Beerkaya Pachadi/Peerkangai Chutney-2/Ridgegourd Chutney-2 - Side dish for Idly/Dosa

As i said in my first post, interesting part about week 1 is the chutney's. In that genre, i bring you a spicy chutney using ridge gourd. I have already made chutney using ridge gourd peel. But, making chutney with whole of ridge gourd is something new to me. When i made it, none believed that it is ridgegourd chutney. Now i have another delicious recipe for chutney which has already made second appearance in 2 weeks. I m sure, you will also like it, when you try.

A word of caution with the chilies in the recipe, ridge gourd as such is a bland vegetable, so you need to add a good amount of spice to make it chutney-worth. Since i paired it with Bellam Dosa/Jaggery dosa, i had another responsibility of balancing the flavors. So, if you are worried with the chilies, reduce it to 4, not less than that. Now, go ahead enjoy the recipe.

Ingredients

2 cups of chopped ridgegourd (with the skin) or 1 large ridgegourd, chopped into roundels

6-8 nos red chillies

2 cloves of garlic

handful of curry leaves

¼ cup of freshly grated coconut

handful of fresh coriander leaves

a small marble sized tamarind, without strings & seeds

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon gingely oil

Tempering

½ teaspoon gingely oil

¼ teaspoon mustard seeds

½ teaspoon white sesame seeds

a pinch of hing

2 -3 curry leaves

1 red chili

Method

Heat a pan, add ½ teaspoon oil, throw in the red chilies, garlic, curry leaves in the ingredients list. Saute for a minute.
To this add chopped ridge gourd/beerakaya, saute a minute, simmer the flame, cover and cook for 8-10 minutes. The water content will enable the gourd to cook.
Take it off the stove after 10 minutes. Let it cool, to this add coconut, coriander, tamarind and salt. Grind it in a mixer to a coarse chutney. Do not add water, the water content in the gourd is enough for the chutney.
Incase your mixer stucks in the middle, add 2-3 tablespoon of water and grind the chutney. Remove it on to a clean bowl. Now for the tempering, heat oil in a tadka pan, splutter mustard seeds, add sesame seeds, hing, curry leaves and chili. Pour the sizzling tadka over the chutney. Serve it along idly/dosa or along with rice for a scrumptious meal.