Thondekayi Palya (Ivy gourd stir-fry)

Hurray!!!, we have booked our tickets to India. I am all excited & have no mood in doing anything (of course I'm dreaming & planning about my trip to India). I'm in no mood to cook too. To add to my laziness.., my hubby is on diet. He is on some #$%^@ diet for one month. So, whom should I experiment on?!! I don't want to risk on myself ;) Hence, my kitchen is closed for experiments this month.

So, today I'm giving you a tried & tested dish that I have been cooking for many years now. A very simple & delicious 'Karnataka style' palya recipe for you all to enjoy.

Here are the ingredients & the method.

Ivy gourd/Thondekayi: 250gms
Grated coconut: 3-4 tbsp
Mustard seeds: 1 tsp
Amchur powder/Huli pudi: a big pinch
Oil: 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds: 1/4th tsp
Curry leaves: a string
Chilli powder: 1 tsp
Coriander leaves : 2 tbsp (finely chopped)

Salt: According to taste

Method:

• Wash the ivy gourd & pat dry. Chop them into thin slices or discs.


• Heat oil in a broad pan. When oil is hot, add mustard seeds, curry leaves & saute until mustard seeds start spluttering. Add the chopped ivy gourd & saute them well. Add 1/2 cup water & allow it to cook on a medium flame.


• Meantime, make a coarse paste of coconut, mustard seeds & chilli powder. Add a tbsp or 2 of water if required.


• When the vegetable is cooked & soft, add the salt, huli pudi(amchur powder) & the coconut masala. Cook for another 2-3minutes.


• Garnish it with coriander leaves & serve it with rice or roti.

Tips:

• The palya has to be dry & not a gravy kind of stuff.Hence, keep a watch on the amount of water added to the masala & to the vegetable.
• For faster cooking, pressure cook the vegetable before hand & then prepare the palya as mentioned above.

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.

Tondekayi gojju (Tendli curry)

This one is again a south canara specialty. This is a spicy & tangy curry that tastes great with dosas & idlis. You need very minimal ingredients for this & very simple preparation. Hope you enjoy preparing & eating this as much as me :)))



Ingredients:
15-20 tondekayi
1/2 coconut grated (fresh/frozen)
3-4 red chillies
1 pinch of khus-khus/gasagase
1 small ball of tamarind soaked in water
salt according to taste

For tadka/oggarane/tempering
1 big pod garlic (minced/finely chopped)
3-4 curry leaves
1-2 red chillies
1 tsp saasive/mustard seeds
Oil - 1.5 tsp

Method:

• Slit the tondekayi/tendli/dondagaya into half (Make 2-4 pieces from each tendli)
• Cook for 1 whistle in pressure cooked by adding little water or cook in microwave (high) for 5 minutes.
• Make a paste of coconut, tamarind, khus-khus, red chillies
• Heat oil in a broad kadai
• Add mustard seeds, garlic, curry leaves, red chillies
• Fry this mixture for a minute
• To this, add the coconut paste
• Allow the mixture to boil. Add salt.
• Put tondekayi to this boiling mixture and cook it for 2 more minutes
• The gojju is ready but serve it after 30-45 minutes so that the tondekayi absorbs the masala properly

Thondekayi-kadale palya & Spinach Paratha

This was our dinner tonight. This thondekayi-kadale palya is mainly cooked in South Canara. Most famous one is, thondekayi-godambi palya (English: Ivy Gourd-cashewnuts stirfry).
To help readers know better.., here goes the translation of tondekayi in various languages.
English: Ivy Gourd, Telugu: Dondakaya, Tamil: Kovakkai, Gujarathi: Tindora, Hindi: Kundru/Tendli.
Kannada : Kadale, English: chick peas, Hindi: Kabul Channa
Palya in Kannada means stirfry.

Without wasting your time, here goes the recipe of it..


Ingredients:
15-16 thondekayi
1 cup channa (soaked for 3 hours in warm water)
1/2 cup grated coconut (fresh/frozen)
2 red chillis
1 tablespoon dhania (coriander seeds)
1 teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds)
1 teaspoon amchur powder
1 small piece of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds/menthya.
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 pinch asafoetida
4-6 curry leaves

For garneshing:
cliantro/coriander leaves

Method:

• Cut the thondekayi into medium sized pieces (One thondekayi can be cut into 3 pieces approximately).
• Pressure cook the channa & tondekayi seperately.
• Dry roast the red chilli, jeera, coriander seeds, cinnamon, fengreek seeds seperately.
  
• Add coconut to the roasted spices & make a paste out of it.
• Drain out the water from cooked thondekayi and channa
  
• In a pan, add oil. When oil is hot, add mustard seeds, hing, curry leaves
• Add thondekayi,channa & salt to this.
  
• Now add the paste prepared & the amchur powder.
• Cook the whole for 2-4 mins & garnish with coriander leaves.
• Palya is ready to be served. It tastes great both with rice & with chapathi.
  

PS: If you want channa to absorb salt, then add salt while cooking channa. Also, amchur powder can be replaced with lemon juice.

Now is the recipe for spinach paratha. This is quite simple.

Blanch the spinach in hot water for 15 mins. Make a smooth paste of it. Mix this paste to the normal chapathi atta (Just like normal chapathi) & prepare parathas with it.

Here is the photo of both together waiting for me to consume ;))

I'm sending this plate to Aartee for the sapadu ready event.
Thanks for the nice event.