Bottle Gourd Peel Chutney

My husband is someone who feels very happy if I prepare only idly or dosa for breakfast, rice & sambar for lunch and roti & kurma for dinner. Me, on the other hand would love to experience a variety of dishes. As a working woman, it is difficult for me to make two different dishes every time. So, I go by his choice all the time. Making idly or dosa in the morning is not a big deal but it really frustrates to think what to make to accompany it. My frustration and the necessity led me try different experiments. Some of them has resulted in good chutney recipes which were blogged earlier.

I got the basic idea of preparing this chutney from the Ridgegourd chutney which I posted a year ago. At a later point of time, during a random chat with a reader Radha through my facebook page, she shared couple of yummy chutney recipes using bottle gourd. Those were tried out in my kitchen for ‘n’ number of times and one is down here for you all. Thanks Radha for your recipe and I have slightly changed your recipe according to my family’s taste and hope you all like it as we did.

I made use of the skin of bottle gourd(Surai Kai Thol in Tamil) after preparing this bottle gourd stuffed paratha.

Basic Information:

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

For Chutney:

Oil – 1 tablespoon

Channa dal – 1/2 tablespoon

Urad dal – 1 tablespoon

Dry red chillies – 4 nos.

Red onion – 1 no., small size, chopped

Tomato – 1 no., small size, chopped

Garlic – 3-4 cloves

Curry leaves – 2 springs

Coriander leaves – 2 springs

Bottle gourd Peel – 1/2 cup

Tamarind – 1 small gooseberry size

Salt – to taste

Water – as required

For Seasoning:

Oil – 2 teaspoon

Mustard seeds – 1/4 teaspoon

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Method:

1) Use fresh, tender bottle gourd peel for this chutney.

2) In a kadai, heat a tablespoon of oil. Add channa dal and urad dal. Saute till both become golden brown and release nice aroma.

3) Towards the end of roasting, add the dry red chilli.

4) Add onion, tomato and garlic. Saute well till all the ingredients become soft.

5) Add bottle gourd peel, coriander leaves and curry leaves. Cook till it becomes tender.

6) When bottle gourd is almost cooked, add tamarind and give a nice saute.

7) Bring this mixture to cool down and grind it to a smooth paste. Add required salt and water while grinding.

8) In a seasoning pan, heat 2 teaspoons of oil and add mustard seeds and curry leaves when it is hot. Allow it to splutter and turn the flame off.

9) Transfer the ground chutney to a bowl and add prepared seasoning to it.

10) Serve with idly or dosa.

Note:

1) Don’t forget to add the tamarind.

2) Use tender and fresh bottle gourd peel for making this chutney.