Bottle gourd kootu/ Suraikai kootu /Sidedish for rice

This is my own version of making Bottlegourd kootu.  Bottle gourd is known as ' Suraikai ' in tamil and  ' lauki' in hindi. This goes well with plain rice and curd rice. I used combination of chana dal and moong dal to prepare this kootu.

Here is the recipe...

Ingredients :

Bottlegourd - 1 no (medium sized)

Moong dal - 1/4 cup

Chana dal - 2 tbsp

Sambar powder - 1 tbsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Water - 1 cup

Salt - as needed

To Grind:

Coconut -  2  -3 tbsp

Green chilli - 1 no.

Jeera - 1 tsp

To Temper:

Mustard - 1 tsp

Urad dal - 2 tsp

Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Oil - 1 tsp

Method:

1.Peel the skin of Bottle gourd and cut them in to squares.  Wash the moongdal and chana dal.  Take a washed dal along with chopped bottle gourd in a pressue cooker. Pour 1 cup water to it .  Then add sambarpowder, turmeric powder and  salt. Mix  well. Then close the lid of pressure cooker. Switch on the flame and pressure cook  for 1 whistle.

2.  After 1 whistle switch off the flame and grind the ingredients given under  'to grind' finely and add it into the pressure cooker as soon as you open the lid . Stir well.  Check for salt and spice levels. (The coconut paste will be cooked by the heat which dal mixture  already has,  so no need to switch on the flame again.)

 

3. Take a tadka pan and temper it with the items given under 'to temper'  and add it to the kootu. Stir it and serve hot.

Our  bottle gourd kootu is ready...

Serve hot with rice :)

Notes:

• After pressure cooking if kootu is very thick,you can add more water.
• If kootu is very thin in consistency then add  1 tbsp of rice flour while grinding other ingredients and add it to the kootu.
• You  can also add  1 or 2 shallots while grinding coconut, jeera and chilli.
• To get more shelf life ,  give a quick boil after adding grinded items to the kootu.