Tondekai huli gojji/ Ivy gourd tamarind stew

This is one of the quickest & easiest side dish of ivy gourd that one can churn in less time. This is my & my mom’s favorite which used to be maternal grand mother’s favorite too it seems. My mother used to make it often, as Tondekai/ tindora or ivy gourd was a regular vegetable in the backyard and mostly even today, people in Mangalore have the habit of growing this vegetable and Malabar spinach always which supplies major portion of regular needs of vegetables. Point here is, this dish can be prepared even with ripe/ semi ripe tindoras which doesn’t work well for other dishes such as majjige huli, palya…

Coming to today’s recipe, it is quick at the same time appetizing as generous amount of tamarind is used. This dish is sweet, sour & bit spicy, goes well with Boiled rice & ghee.

 

Preparation & cooking time: 20 minutes

Serves:2-3

Ingredients:

Ivy gourd/ tondekai/ tindora – 12-15

Onions – 1 medium

Green chillis – 2

 Tamarind – large gooseberry sized (2 tsp concentrated extract)

Jaggery powder – 3 tsp

Salt – to taste

Coconut oil – 1-2 tsp

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Dry red chilli – 1-2

Curry leaves – 1 sprig

Method:

• Wash Ivy gourds (tondekai), and pressure cook with 2 glasses of water for 3-4 whistles.
• Allow cooling.
• Meanwhile, peel onions wash and chop it finely.
• Slit green chilli lengthwise.
• Soak tamarind in warm water and squeeze well to get the extract.
• Grate jaggery and keep everything ready.
• Once soft cooked ivy gourds are cooled, remove from water and transfer to a wide bowl. Mash cooked vegetable so that it will combine well with other ingredients.
• Now, add tamarind juice, jaggery, onions, green chillis and salt. Adjust the consistency as desired.
• No boiling needed after this. 
• Prepare a seasoning of mustard, red chilli & curry leaves in coconut oil. On spluttering add it to the goji.
• Serve with rice and ghee. Enjoy lazy quick meal😊