Ridge gourd Chutney | Peerkangai Chutney | Peerkangai Thogayal

You will never know to which u ll become addictive. I never used to taste this peerkangai in my life and don’t tried this before even. But when my mom told she made chutney using the outer skin of ridge gourd, I gave a thought of trying it at my home. I asked for the recipe from her and replicated it in my kitchen. Here in US it is very tough to get Indian vegetables at the local market. So I need to travel thirty miles to get the veggies. Once I went to the Indian market I purposefully got one and tried the next day. I just loved it when I had with the simple sambar. It will be a taste savior when had at the times of nausea. 

Preparation time: less than 5 mins

Cooking time: less than 5 mins

Ingredients

1 ridge gourd (peerkangai)

2 tsp urad dal

3-5 red chillies

Marble sized tamarind

1-2 tsp grated coconut

Salt

Oil

½ tsp mustard seeds

Pinch of asafoetida

Few curry leaves

How to make it

• Wash and scrap the outer skin of ridge gourd. Chop the skin part alone into small pieces.
• In a pan roast urad dal and red chillies with little of oil till light golden brown.  Keep aside.

• In the same pan heat little of oil again and sauté the ridge gourd till the raw smell of it leaves. Add the tamarind ball as such and sauté a little.

• Cool the mixture to room temperature.
• Add the ridge gourd, tamarind, red chillies and coconut to the blender with no water and blend them into a fine paste.

• Finely add the urad dal to the paste (chutney) and grind coarsely.
• Transfer to a serve bowl and temper with mustard seeds, asafoetida and curry leaves on top.

Notes:

1. You can either grind the urad dal coarsely or smooth.
2. Make this chutney with the outer skin of ridge gourd and make kootu using the rest.