Dondakaya Nuvvula Kura| Ivy Gourd with Sesame Seeds Powder

Dear Foodies,

I've written about ivy gourd being one of my favorite veggies in the past and how I'm trying to make up for all the lost opportunities to enjoy this dish. But looking at the recipes list I found just one recipe for it and was surprised they weren't more. The fast is I rarely find fresh, tender ivy gourd here and when I do I gravitate towards my mother's way of cooking them. After all the prep work to get the sliced, her recipe is quick and hits the spot. It's a wonderful side dish with chapati's or rice paired with sambar/rasam/pulusu.

More often that not, I slice them in rounds as they get really tender when cooked that way, almost melting away in your mouth. When sliced lengthwise though you get to enjoy a completely different texture of ivy gourd. It holds its shape over longer cooking times which lends to pilaf style rice dishes. Either way the prep time is probably the most time consuming part of cooking this vegetable. If you take the short-cut and buy the frozen pack instead, you'll just be wasting your time and ingredients.

Dondakaya Nuvvula Kura

Prep time: 15-20mins

Cook time: 20mins

Servings: 3-4 (side)

Ingredients:

• 4 cups - Ivy Gourd, washed & sliced lengthwise
• 1 Tbsp - Oil
• 1 tsp - Urad dal & Channa dal
• 1/4 tsp - Mustard seeds
• 1/4 tsp - Cumin seeds
• 2 - Dried red chillies
• 6-8  Curry leaves
• 1/4 tsp - Turmeric Powder
• 1/8 tsp - Asafoetida/Hing/Inguva
• 2-4 Tbsp - Sesame powder (Nuvvula Podi)
• Salt to taste
• Cilantro leaves for garnish

Method:

1. Heat oil in a wide skillet, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad and channa dal. When the seeds begin to pop and the dals turn a deep red, add broken red chillies, curry leaves, asafoetida and turmeric. 
2. Add sliced ivy gourd next and sprinkle a little salt over them. Cover and steam for 8-10mins until tender, turning them over every few minutes. Sprinkle water if it the veggies look dry.
3. Once the pieces are tender to touch, sprinkle sesame powder starting with 2 Tbsp and adding more based on taste. Mix well to incorporate the spice mix and cook covered for a few more minutes on low heat.
4. Transfer to a serving dish with a garnish of cilantro. It goes really well as a side dish for roti's or warm rice.

Note: If you don't have pre-made sesame powder, make a quick version by toasting 1/4 cup sesame seeds, 1/4 tsp cumin seeds, 1-2 red chillies in 1 tsp oil and blend to a fine powder. -- To make the dish more special, add cashews along with the dals.  -- Adjust the amount of salt added in step 2 according to the saltiness of the sesame powder. -- The same cooking method can be used for potlakaya (snake gourd), beerakaya (ridge gourd), vankaya (eggplant) and sorakaya (bottle gourd).

I made tomato rasam and rice to complete the meal and it was a perfect Sunday lunch. Sesame powder adds a earthy flavor to the vegetable and its addictive. When I have a fresh batch of the podi I add it almost every dish I make. Its used as a staple seasoning used in many Andhra dishes and makes vegetables extra special. Fresh farm ripened tomatoes that are in season now are perfect for the rasam and you won't need any tamarind. Its good enough to have as a soup on its own and that's exactly what I did. If I stick to my plan I'll have another recipe for ivy gourd coming up next. Hope you've had a good start to your week.

Dondakaya vepudu/Ivy gourd stir fry

Dear Foodies,

How many of you like dondakaya/tindora/ivy gourd ? I know I love it! But this vegetable has such a tarnished reputation and powerful lobbyists who saw to it that it never showed up at any home with school going kids, atleast in Andhra they succeeded. It was told to induce dullness as opposed to the ladysfinger which could turn you into a Math wiz (!!). So every mother would sneak in bhendakaya/ladysfinger as often as she probably could and relegate the dondakaya to an occasional day far far away from any Math exam. The poor guy could not fight all that bad energy :( But now that I am done with all schooling, I am going to enjoy this dish in peace :) (and hey! its actually not bad for you)

The ivy gourd is a very versatile vegetable and it cooks in a jiffy. You can use it in a simple stir-fry like I did, or go for an elaborate stuffed version or an usli preparation. you can either use it in a traditional kootu or in a masala gravy or even in a fried rice, the options are just endless. In Hyderabad, you are most certain to find the dondakaya vepudu with a good amount of cashews thrown in, at every wedding menu.

My mom usually made the stir-fry/vepudu with it and thats my favorite way of eating it too. She would cut them into discs and not length-wise. I think the shape you cut it does change the texture of the dish. The discs cook faster, evenly and are crisp and tender at the same time. When cut length wise I think the chances of thicker pieces are more and I just hate biting into an undercooked piece, okay, I am just biased towards the discs (Mom's always rule) :) and so the frozen tindora is not something that I like. Whenever I get access to fresh dondakaya this is how I cook it,

Ingredients:

• 3 cups - Dondakaya/Tindora/kovakkai
• 1/2 Tbsp - Oil
• 2 tsp - Mustard seeds
• 2 tsp - Channa dal and urad dal (I like the crunch they give, you can adjust the qty accordingly)
• Pinch of Asafoetida/Hing/Inguva
  
• 1 tsp - Turmeric powder
• 2 tsp - Chilli powder or to taste
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. Wash and dice the ivy gourd as per your preference :D. Place a wide pan with the oil on medium heat.
   
2. Splutter the mustard seeds, add the dals and allow them to brown. Add the hing, turmeric and the cut gourd to the pan and saute.
3. Add the salt and cover and cook for about 6-8mins. Stir in between to avoid burning any of the pieces.
4. Once they are tender to the touch, uncover the pan and cook for 5 more minutes to crisp up the pieces. Add the chilli powder towards the end and mix well.

Serve hot with rice or chapati. I had it with rice and iruvili kuzhambu, the recipe for which I got from my friend Jaya (while you are there check out her travelogue). Its her mom's recipe, so no doubts there about how it turned out... absolutely fantastic! Kuzhambu is nothing but pulusu, for the telugu speaking. Its a dish that has a tamarind base and has no lentils added to it as is the case in sambar. It mostly has an addition of lightly sauted fresh or dried vegetables. (I used onions)

I love anything that is tangy and my personal favorite is an onion pulusu that my mom makes using sambar powder. This one is very similar to that but the freshly ground spices lend the kuzhambu a nice texture and taste..yummmy. The combo of the kuzhambu and vepudu was great. I was actually planning on taking this for lunch the next day, but once I tasted the tangy kuzhambu I had to serve myself some immediately. Do try it out!

Happy Thursday and have a great weekend !