Potlakaya Perugu Pachadi

Snake gourd/Potlakaya should be used for cooking before they get all woody and hard when the seeds inside mature. We used to have a vegetable garden in our backyard (thanks to my mom!) back home. Whenever there were one or two snake gourds (or whenever there was lot of homemade yogurt), my mom used to make this perugu pachadi, so that it will be sufficient for all the family members. And my dad loves any sort of perugu pachadi. It’s his all-time favorite. You can try tries this recipe with different vegetables like egg plant, zucchini etc.

Now, the recipe…..

Ingredients:

For Popu/Tadka:

Oil - 1 tbsp

Chana dal - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves

Red chilies - 1

For actual Recipe:

Onions – 1 large

Chopped Potlakaya - 1 ½ cups
Yogurt - 1 ½ cups
Green Chilies - 6
Turmeric powder: 1 tsp

Water – ½ to 1 Cup
salt

Method:

1. Wash potlakaya/snake gourd. Chop it into small round pieces. Squeeze and remove any and keep aside.

2. Heat oil in a frying pan. Add red chilli, mustard seeds, and cumin seeds and let them splutter and add chana dal, urad dal. Add curry leaves as well.
3. Now, add green chillies.

4. Add chopped onions, turmeric, salt (onions really taste good in this dish if they are cut length wise into half-moon shape. Please see the picture).

5. When the onions turn golden brown, add potlakaya/snake gourd pieces. Fry them on medium heat till they are cooked well. It took me 20 minutes to fry them. If you want you can put the lid for first few minutes.

7. Meanwhile, add water to yogurt and beat it well. Add water little by little till you get the desired consistency.

8. When the potlakaya pieces are done, add the beaten yogurt and fry it on low heat for couple of minutes.

Note: Instead of bottle gourd pieces, you can add eggplant (vankaya) or zucchini pieces as well. They taste equally good. If you don’t have any vegetables, you can make the plain perugu pachadi with just onions (in that case, avoid step 5 and add yogurt to onions). You can avoid adding water to yogurt; in that case it will be little bit thick. You can also reduce the turmeric; I like it to be yellow.