Wish you all a very happy Ganesh Chaturthi.
Bottlegourd is called gardudde in Konkani. According to Ayurveda, this vegetable has many medicinal values. It is supposed to be very good for digestion. Yoga guru Shri Ramdev keeps talking about the importance of this vegetable in many of his shows. Many people take juice of this vegetable daily. This is even given to diabetic and jaundice patients.
We use bottle gourd in both spicy dishes and sweet dishes. Since today is the auspicious day of Ganesh chaturthi, I thought of posting this delicious sweetdish. I normally make burfis(gardudde khadi ) from this which is loved by all at home. But occasionally we make this paays .
Ingredients: 1 cup finely chopped bottle gourd 1 cup milk or coconut milk 1 tbl spn cashews(optional) 1 tbl spn raisins(dry grapes) 1/2 tea spn cardamom powder 1 tea spn rice flour 1-2 tbl spns jaggery
Method: Cook bottle gourd pieces in water along with cashews. In a bowl mix rice flour with about 1/4 cup of water. When the bottle gourd pieces are done, add the flour mixture and cook. Now add the jaggery, cook till it is dissolved and well mixed. Pour in milk (or coconut milk). Cook for a min. Take off heat and add cardamom powder.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 15mins
PS: rice flour is mainly added to give thickness to the sweet dish. It can be avoided.
I love parathas of all kinds. I remember those days in India, when I used to eat them every time we went out for a meal. Everyone would order some naan or roti or kulcha and I always ordered a stuffed paratha . I feel it is a lot of fun to make as well as eat them. I still remember I had spent a lot of time trying to make those perfect stuffed parathas . V also loves these, so I make them very often these days.
I have a habit of making parathas with anything and everything. But sometimes, I like to follow a particular recipe which I know works very well. One such recipe I have been following for a while now is this gobhi paratha which was sent to me by Aruna – most of my regular readers already know her, I have many of her recipes on this blog. She exactly knows what I like and I have loved all the recipes she has sent me so far. She had sent this to me about a year ago and I had lost it in the huge list of mails that I keep getting. I wish I had tried this earlier. From the time I made this for the first time, I have been making these almost every week now. Aruna also sent me the below pictures of parathas .
Check out slightly different versions of gobhi paratha by – One Hot Stove , Jugalbandi , Monsoon spice .
Ingredients: 2 cups wheat flour Ghee For stuffing: 1 cup cauliflower grated 2 green chillies chopped finely 1/2 tea spn ginger grated 1/2 tsp ajwain 3 strands coriander leaves finely chopped 1 tea spn garam masala Oil Salt
Method: Add water, salt to wheat flour. Make dough(similar to chapathi dough ). Apply oil to the dough and keep for around 1hr. Heat oil and add all the stuffing ingredients. This is required as the cauliflower needs to get a little soft else it will pop up while rolling. (You could also squeezed to remove any liquid from it).
Fill in the stuffing in the wheat flour dough and roll slowly. Cook on a hot tava . Serve hot with masala yogurt/mint chutney/ lime pickle. (In above picture, I served it with a dates and tamarind chutney ).
Serves : 2 Preparation time : 25mins
PS: If the method does not work for you, roll a chapathi from dough, keep a layer of stuffing on it. Cover it with another chapathi on top. Seal the edges. Then roll it again slightly. By this method, the stuffing will not come out.
