Soraikkai Thuvayal

 

 

Meals. At times, they're something I put together in a jiffy. At others, they are painstakingly thought through. Ever since A started eating regular meals, I have started putting more thought into what I put on the table. All the same, I don't want A to have conventional ideas of what a meal must be and must not be. So, it doesn't have to be rice or roti. A meal could be dosai, pasta, soup and a sandwich, rice-dal-sabzi, parathas... as long as it has carbohydrates, proteins, fats and a good portion of vegetables, it is a meal.

 

One night, I decided to make wheat doddaks for dinner. A few years ago, I added moong flour to the batter and have not stopped since. Thus, the wheat and green gram doddak was born. My carb and protein elements had been taken care of. In order to convert it into a full meal, I grated some bottle gourd into the batter and made little doddaks for A. Now, that was a full meal for him. It had all that I wanted in his meal and it was something he wanted too (to be able to eat by himself).

But why all this talk about doddaks in a post about a thuvayal? Because putting in grated bottle gourd into the batter may make it a meal for my little one, but we adults need something to go with the doddaks. And since I have been known to make a thuvayal out of just anything, I decided to make the vegetable element of our meal into a thuvayal.


This recipe deviates from my usual thuvayal but is a keeper recipe.


1 cup Bottle Gourd, peeled and diced
2 tbsp Coconut, scraped
4 Red Chillies
1 tsp Mustard
1 tsp Cumin
3 tsp Urad Dal (Black Gram Dal)
1 tsp Chana Dal
1 tsp Sesame Seeds
1/4 tsp Fenugreek Seeds
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
3 tsp Oil
1 tbsp Tamarind Paste
Salt to taste




 

Heat the oil and fry the red chillies, mustard seeds, sesame seeds, fenugreek seeds, asafoetida, chana dal and black gram dal for a couple of minutes. Add the bottle gourd and fry for 2 minutes. Cover and cook for 5-7 minutes. Grind the mixture along with the coconut, tamarind paste and salt.

Serve with the doddaks. Serve on buttered toast. Serve with rice. Serve with chapatis. In short, serve it just about any way you like.

Beetroot-Carrot Soup

Cooking for one person isn’t always fun! But there are times when it can be interesting. I make stuff that I want to try out. It is nice to make something without thinking about whether the other person will like it or not. Less pressure!


I made this soup one night when I wasn’t expecting S home for dinner. My carpool mate suggested adding bottle gourd to the vegetable mixture. I was a little skeptical, but as it turned out, it was a very good suggestion. This recipe makes enough soup for one person.


1 Beetroot, peeled and diced
1 Carrot, peeled and diced
½ cup Bottle Gourd, peeled and diced
1 Onion, diced
Salt and Pepper to taste


Pressure cook the vegetables with a cup of water. Blend this mixture in a liquidizer and bring it to boil. Season with salt and pepper. Serve hot.

Bottle Gourd Curry in Milk

It takes all sorts to make the world, doesn't it? The Botany graduate that I am, hidden inside the HR professional, I know that the rule applies as easily to vegetables as it does to humans. I meet many people everyday. Some of them are extremely docile, some are loud, some bubbly, some shy. Then there are those who quietly go about their day, finishing their tasks with no noise, no hullaballoo. They blend easily in any evironment, don't stand out at all, and can even be quite invisible. Quite like the bottle gourd.

Everyone, well almost everyone, I know hates this vegetable. According to me, hate is a very strong word and people use it without really knowing what it means. So, I think they really dislike this vegetable while thinking that they hate it. S and I are rather indifferent to this vegetable. What that means is that when it is in season, we buy it every week. We just don't miss it in the months that it is not available.

This is a side dish that is made at S's place and I made it with the recipe from S's sister.

1 1/2 cups Bottle Gourd, peeled and diced

1 tbsp Oil

1/4 tsp Urad Dal

1/4 tsp Chana Dal

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Cumin Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

2 Green Chillies, slit

1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder

2 tsp Roasted Sesame Seed Powder

7-8 Curry Leaves

1/3 cup Milk

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a vessel. Add the urad dal and chana dal. When the urad dal turns golden, add the mutard seeds, cumin seeds and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves and green chillies. Add the bottle gourd pieces and salt and cook for a few minutes. Add the milk and cover and cook over a low flame until the bottle gourd pieces are cooked. Add the sesame seed powder and mix well. Cook for a couple of minutes and take it off the flame

I had never eaten this before, nor had I eaten any dish made this way. I quite enjoyed the flavours of this unusual dish. Day to day food for so many people, completely unique to me. I wonder what my fellow marathoners, Siri, Srivalli, Ranji, PJ, Curry Leaf, Medha, Priya, Bhawna, Raaji, Ruchii, Anu, Kamala, Roopa, Divya Kudua, Rekha, Divya M, Lakshmi, Lakshmi Venkatesh , Sripriya, Viji, Kamalika, DK, and Pavani think!

Masala Lauki Chana Dal

I have stopped counting the number of people who tell me they can’t stand Lauki/Ghia/Bottle Gourd/Sorekkai. I really don’t know why. It is not even like bitter gourd that has such a distinct bitter taste. I’ve always found that Bottle Gourd has almost no distinct taste of its own and, as a result, blends in beautifully with just about anything. I experimented with this last week and was so pleased with the results. I am going to be making this more often this summer. It is quick, it is tasty, it is healthy. Do you need any more reasons to try this recipe?

One of the reasons I was able to make this in a jiffy was the inclusion of Aashirwad Multipurpose Cooking Paste. I discovered it many years ago in Hyderabad and rediscovered it a couple of months ago. According to ITC, “The Multi-Purpose Cooking paste is the latest offering from the ‘Aashirvaad’ brand. The ‘Aashirvaad’ Multi-Purpose cooking paste is positioned as a kitchen aide. The product, ‘Bhuna hua taiyaar masala’, is a fried paste of onions, tomatoes, ginger and garlic shallow fried in refined sunflower oil. It is a basic paste used for most north Indian dishes. It is suitable for all tomato-based dishes.” At just Rs. 10 per packet, it is a big hit in my kitchen.

2 cups Bottle Gourd, peeled and cubed
1 Packet (100g) Aashirwad Multipurpose Cooking Paste
¼ cup Chana Dal, washed
1 tsp Chilli Powder
¼ tsp Turmeric Powder
1 tsp Pav Bhaji Masala
1 tsp Oil
¼ tsp Cumin Seeds
Salt to taste


Heat the oil in a pressure pan and add the cumin seeds. When they crackle, add the cooking paste and fry for a minute. Add the chilli powder, turmeric powder and pav bhaji masala and fry for another minute. Add the bottle gourd pieces, chana dal, salt and a little water. Pressure cook for 2-3 whistles.

That’s all it takes to get a mouthwatering side dish ready. It feels like zero effort, but tastes quite the opposite. Try it and let me know if you like it. If there are any bottle gourd haters out there, let me know if this doesn't change your opinion of the vegetable and I shall do some more R&D.

This recipe is part of a recipe marathon and my fellow runners have come up with these dishes for Day 1:

Bhags: Tomato Shorba.

Dhivs: Bhindi Jaipuri

Swati: Dum Ka Murg Zafrani

Divya Vikram: Peas Kurma

Srivalli: Chicken Semi Gravy.

Lakshmi: Sour Cream Cake

Arundathi: Kuwaiti Tea

Siri: Baked Cauliflower

Bottle Gourd and Moong Dal

Bottle gourd would feature in my list of "always eaten-never made" vegetables. About three years ago, I was spending my first summer in Hyderabad and suffered a mild heatstroke. The doctor who treated me told me to eat a lot of gourds in summer as they were good for health. I came home and called Amma to ask about this dish because I liked it a lot.

This dish isn't usually as watery as this, but since I was serving it with jeera rice, I made it a little watery.

Ingredients:

1 meduim sized Bottle Gourd, peeled and chopped

1/2 cup Moong Dal, washed

1 tsp Oil

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Cumin Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

1/2 tsp Green Chilli paste

1/2 tsp Ginger paste

7-8 Curry Leaves

1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder

1/4 tsp Chilli Powder

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a pressure pan. Add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves, ginger and chilli pastes and fry for a minute. Add the dal and saute for another minute before adding the turmeric and chilli powders. Add the bottle gourd pieces and salt. Add 1-1.5 cups of water and cover and cook for 1-2 whistles. Garnish with coriander leaves if you like.

Serve hot with rice or rotis.