It’s been raining hard for the past one week here. I’d have grown a sprout from my head if I were a seed. It’s been so much and non-stop drizzle. With all this wet rainy weather, I wasn’t doing much cooking for the past couple of days and yesterday, ridge gourd came to my rescue.
I have never tasted a ridge gourd dish that I didn’t like. Be it a simple homely dal with toordal, or cooked in coconut, milk or in tomato sauce… I like all versions of ridge gourd preparations. “Superlative” says SH of Saffron Hut and I totally agree with her. It is like potato, easily likable and adaptable to any type of recipe. This chutney I am writing about today is one such recipe.
Some vegetables suit for chutneys and some don’t. Of all the vegetable based chutneys, ridge gourd chutney is the best in my view. The sweetness of the ridge gourd perfectly complements the hot and sour flavors of onion, chillies and tamarind. The chutney will be a perfect side dish with hot rice and dal, or for tortilla chips dip. If you like the taste of ridge gourd and if you haven’t tried chutney with it, then you have to try this recipe. This is A+, I tell you!
Recipe:
1 Ridge gourd (beerakaya) – Peel the outer ridges, wash and cut into big chunks
1 medium sized onion – cut into big chunks
6-8 small green chillies – each cut into two or three pieces
1 garlic clove – peeled and halved
½ tablespoon of freshly squeezed tamarind juice
¼ teaspoon of salt or to taste
1 teaspoon of peanut oil
A skillet and a mortal and pestle or a blender
1 Heat peanut oil in an iron skillet on medium-high heat.
2 Add and sauté the ridge gourd, onion, green chillies and garlic until light brown. Turn off the heat and wait for 10 minutes to cool.
3 Take them in mortar, add tamarind and salt. Using the pestle make a coarse paste or you could do that in a blender, but use ‘pulse’ button few times.
4 Remove into a cup and serve with rice/chapatis or as a veggie dip for chips.
Ridge gourd chutney, Dal and Rice (Beera kaya pacchadi mariyu pappu annam) ~ My Comfort Food
