Bottlegourd with adzuki bean in sweet and tangy tomato sauce:

I havent read Amulya Malladi’s “Serving Crazy with Curry” cookbook. Her story is so sad to hear and I am impressed Bottle gourd and Black chickpeas cooked in spicy and tangy Tomato gravy in monsoonspice . Thanks lot to Sia of monsoonspice for giving us wonderful idea of pan frying the lauki that really gives different flavour to the curry. I changed similar recipe of her's and mixed both the North Indian and South Indian dishes to make the curry extraordinary meal for rice, chappati, puris or tortillas and distinctive taste of something as it is experienced in the mouth.

Here's the recipe:

1 medium Bottle Gourd (approx 4-5 cups)

1 large Onion, finely chopped

1 cup Adzuki bean/Red chori bean, soaked with water in overnight and pressure cooked till one
whistle.

3 garlic crushed

2 green chilly

6 baby potatos(4 cooked in the pressure cook, peeled and mashed with hand or masher)

3 Large tomatos chopped into fine or 1 can chopped tomato

Masala powders:

1 tbsp kasuri Methi/Dried Fenugreek Leaves (Optional)

2 tsp amachur powder/Mango powder

1 tsp garam masla powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp red chilly powder

1/2 tbsp jaggery/brown sugar

1/4 tsp turmeric

Salt to tast

2 tsp oil for frying lauki in 3 batch

Seasonings:

1/2 tbsp oil

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp hing/asafoetida

12 curry leaves

How to cook:

Peel the outer skin of lauki and cut them into thick cubes as shown in the picture.

Heat a tsp of oil in a wide fry pan and arrange the slices and fry till color changes as shown in the above picture. Keep it in the tissue paper. Repeat the second batch arranged with another tsp of oil spread on top and fry and drain it in the same tissue paper and repeat the third batch.

Heat ½ tbsp of oil in the same pan and do the seasonings. Add crushed garlic, green chilly and 2 potato chopped into bite size. Fry well till potato color changes and add onion and saute till brown. Add tomatoes and 1 tsp of salt. Cook till tomatoes are mushy and then add all the masala powders and stir fry for 3 minutes. Add cooked adzuki bean, salt, mashed potato and lauki with one cup of water. Mix well and simmer for 15 minutes till lauki cooked well and well blended. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Variations:

Any grill vegetables like carrot, capsicum, ridgegourd, brinjal can also be added to the curry but make sure the vegetables should not be overcooked and mushy. If you dont want to grill vegetables, then you can easily pan fry them as shown in the picture.

Any one type of beans like rajma, Black-eyed peas, garbanzo bean like white, brown and green

can be added to the curry instead of redchori bean.

Sia of monsoonspice request me to participate her T & T event. Thanks lot to her for reminding me her tried and tasted event.