Ridgegourd or Gosale is one of the favorite vegetables for any Konkani person. It is one of those vegetables where every part of it is used – even the ridges to make a chutney . When my father in law was alive, we used to grow ridgegourd in our garden. These days we have many more banana plants, mango trees, so we no more have the empty space where these vegetables were grown. We do get very fresh ridgegourds in ‘ santhe’ (local farmer’s market) . One of our favorite dishes to make is this ambat. Traditionally made with cooked dal and ground coconut, spiced with teppal. But for making it quickly, you can even leave out coconut and it still tastes good.
Ingredients: 1/2 cup toor dal 1/4 cup coconut 1 cup chopped ridgegourd(gosale) 2-3 red chillies A pinch turmeric 2 pieces kokum (or use tamarind) 2-3Â teppal Salt
Method: Cook toor dal with turmeric in pressure cooker. Cook ridgegourd in enough water with some salt. Grind coconut with red chillies to a smooth paste. Add coconut paste, slightly crushed teppal, kokum, Â dal to ridgegourd. Â Bring it to boil. Serve hot with rice.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 20mins
Many of you asked me for a garam masala recipe. Frankly, I have used many different recipes for this popular spice blend. Some I liked, some not so much. After a while, I just started using store bought one. Then I really started liking garam masala that my friend Pallavi uses. I asked her recipe, she said her mom makes it for her. It is from a Marathi book called Annapurna by Mangala Burve. I borrowed the book and got the recipe. I changed it a bit to decrease the amounts of some ingredients and so far I really like this garam masala. It is quite different from any I have tried so far. This has lot more ingredients than any I have tried, but I like the aroma of it. It brightens up any dish with a unique aroma. I leave out the black cardamom, no one at home likes the strong aroma of this spice. I am sure it is a acquired taste, so far we are not able to get used to it.
Some other garam masala recipes that I like – Anita’s Punjabi garam masala , Ashwini’s garam masala .
Garam Masala
Ingredients
- 100 gms coriander seeds
- 10 gms cloves
- 10 gms cinnamon
- 1 tea spn shah jeera
- 5 gms white peppercorn
- 10 gms fennel seeds badishep
- 10 gms poppy seeds khus khus
- 1 whole nutmeg jayphal
- 3-4 mace japatri
Instructions
- Heat a very little oil and fry all the ingredients on a low flame till a nice aroma comes out, take care not to burn any spices.
- Cool to room temperature and grind to a smooth powder. Store in air tight container.
