Bottlegourd koottu

This is the recipe for a koottu (side dish) I make with bottlegourd. Any watery vegetable like white pumpkin, ridge gourd can also be used.

suraikkai koottu

Ingredients:

Bottlegourd (suraikkai) - 300 gms
channa dhal - 1/2 cup

To grind:

shredded coconut - 1/2 cup
green chillies - 3
cumin - 1 tsp

To temper:

Mustard seed - 1/2 tsp
sesame oil - 1 tsp
curry leaf - 1 sprig
onion - 2 tbsp

Method:

Wash the channa dhal and cook it with some water.
Peel the skin of the bottle gourd. Chop it into small cubes. Donot discard the seeds. Tender seeds tastes good.
Grind the items given and keep aside.
After the dhal is almost cooked add the chopped bottle gourd and cook covered. As soon as it is cooked add salt and the ground masala.
Heat oil in another wok and let the mustard splutter. Then add the curry leaf, finely chopped onion and let them wilt. Pour this over the cooked curry.
Check for salt and switch off.
Bottle gourd koottu is ready!

Serving suggesetion:

Makes more than 4 or 5 servings.
Serve as side dish with any rice or roti.

Note:

*Normally a small bottle gourd will weigh more than 1/2 kg. But we may get a lot of koottu by this recipe. So cut 3/4 th of the bottlegourd and make the koottu and use the other portion to make pachadi or sambar.
*Fresh Bottle gourd salad or semi cooked one (pachadi) has the property to reduce body fat. I am not sure of this fact, but they believe so in Tamilnadu villages.

Sweet potato ladoo

Sweet potato is otherwise called sweet yam in some places. The Tamil meaning or translation is Seeni kilangu or sarkarai valli kizhangu.
The Indian sweet yams are more sweeter,flavorful, fibrous and starchy. We can distinguish them by their irregular shape and mild pink skin. They come as white or yellow yam depending on the inner color. We can use all kinds of sweet yam in this recipe.

My mom used to simply boil these yams during their peak availability and it is a guilt free snack too. But can we just satisfy ourselves with that natural yam? So one day she made some sweet balls out of it and the whole family started demanding her for this instead of the plain cooked yam:) But I like the boiled yam better than this ladoo, while as usual hubby dear started liking this one and now I have to make a few ladoos for him:)

Sweet potato ladoo along with some boiled ones.

Ingredients:

Sweet potato / Indian sweet yam - 1/2 lb
Freshly shredded coconut - 1/2 cup
sugar - 3 tbsp

Method:

Scrub and wash the yam to remove the sand.
Pressure cook or boil them in water.
If pressure cooking, halve the yam and cook them in 2 cups of water. After getting a whistle , reduce the flame and cook it in medium flame for 5 minutes. Then release the pressure and take it out.
Check by piercing a knife. It should pass freely.
Let it cool and remove the outer skin.
Mash the yam with hand and mix with coconut and sugar.
Shape into tennis ball size laddu (balls) and serve as snack.

Seeni kilangu ladoo is ready!