Thondekayi Saasime/Saasive (Ivy Gourd in Yogurt Sauce)

Thank you all for your inspiring words, mails & suggestions. I am back to normal now. I was home sick missing my parents, sister, brother & all the loved ones. This is the first time, I stayed away from them for such a long time. I called my mom, sister & all my loved ones; spoke to them many times over the last two weeks & now, I have got all my energy, enthusiasm back.

BTW, Don't you think I have given an overdose of yogurt recipes? By now, most of you must have known my affair with yogurt/curd. Be it a simple curd rice or a yogurt mousse, I absolutely love yogurt dishes. Hence, I love preparing, eating & blogging more & more yogurt based dishes like tambli, saasime, hashi etc.

Now, lets talk about ivy gourd; "bhendekayi buddivardaka, thondekayi buddinashaka" is a saying in Kannada. It's loose translation is, "okra helps in building one's intelligence while ivy gourd is converse of the above". I donot know how true is the above statement, but I know of few families who donot cook ivy gourd just because they have heard about this. Poor guys!!In our family, all of us love ivy gourd; so, I normally prepare this 'saasime' very frequently. So far, I think, the effect of eating this are not visible yet :)

Ingredients:
12-15 ivy gourd/ thondekayi
1tsp urad dal
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
1 big pinch turmeric
1 big pinch tamarind powder/amchur powder
1/2 cup curd
3 tbsp grated coconut(fresh/frozen)
1 green chilli (finely chopped)
1 broken red chilli
salt according to taste
2 tsp cooking oil

Method:
Wash the ivy gourd & chop them into very thin slices as shown below.

Add the oil to a broad kadai, when oil is hot, add urad dal.
When urad dal becomes golden brown, add sliced ivy gourd(sliced) & fry it in oil until crisp (takes around 6-8minutes).
When the ivy gourd is 3/4th done, add salt, amchur powder & continue to stiyfry the vegetable. Remove from flame & allow it to cool.

Make a fine paste of grated coconut, turmeric & mustard seeds. Add this paste, finely chopped green chilli, curd & salt to the cooled bendekayi. (Adjust salt accordingly as salt is added while stir-frying the vegetable)
Prepare the tempering. Add oil to a sauce pan, when oil is hot, add cumin seeds, when cumin seeds splutter, add broken red chilli, asafetida, curry leaves & pour this tempering to the saasime prepared.
Thonde saasime is ready to be served with rice or roti.


Award:
Smitha of Saffron Apron has passed me this beautiful award. Thanks a lot for the award Smitha.

Events:

Mahima's 15 minute cooking.