Snake Gourd Kootu - Podalangai Kadalai paruppu Kootu - Farm to Plate

Of all the gourd varities to grow snake gourd has proven to be kind of the hardest. It is a very delicate plant and the seeds don't germinate all that easily. One year the plants just did not set fruit that much, the second year I planted ridge gourd and snake gourd close together and the ridge gourd completely overwhelmed the snake gourd plant. This year I thought I had handled all of those well when the young plants started getting eaten by cucumber beetles. This is what happens when we have mild winters. The cold winter temperatures gets rid of bugs and beetles that are harmful. If you do not want to spray the best hope is that mother nature and climate will take care of it. Natural sprays like neem only does so much. So what you can control is the growing conditions.

The best bet against bugs is to improve the soil health. The healthier the soil the better off the plant is in dealing with bugs and beetles. Once the early problems of beetles were handled, a combination of neem spray and just picking them off the plant was able to handle it all by itself :)

Though I have grown snake gourd pretty much every year in fact but it seems like I rediscovered snake gourd in a new way. While it tastes delicious in a simple stir fry with just 2 other ingridients even though we never tired of it but occasionally it is fun to change things a bit isn't? That is how I chanced upon this kootu recipe.

The idea for this kootu came from Revathy Shanmugham's Lunch Combo. She uses moong dal (paasi paruppu), I have used channa dal (kadalai paruppu).

The recipe in pictures,

Set the channa dal to cook. Clean and slice the snake gourd.
Roast cumin and split urad dal. Add coconut and green chilies to it and blend to a paste.
Add snake gourd and salt to the cooked dal.
Pressure cooke for a whistle.
Add the bleended paste. Prepare the seasonings.
Add the seasonings, mix and turn off the heat.

Pretty simple procedure.

Snake Gourd Kootu - Podalangai Kootu
Preparation Time:15 minutes
Cooking Time:20 minutes
Ingredients

1. 2 medium sized snake gourds (about 3-4 cups of sliced)
2. 1 1/2 cups of channa dal (kadalai paruppu)
3. 2-3 green chilies
4. 1/2 tbsp of urad dal (ulundu)
5. 2 tsp of cumin seeds
6. 1/4 cup of grated fresh or frozen coconut
7. salt to taste
8. 1 tsp of turmeric powder
9. 1 tsp of oil
10. seasonings: mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves

Method

1. While prepping the snake gourd, set the channa dal to cook, wash add turmeric powder and 1/4 tsp of oil and let it cook. The dal should be cooked but not mushy, should retain its shape. In a pressure cooker just 1 sound should be good.
2. Split the snake gourd into halves length wise, remove the seeds and then cut into half moons. Not too thin.
3. In a small sauce pan roast the cumin seeds and urad dal till the dal turns golden. Take it in a blender.
4. Add in the coconut and green chilies and add a bit of water and blend to a fairly smooth paste.
5. To the cooked dal add the sliced snaked gourd and salt and cook for anothe whistle.
6. Once the steam has subsided, add the blended paste and salt and cook for 5 minutes.
7. In a sauce pan, add oil and add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves and when the mustard seeds pops add to the dal and turn off the heat.

Serve with rice.

Extremely simple recipe but so good. Like what you are reading? Subscribe!