Kaalan: Bottle gourd (Churakka ) Curry

Kaalan is a Keralite dish made of yogurt and coconut with vegetable like nendraphalazam (plantain), raw banana (paccha Kai) or chena (yam). After seeing the recipe on Mahanadi- Bottle Gourd in Yogurt I was so tempted to have this curry with bottle gourd. Kaalan is thick gravy and it tastes sour, and it is served as part of Ona Sadhya. The end result of this recipe is mouth watering and it goes well rice and pappadam.

Method

• Grind the mixture: ½ cup coconut, 1tsp cumin seeds and 4 green chilies
  

• Heat the pan with oil; add 1 cup of finely chopped bottle gourd, ½ tsp turmeric and cover cook for 5 minutes until the bottle gourd gets cooked. Add little water while cooking.
  

• Once the bottle gourd is cooked, add the ground paste and 1 – 1 ½ cup of sour thick buttermilk to this vegetable. Add salt and cook for another four to five minutes. Once it is cooked turn off the heat.
  

• In another pan, heat a tsp of coconut oil, mustard seeds, red chilies, ¼ tsp fenugreek seeds, curry leaves and sauté them. Once the mustard starts to splutter add this to the curry and keep it covered to absorb the flavor.
  

Serve with rice and pappadam