Padavalanga Parippu Charu/Curry

Onam is here again and it is inevitable that my blog gets adorned with atleast one recipe for the season. I am , as my ex-boss called me NRK - Non Resident Malayalee!! I have spent most of my life in Karnataka and wee bit in Dubai now. I used to look forward to Onam falling on weekends. Only then would I be able to catch all the new movies on Asianet and Surya TV. Vegetarian food was not something I was fond of so sadya was not something that I looked forward to. Occasionally, my sister and I, plucked flowers from my mom's garden and made a small pookalam in our porch. Things changed when I moved to college. With more malayalees, Kerala Kasavu Saree on Onam became a mandate, pookalam a necessity and sadya the inevitable.

I slowly began appreciating the vegetarian delicacies on the leaf and eventually falling in love with them. It took a couple of more years to familiarize with the sadya dishes and the last three onam sadyas have been eventful! Looking forward to another one this year as I post this recipe.

This recipe was shared by my cousin Vinitha - we made it twice so far and the plate was wiped clean!

Here is the recipe for Padavalenga Parippu Charu -

Ingredients

Padavalenga/Snake gourd - 700 gms cubed
Toor Dal - 1/2 cup
Onions - 1 thinly sliced
Green Chilly - 2 slit
Ginger - 1/2 tsp grated
Garlic - 1/2 tsp grated
Coconut - 1/2 cup grated tightly packed
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry Leaves - 2 sprigs
Coconut Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Water

For Tempering:

Curry Leaves - 2 sprigs
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Red chilly- 2
Coconut - 2 tsp grated
Coconut oil - 1 tbsp

Method

Wash toor dal in water, drain and set aside.
Add oil into a pressure cooker. Saute chopped onions, ginger, garlic, green chilly and curry leaves for 2 to 3 minutes.
To this, add salt and turmeric powder. Saute for another minute before adding the toor dal and snake gourd. Add enough water to just cover the ingredients.
Cover and pressure cook on high flame for 2 whistles. Let the pressure release before opening the cooker.
Coarsely grind together coconut, turmeric powder and cumin seeds. Add this to the pressure cooker. Let it boil for another 5 minutes and turn off the flame.
For tempering, heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. Once it splutters add grated coconut , red chilly and curry leaves. Fry this till the coconut begins to brown.
Add the tempering to the curry.

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