Peerkangai Thuvaiyal

Ridge gourd (பீர்கங்காய் ) called Peerkangai in Tamil, is a very popular vegetable in most states of India. It is a vegetable with a lot of water content and can be used completely including its skin! There are lots of dishes that can be made with this veggie, however, the one I make almost every time I buy it is the thuvaiyal (துவையல்).

Ridge gourd or பீர்கங்காய்

All this while, I have never used the skin of this veggie to make this recipe but I came across quite a lot of links where the skin has been used to make this recipe. I will deftly try it the next time and post the recipe, however, this time, I have used the veggie sans the skin! 

There is also a twist to this in the end! A cousin of my hubby spent a week with us this year and taught me some fabulous ways to make regular food interesting! She is an amazing cook in her own rights and I learnt quite a lot of things from her...especially the tempering of food! Thanks Vaisha ...u r my "tempering guru"...:-)!

Ingredients:

- 1 Ridge gourd or Peerkangai

- 1 tbsp urad dhal

- 2 to 3 dry red chillies

- 1/8 tsp hing or asafoetida

- 1 1/2 tbsp coconut

- a small piece of tamarind

- Salt to taste

- 1 tsp oil for tempering and frying the dhal

Prep time: 15 mins              Cook time: 5 mins

Preparation:

- Heat 1/2 tsp oil in a kadai and roast the urad dhal and red chillies. When the dhal is roasted, add the hing and the tamarind, toss it a few seconds and remove from heat and let it cool.

Coconut, roasted dhal, chilly, hing and tamarind

- Peel the skin of the veggie and cut the veggie into small pieces.

Cubed pieces of the veggie

- In a kadai, add the cut veggie, add salt as desired and cook for 3 to 4 mins in medium heat. The veggie will release a lot of water after you add the salt and will cook very quickly.

Cooking the veggie

- Let the veggie cool .

- Once the dhal and veggie has cooled, blend everything together with the coconut.

Cooled veggie and dhal ready to blend

- Do not add any water unless absolutely necessary.

After blending

- Once done, the dish is ready to serve with hot rice and ghee!This can be tempered with little mustard, channa dhal and curry leaves just before serving. 

After Tempering....Ready to serve!

- The crunch of the channa dhal while eating makes you go..."yeh dil maange more..."
- This dish can go very well with rice as well as idli, dosa or chapathi! When mixed with rice, you can make a side of Daanghar Pachadi to go with it!