Podavalanga vellari koottu curry

I was checking some old recipes in my blog and realized that exactly a month ago I published my first post.  I should say good going for a month. Felt happy. I would like to thank all the readers and blogger friends who have given me valuable feedback.

Kootu curry is a traditional dish in the southern side. It is again a dish made out of a combination of coconut, lentils (gram dal or green gram dal), and vegetables which have more of water content in them like ashgourd, snakegourd, bottlegourd etc… I tried this recipe with snakegourd and Kani vellari. Kani vellari is another form of cucumber.

 Ingredients:

Kani vellari – 400 grams

Podavalanga – 150 grams

Gram dal – 50 grams

Cumin seeds – 5 grams

Coconut – 50 grams

Red chillies – 2 nos

Turmeric powder and Salt to taste

To temper:

Oil – 10 grams

Mustard – 5 grams

Curry leaves – few

Method:

• Soak the gram dal for about 30 minutes.
• Chop the Kani vellari and Podavalanga.
• In a pressure cooker, add the gram dal and the chopped vegetables. Add salt and turmeric powder and pressure cook for about 2 whistles.
• Meanwhile coarsely grind the coconut, cumin seeds and red chillies.
• Add the grinded coconut paste to the boiled vegetables and gram dal and allow it to boil. Add water accordingly.
• In a kadai, pour oil and add mustard. When the mustard splutters add the curry leaves. Pour this into the koottu curry.

Koottu curry can be served as a side dish for rasam rice or it can be had with chapathi also.