Mahanandi

Living in Consciousness ~ Indi(r)a’s Food and Garden Weblog

Turai-Suwa (Ridge Gourd-Dill) Curry

Fresh Dill (Suwa)
Fresh Dill (Suwa) for JFI-WBB ~ Greens

I think culinary knowledge is two types – “Knowledge of” and “Knowledge how”. “Knowledge of” is what psychologists call declarative knowledge – knowledge of facts and rules. It is easy to parrot nutritional information and gave instructions like add this much at this step in the recipe. Difficult to write down and explain is “knowledge how”, the procedural knowledge. It is acquired through practice, by observation and internalization. The suitable amount and how much is too much, when to add – this kind of knowledge is what makes people like my mother and mother-in-law extraordinary cooks, in my view.

In the pursuit of gaining some “knowledge how” I used the “knowledge of” a recipe I got from Dilipji. I tried to recreate the dish with little touches here and there, and the end result turned out to be remarkable. The springtime green herb, the soothing dill worked well with tender ridge gourd. And coarsely ground soy nuggets addition gave the dish little bit body. Assembled between two slices of bread, ridge gourd-dill curry tasted quite good.


Ridge Gourd, Fresh Dill and Coarsely Ground Soy Nuggets

Recipe:

3 ridge gourds – peeled, washed and cut to bite sized pieces
1 small bunch of fresh dill – washed and finely chopped – about ¼ cup
¼ cup coarsely ground soy nuggets
(soaked in warm water for about 15 minutes beforehand)
1 small red onion – finely chopped
5 green chillies and 1 tbs coconut – grinded to smooth consistency
¼ tsp turmeric and salt to taste
Popu or tadka ingredients – 1 tsp oil, ¼ tsp each- cumin, mustard seeds

In a wide skillet, heat oil. Add and toast cumin and mustard seeds. Add and saute onion to soft. While onions are cooking, squeeze the water from soy nuggets and add them to the pan. Stir-fry for few minutes. Add dill and ridge gourd pieces. Stir in green chilli-coconut paste, salt and turmeric. Mix and cook, covered for about 5 to 10 minutes, until the ridge gourd pieces become soft. Serve hot with chapati/bread.

I prepared a ciabatta sandwich. Cut and toasted the bread lightly. Filled it with liberal amounts of curry and spooned some yogurt on the top as dressing. Ciabatta bread absorbed the moist curry flavors very well. The highlight of course is fragrant fresh dill in the curry. Delightful Dill made my dil happy and I loved my meal today!


Ridge gourd-Dill Sandwich with Cucumber Slices and a Piece of Karachi Halwa

Posted by Indira©Copyrighted in Beera kaaya(Ridge Gourd),Soy (Tofu, Yuba),Suwa (Dill) (Monday April 9, 2007 at 10:21 pm- permalink)
Comments (26)

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26 comments for Turai-Suwa (Ridge Gourd-Dill) Curry »

  1. Awesome meal thats is for sure!!!!!! Lovely combinations of varied taste!!!!! 🙂

    Comment by Coffee — April 10, 2007 @ 12:20 am

  2. How creative to use it as a sandwich filling..
    Dill & Turia is a classic Gujju combo..though I like it paired much better with Cooked toor daal and garlic..i’ts so hearty that way. Turia is another favorite…I like it with lots of gravy,and with some fresh made “Patras” to it..have you ever tried Turia-Patra curry?

    Comment by Trupti — April 10, 2007 @ 3:27 am

  3. coarsely ground soy nuggets. that’s brilliant.

    Comment by bee — April 10, 2007 @ 4:58 am

  4. WOW! looks yummy. very creative combination.
    I love Turia- Patra curry. I make it with frozen Patra. Very tasty.

    Comment by Vani — April 10, 2007 @ 6:20 am

  5. Boy, you sure love your ridge gourds don’t you? 😉

    Comment by Arjuna — April 10, 2007 @ 6:27 am

  6. Hi Indra ,
    I came to know about your blog somtime in November last year..Gradually i think i got addicted to your blog…daily atleast once i hit your url to see if there is any new which i have not yet read.Needless to say,You are doing a wonderful job..Hats off..

    -Sowmya

    Comment by Sowmya Baskar — April 10, 2007 @ 7:16 am

  7. You are going my way Indira…adding Soy nuggets. I like to add soy nuggets to sandwich fillings too, never with ridge gourd though

    Comment by sandeepa — April 10, 2007 @ 7:46 am

  8. Wow Indira, what an unusual combo. I just bought dill on my last trip to the grocery store thinking of making dill rice. I should give this a try!!

    Comment by Deepika Saripalli — April 10, 2007 @ 8:43 am

  9. Hi!
    I love you website, and your recipes are so fantastic! I am moving to a Tamil area in Sri Lanka soon and you have inspired me to learn the cuisine and try to post some of their yummy recipes too.
    Cheers/Melissa

    Comment by Melissa — April 10, 2007 @ 11:16 am

  10. Delicious sandwich, Indira.

    and am super excited to see soy nuggets in this recipe 🙂

    i HAVE TO try turai and dill combo…..it sounds delish. i have made turai and zucchini with methi, dhania and palak…..but never occurred to em to use dill! Very creative. Thanks a ton for this deliciously green idea.

    Comment by musical — April 10, 2007 @ 4:46 pm

  11. Hi Indira,
    I regularly check your postings. The picture of this dish nestled between the ciabatta slices reminded me of Beans parupusli. So I feel the soy chunks can be safely subsituted with another source of protien and also similar texture – toor dal and the curry made the way we make parupusili /a>
    Will try it.
    Cheers
    Lakshmi

    Comment by Lakshmi — April 10, 2007 @ 4:54 pm

  12. http://www.indolink.com/Recipe/veggie/parupusili.html

    Comment by Lakshmi — April 10, 2007 @ 4:56 pm

  13. Thought u may be interested in this.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/technology/09blog.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

    Comment by Anitha — April 10, 2007 @ 5:12 pm

  14. How innovative Indira! Your sandwich looks so yummy! I have been really sick since sunday and today is the first day since i have been able to think of food. The sandwich looks really appetizing now 🙂
    Cheers
    Latha

    Comment by Latha — April 11, 2007 @ 6:25 am

  15. Indira – this looks fabulous. Here’s a question for you – if one wants to eat whole, healthy foods what’s an approximate weekly budget to keep in mind? Lots of people think eating healthy is expensive, but I would wager that it might actually be cheaper (providing one doesn’t want to eating 99cent burgers everyday).

    Comment by lina — April 11, 2007 @ 1:19 pm

  16. Hi Indira..
    this home sub has very much inspired me .. i love subs and am going to make this version soon… thanks

    Comment by Priya Dilip — April 11, 2007 @ 5:54 pm

  17. this is cool
    u know what
    very few people leave the skin unpeeled
    and i surely adopted it from u
    thx 😉

    Comment by anusharaji — April 12, 2007 @ 8:48 am

  18. Indira, I made this yesterday for dinner and it turned out to be awesome!

    Comment by Deepika Saripalli — April 12, 2007 @ 12:08 pm

  19. You are the master of flavour combinations! Ridge gourds and soy – very interesting idea! I’ll try it, have to try it!

    Comment by home cook — April 12, 2007 @ 1:02 pm

  20. An interesting recipe with good combi. Thanks

    Comment by prema — April 13, 2007 @ 10:05 am

  21. Hi,
    Its a diffrent recipe…….Nice idea using Ridge Gourd and Dill….

    Comment by Sukanya — April 14, 2007 @ 11:02 am

  22. Indira,

    The dish looks simply yumm!!
    Will try this soon!

    Comment by Anu — April 14, 2007 @ 4:26 pm

  23. Hey Indira,
    Your incredibly awesome food blog is too good and inspiring! Kudos to you and to ur passion for cooking!I reside in Kirkland and thanks to u,now I know of some places to get some interesting veggies n fruits 🙂 Keep rocking.

    Priya.

    Comment by Priya — April 14, 2007 @ 4:39 pm

  24. Hi Indira! This dish’s flavour reminds me of some Persian and Turkish dishes, but very light and healthy; that is a very innovative use of TVP nuggets I must say! I think you are grasping “knowledge how” very well… you have incredible balancing skills!

    Is that gajar burfi I see?

    Comment by pelicano — April 15, 2007 @ 1:23 am

  25. Hi Indra,

    I made this dish today and my husband can’t stop complimenting me.Soya is his favourite.Thankyou so much.

    -kalyani

    Comment by Kalyani — February 8, 2008 @ 4:53 pm

  26. hi indira, liked ur dish. nice innovative way.i make dill with pesara pappu. soak pesara pappu before adding to the fry.just a handful. tastes delicious!

    Comment by srividya — February 19, 2008 @ 3:20 pm

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