Tindora Ennegai/ Tondekai Ennegai

Ennegai is a North Karnataka special side dish which goes well with Jowar roti, chapathi, rice, akki rotti. Usually it is prepared with brinjal or capsicum. I tried it with Tindora or Ivy gourd which is my favourite vegetable. Ennegai recipe was borrowed from my friend from Raichur. It worked out well. Here, the process I followed, in which oil usage is minimal.

Ingredients:

Ivy gourd/ Tindora – 20

Peanuts – 2 tbsp (30 gms)

Sesame seeds – 1 tbsp (half the measure of peanuts)

* Sambar powder – 1tsp

Tamarind pulp – ½ tsp

Jaggery – small lemon sized piece (1 tsp powder)

Grated coconut/ desiccated coconut – 4 tsp

Turmeric powder – a pinch

Salt – to taste

Oil – 2 tbsp (30ml)

* Ingredients for Sambar powder, if you are not using readymade:

Coriander seeds – 1 tsp

Cumin – ½ tsp

Fenugreek seeds – 8-10

Dry red chillis – 2

Gram Dal – 1 tsp

Urad Dal – ½ tsp

Cinnamon – a small piece

Cloves - 2

Method:

Soak tamarind pulp in ¼ cup of water. Wash Ivy gourd clean and allow drying for few minutes. Slit them lengthwise (like a +) without cutting completely. Each Tindora will look like a flower with 4 petals. Keep aside. 

Stuffing preparation:

Switch on the stove. Dry roast peanuts in a pan until they turn brownish and you get a nice aroma. Keep aside to cool down. Remove the skin of peanuts as much as possible. Meanwhile, dry roast sesame seeds till they splutter or leaves nice aroma. If not using readymade sambar powder, fry all the ingredients for sambar powder with few drops of oil until they turn color to light brown and you get a fried aroma. In a dry mixer jar, mix all the roasted ingredients like peanuts, sesame, sambar powder (or fried ingredients), coconut gratings, turmeric powder and dry grind to get the powder. Mix salt to taste.

Now it is the process of stuffing the masala to tindora. Take tindora one by one, stuff little masala inside each tindora with the help of a spoon. Keep them in a large bowl, mixing little masala on all of them.

Switch on the stove. In a cooker, heat 2 tbsp of oil. Add the stuffed tindoras to the heated oil and sauté for couple of minutes. Add tamarind extract (soaked tamarind), and jaggery to the cooker. Add the left over masala after stuffing. Add little water if it is too dry. Let it pressure cook for 2-3 whistle. Serve hot with roti/ chapathi/ rice, once pressure settles down.