Peerkangai Thogayal - Ridge Gourd Chutney

Peerkangai (or Ridge Gourd) is one of the vegetable with whom I have a love-hate relationship. I love it in certain forms and I cannot eat it in the other forms like in the gravy/curry. The reason for this happened when I was staying as a Paying Guest in Bangalore as I did my internship during the year 2008. The aunt who used to cook for us, used to prepare Peerkangai without peeling out the skin and put it in the dhal/gravy directly. The sight of it, made me lose the charm on this vegetable. 

However, my mother used to do a wonderful Thogayal out of this vegetable. I have never got a liking towards Podi's (powders like Curry leaves podi or paruppu podi or coriander powder which can be mixed with rice) or Thogayal's right from my childhood. My sister is my direct opposite and she used to love those. When I wanted to taste the powders mixed with rice or the thogayals for just a few spoons, I would just ask my sister to mix for me and take it from her.  Somehow, it tasted better when she prepared for me rather than I did it myself! :)

I have tried to do this before once and it din't turn out that well. Recently, during my vegetable hunt, I stumbled upon this vegetable and wanted to give myself another try. Who knows, it might turn out to be my favorite!! Much to my surprise, it tasted yummy this time (Thanks to my mom for this simple recipe). It tastes the best when mixed with rice. Alright, here we go with the recipe:

Time to Prepare: 20 minutes

Number of servings: Serves 2

Ingredients required:

Peerkangai/Ridge Gourd - 1

Urad Dhal - 2 1/2 tbsp

Tamarind - size of a small marble

Red Chillies - 2 long ones

Oil - 1 tbsp 

Salt 

Mustard - 1 tsp for tempering

How to Prepare:

1. Cut the Ridge Gourd and scoop out the inside portion. Cut it into small pieces.

2. Put Oil in the pan and add the Urad dhal once the oil gets hot.

3. Add the Red chilies to the oil and make sure you keep frying it till the urad dhal becomes golden brown.

4. Remove the Chilies and dhal from the heat and let them cool down.

5. In the same pan with oil, add the Ridge gourd and a little salt. 

6. cook the Ridge gourd till it softens for another 3-4 minutes. Make sure not to add any water into the mixture as the peerkangai will itself release some water when it gets cooked. 

7. Once it is cooked, add it with the other mixture and let them cook down completely.

8. Grind the cooked ingredients with the tamarind in to a nice paste. 

9. Temper some Mustard in oil and add it to the mixture. You can also add some Curry leaves with the mustard during tempering.

 Note: You can add in some more chilies as per your taste because I made it a bit less spicy. You can add one more red chili to give it a spicier version. Make sure not to cover the lid when cooking as the water from the steam may get into the gourd. 

Sometimes, this has become my ready-to-go mixture with rice for my office lunch. You can prepare and store it in the fridge for almost 4-5 days. Enjoy with steaming hot rice and some vegetable stew. You will not need a more satisfying combination than this!! :)