Before marriage, I was of the opinion that all the thogayals are basically coconut based. That is how women folks at my home made thogayals or at least that is how I thought so and I was quite surprised to see that it is quite the opposite at my in-laws place. My MIL very rarely adds coconut to thogayals, especially to the ones that gets mixed with rice and served. I was also amazed at the vegetables that she used to make thogayals. She makes thogayals with almost all the vegetables that I never thought were possible and above all each one differed from the other and the taste too.
This simple and quick recipe is my MIL’s version of making ridge gourd thogayal. While hubby and the kids like to have them with idlis and dosas, I love to have this with rice. It is super simple and quite tasty and what more it keeps well for 2-3 days unlike coconut chutney.
Prep Time: 5 Minutes
Cook Time: 12 Minutes
Total Time: 20 Minutes
Serves: 4
1. Soak tamarind in some warm water and keep aside.
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2. Heat a pan with 1 tsp oil. Add the urad dal and red chillies and roast till they are golden brown. Remove and keep aside.
3. Wash the ridge gourd and scrape only the sharp ridges alone with a peeler.
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4. Cut them into roundels. Heat the same pan with 1 tsp of oil and add the cut ridge gourd and sauté till they shrink in size and become limp and the edges change color over medium flame.
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5. Place the soaked tamarind, sautéed ridge gourd, roasted chillies, urad dal, salt in a mixie jar and grind to a fine paste. No need to add water as the moisture present in the ridge gourd will be enough.
6. Heat the remaining oil in the same pan. Add mustard seeds, when they splutter add asafetida and the ground paste and sauté till they absorb oil and cook for 2 more minutes over low flame.
7. Transfer to a serving bowl. This will keep well for 2-3 days. You can either serve it as a chutney with idlis or dosas or curd rice. You can also serve it as a thogayal by mixing with rice to which a dash of ghee has been added along with some papads.
8. As you can see, I had mine with some rice and potato podimas which made a good combo.
Labels: Chutney Recipes, Side Dishes - Idli-Dosa, South Indian Lunch, Thokku Varieties, Vegetable: Ridge gourd / Peerkangai