curry from Sharmi's blog. What caught my attention was the addition of roasted pesarapappu (moong dal) powder to the curry. I knew the combination would taste great, but it took me all these years to actually make it -- not sure why I kept postponing it. If you notice in her post I was the first one to comment, so it has been in my bookmark folder for as many years as the post on Sharmi's blog.

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Lau Bori (Bengali Bottlegord Curry with Vadi)

This is such a simple dish and can be whipped up in less than 30 minutes. After trying all these Bengali recipes here is my high level summary: most of the vegetarian curries (that I tried) do not have onion or garlic and are tempered with spices like cinnamon stick and/ or bay leaf and seasoned with grated ginger Bengalis absolutely love their poppy seeds. Well this curry doesn’t include poppy seed action, but the other 2 points from my summary hold true. This is another recipe that I got from Sandeepa’s Bong cookbook and I followed the recipe to the T.

Ingredients:

Bottle gourd – 1 medium, peeled and chopped into ¼” pieces
Tomato – 2 medium, finely chopped
Ginger – 1 tsp, grated
Green chilies – 2-3
Ground Cumin – ½ tsp
Red chili powder – ½ tsp
Turmeric – ¼ tsp
Moong dal vadi – ½ cup, fried until golden brown
Salt – to taste

For tempering:
Bay leaves – 2
Cinnamon stick – 1” piece
Cumin seeds – ½ tsp

Method:

• Heat 1tbsp oil in a sauté pan; add the tempering ingredients and once the seeds start to splutter, add the tomatoes and cook covered until they turn mushy.
• Add chopped bottle gourd and turmeric and sauté for 2 minutes.
• Next add ground cumin, red chili powder and salt.
• Cover and cook, stirring once in a while, until the veggie is completely cooked and the curry is dry, takes about 15 minutes.
• Crumble the fried vadi on top and serve with steamed rice.

Lets see what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up today.
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Aarthi, Divya, Jayashree, Kaveri, Pavani,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets:Gayathri, Priya Suresh,
Seven Days of Microwave Meals: Monika,
Seven Days of Regional Specials:Harini, Vaishali, Suma, PJ
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers: Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli

Lauki Paratha (Sorakaya Paratha)

For Day 5 of the Blogging Marathon and I've this healthy and delicious Lauki paratha. I started looking for Roti/ Paratha recipes once I decided to do the marathon and I finalized 7 recipes that I wanted to make. Then I borrowed "Pure & Simple: Homemade Vegetarian Indian Cuisine" by Vidhu Mithal from the library and when I saw the picture of lauki paratha, I wanted to try it for the marathon, so I pushed one of my Puri recipes out and in came this veggie rich paratha.

I had a rocky start while making this paratha. I added a little more than is needed to make the dough and it ended up very sticky. I tried to add more atta, but it was still too sticky. So I divided the dough into balls and rolled them in lot of atta and then made the parathas. The end result was yummy, slight nuttiness from the besan and mild after taste of the lauki, these parathas were just delicious. I served these to my picky 3 yr old with tomato pickle and he gustily gobbled them up, which is unusual because he eats everything with nutella or jam.

What did I learn: Even if you don't like Lauki, you would LOVE these Lauki parathas.

Ingredients:

Atta - 1½ cups

Besan - ½cup (I used brown chickpea flour for some added fiber)

Salt - ¾tsp
Yogurt - 2tbsp
Lauki (Bottle gourd) - ½lb, grated (about 2-3cups)
Carom seeds (Ajwain) - ½tsp
Cilantro - 2tbsp, finely chopped
Red chili powder - ½tsp
Turmeric - ¼tsp

Method:

• Sieve atta and besan with salt. Add all the other ingredients and knead to make regular roti dough. Add water as needed to form the dough. Please note that lauki gives out moisture as it sits, so DO NOT add too much water.
• Keep aside covered for 5 minutes.
• Divide the dough into 12 equal parts. Dust with atta and roll each ball into 6" disc.
• Cook on heated skillet (tawa) with 1tbsp oil until light golden brown on both sides. Serve hot.

Lets see what my fellow marathoners BM#4 have been cooking up today.

Diabetes Diet/Management: Kamalika, Smitha, Suma
Kid Friendly Recipes: Anusha, Cool Lassi(e)
Seven Days of Soup: Priya Suresh
Seven Days of Indian Bread: Jayasree
Seven Days of Cakes:Priya Vasu
Seven Days of Preserves: Gayathri Kumar, Vaishali
30 Minutes Meals: Priya Mahadevan, Srivalli

Kaddu ki Dalcha (Sorakaya Masala Kura)

Recipe Marathon - Day 5

I saw the recipe for this dalcha in Eenadu which is a telugu newspaper. Recipe was actually for a pumpkin dalcha, but I used regular kaddu (sorakaya/ bottle gourd) instead. Also I have to admit that I didn’t know dalcha is a Hyderabadi dish (I AM from Hyderabad.. just so you know) and I thought it could be either a Bengali or Rajasthani dish until I googled and found out.

Dalcha has cooked & liquidized chana dal base which is seasoned with spices and the main ingredient could either be a veggie or meat.

Ingredients:
Kaddu (Sorakaya/ Bottle gourd) – 1 medium, diced (about 3-4 cups)
Chana dal – 2/3 cup
Onion – 1 medium, chopped
Tomato – 2 medium, chopped
Tamarind paste – 2tsp
Ginger + garlic paste – 1tsp
Mustard & Cumin seeds – 1tsp
Red chili powder – 1tsp
Turmeric – a pinch
Ground cinnamon – ½ tsp
Ground Cardamom (Elaichi powder) – ½ tsp
Jaggery (Bellam) or Brown Sugar – 2tsp
Green chilies – 4, slit vertically

Method:

• Pressure cook dal until soft (the more the whistles, the better). Blend it with tamarind paste and 1 cup of water. Keep aside.
  
• Heat 2tbsp oil in a large pan; add mustard seeds & cumin seeds and once they start to splutter add onions and sauté till translucent.
  
• Add g+g paste and sauté for another minute. Next add chopped bottle gourd; cover and cook till the veggie is tender, about 12-15minutes.
  
• Then add tomatoes, red chili powder, turmeric, cover and cook till tomatoes turn mushy.
  
• Add the chana dal, ground cinnamon, cardamom (elaichi), jiggery, green chilies, salt and 1 cup water. Simmer the mixture for 5-10 minutes so all the flavors mingle together.
  

Serve with rice or roti. It tasted much better the next day.

Kaddu Chole

I missed quite a bit of veganmofoing this time around. It feels like I cannot catch up with all the things that are going on, so blogging took a back step, I hope to post everyday for the next 10days.

Hope all of you had a good Diwali celebrations. We didn’t do much on that day, the weather was awful with rain the whole day. I made some dalia murukkus for diwali, I will post the recipe soon.

For today I have this creamy kaddu chole recipe that goes well with both rice & roti. I'm so impressed with my green chole with coconut milk that I can't have chole without coconut milk, so this one also has it and tastes awesome.

Ingredients:
Kaddu (Bottle Gourd/ Sorakaya) – 3 cups chopped (a medium sized gourd)
Red onion – 1 medium, chopped
Chole (Chick peas) – 1 16 oz. can, drained and rinsed
Ginger+Garlic paste – 1tsp
Tomato Puree – ½ cup
Coconut Milk – ¼ cup
Red chili powder – ½ tsp
Chole Masala – ½ tsp
Tamarind paste – 1 tbsp (or use 1tsp amchoor powder)
Ground Cumin – ½ tsp
Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Heat 1tbsp oil in a large sauté pan; add cumin seeds and once they start to splutter add the onions and sauté until lightly browned.
• Add g+g paste & ¼ tsp turmeric, cook for 1 minute.
• Now add chopped kaddu and 1tsp salt. Cover and cook till the veggie is half cooked.
• Add the chick peas, cover and cook till bottle gourd is completely tender.
• Add tomato puree & coconut milk along with the masala powders; simmer on low for another 10 minutes. Serve with rice or roti.

Cooking from Asha’s for Tried & Tasted

I’m one of those bloggers who waits for Asha’s Wednesday’s posts on Foodie’s Hope. She makes her posts funny and informative; she cooks almost any cuisine but keeps them simple and easy to make. Following are some of the recipes I tried from her blog for Tried & Tasted: Foodie’s Hope event being hosted by Ashwini @ Ashwini's Spicy Cuisine.

Sorekai Bele Saaru: Yummy combination of sorakaya/ bottle gourd and toor dal. My son absolutely loved it.

Brown rice & Mixed lentil Adai: Addition of brown rice makes this already healthy dish even healthier.

Hurikadale (Dalia) Chutney: I usually make peanut chutney, but this is very tasty too.

Bottle Gourd Masala Curry

I signed up for Vegan Mofo – Vegan Month of Food event being hosted by Isa of The Post Punk Kitchen. The idea is to write about vegan food in the month of October, so I’m trying to do my best to post my vegan creations everyday (or at least 20 times) this month.

I’m going to kick start the month with my Aunt’s Bottle gourd Curry (Sorakaya Kura) and Mango Dal (Mamidi kaya pappu).

Ingredients:
Sorakaya (Bottle gourd) – 4 cups, chopped into 1” pieces (medium sized gourd)
Onion – 2 medium, (1 chopped fine, 1 coarsely chopped)
Green Chilies – 4
Tamarind pulp – 1tbsp
Ground Coriander – 1tsp
Ground fenugreek (Menthi podi) – ½ tsp
Ground Pepper – ½ tsp
Ground Sesame seeds – 1 tbsp
Salt – to taste
Method:

• Add salt to the chopped bottle gourd pieces, cover and keep aside for 15 minutes.
• In the mean time, heat 1 tsp oil and sauté coarsely chopped onion and green chilies until translucent. Remove from heat and when cool enough to handle, grind into a smooth paste.
• After 15 minutes, rinse the pieces with water, squeeze out the excess water and keep aside.
• Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large sauté pan; add the finely chopped onions and sauté till lightly browned around the edges.
• Add the bottle gourd pieces; cover and cook on medium low flame until the pieces are ¾ cooked, about 10, 15 minutes.
• At this point add all the other ingredients, tamarind and all the powders, salt; mix well; cover and cook until the bottlegourd is completely cooked, another 5-10 minutes. Add water if the gravy seems to be too thick.

Serve with steamed rice and dal.

D for Dal Moghlai

This is my entry to Nupur’s A-Z of Indian vegetables series. Dal is the quintessential comfort food for all Indians. Be it the tangy-spicy sambar or plain old tadka dal, no Indian thali is complete without dal. This recipe is from Tarla Dalal’s recipe newsletter. I love my lentils and make sure that I make a big pot of dal (like soup) every weekend that will last at least 2-3 days. That way all I have to worry about during weeknights is making a subzi (curry) and rice.

Ingredients:
Toor dal – ¾ cup
Chana dal – ¼ cup
Bottle gourd (doodhi/ lauki/ sorakaya) – 2 cups, peeled and chopped into big pieces
Tomatoes – 1 cup, chopped
Turmeric – ¼ tsp
Onion – ¾ cup, chopped
Garlic – 2 cloves, chopped fine
Ginger – 1 tsp, minced
Green chilies – 5
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Clean, wash and soak the dals for about 30 minutes. Drain.
  
• Add the tomatoes, bottle gourd, turmeric, salt and 3 cups water to the dals and pressure cook till the dals are tender.
  
• Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan, add cumin seeds and when the seeds crackle, add the ginger, garlic, green chilies and onions and sauté till the onions are golden brown in color.
  
• Add the cooked dal and 1 cup water to the onions and bring to a boil.
  

Serve with steaming hot rice for a wholesome meal.

Sorakaya Kura

Personally sorakaya (bottle gourd, lauki) is not a very exciting veggie. It doesn’t fall into the category of kid’s favorite’s alu (potato) or bendakaya (okra), but rather sits along with broccoli and brussel sprouts. I remember, as a kid, eating sorakaraya kura with the least interest and telling my mom not to cook it anymore. But now, after all the years of not liking sorakaya, I started experimenting and using it more than I could imagine 10 years ago.

A little research on bottle gourd told me that is not an important source of any nutrient. The composition of 100 grams of young bottle gourd includes 20 mg calcium and 6 mg of Vitamin C. It is low is saturated fat and cholesterol and high in dietary fiber, riboflavin, zinc, thiamin, iron, magnesium and manganese.

The gourd itself doesn’t have any discernible taste, and the dish is mostly acquired taste from the spices and other ingredients put in it. I used Nagpur garam masala that my mom made (she said it has about 31 or 33 spices in it) and it gave the dish spicy kick.

Ingredients:
Sorakaya (bottle gourd)– 1 medium, peeled and cubed
Onion – 1 small
Tomato puree – 2 tbsp
Green chilies – 3
Besan – 3 tsp
Milk – ¼ cup
Water – 1 cup
Garam masala – 1 tsp
Red chili powder – ½ tsp
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Cumin seeds - ½ tsp
Curry leaves – 5
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan, add the seeds and curry leaves, after the seeds splutter, add onions, turmeric and sauté till lightly browned.
• Add sorakaya pieces and green chilies, cover and cook till tender.
• When the gourd is tender, add tomato puree and cook for 1 minute.
• Mix besan with milk into a smooth paste without lumps. Add this to the veggies with water and red chili powder. Cover and cook for 5 minutes on low flame.
• Add garam masala and salt, cover and cook for another 2 minutes.

You might have noticed that I have started adding milk in all the dishes. The reason being, my husband doesn’t like dairy, milk/ yogurt/ buttermilk, products that are white and have a distinct milk taste. So I’m sneaking in milk into everything, so he (we) would get the necessary nutrients and calcium. Good idea.. right??