Kovakkai Poriyal

Today is Ganesh Chathurthi. Happy Gowri Ganesh Festival to all my blog readers. 

We have successfully started the second week of this month long marathon. For the second week I have chosen the ingredient as kovakkai - a vegetable. The other names for this vegetable is ivy gourd, tindora, etc. I chose this vegetables as the ingredient for this week because this vegetable grows in my backyard. So it would be easier for me to make a couple of recipes.

Kovakkai is a very healthy vegetable. We can also have it raw like salad. Offlate this vegetable is promoted a lot since it is very good for diabetes. So lets see this week the various recipes with these vegetable. I am starting with a simple poriyal - a side dish that goes very well with sambar and rice.

Ingredients:

kovakkai - 500g

Salt - to taste

turmeric powder - ½ teaspoon 

red chilli powder - 1½ teaspoon

shredded coconut - ¼ cup (optional)

Oil - 3 tbsp

mustard seeds - ¼ teaspoon 

urad dal - 1 teaspoon 

dried red chillies - 2 

medium onion - 1

curry leaves - few springs

Method:

• Heat oil in a pan until hot. Add in the mustard seeds, urad dal and dried red chillies. Fry until the seeds splutter and the urad dal turns golden. 
• Add in the finely chopped onions and curry leaves. Fry till the onions are soft and starting to brown.
• Add in the chopped kovakkai to the pan. Add in the salt, turmeric powder and red chilli powder.
• Add about half a cup of water. Around 100-125 ml. Close and cook until the water is absorbed and the kovakkai is cooked well.
• Fry the kovakkai on low flame for a good 10-15 minutes. Keep sauteing every 2 minutes to avoid scorching at the bottom. 
• Once its nicely cooked and fried, finally add the shredded coconut and saute for a couple of minutes more.
• Remove off heat and serve.

Enjoy it with hot steaming rice!!

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 68

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