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Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Yogurt With Snake Gourd ~ Potlakaya Perugu Pachchadi

When I go grocery shopping, I always pickup at least 6 gallons of milk. I had strangers asking me curiously what I do with that much of milk or people with a smile on their face commenting 'that's a lot'.
As far as I know, majority of the Indians enjoy their share of dairy products. It may be milk, yogurt, buttermilk, cream, butter/ghee or paneer (Indian cheese). What ever it is, every body loves one or the other form. Growing up, I don't recall any magazine or television telling us how important milk is or having a particular number of servings would make you thinner. We also didn't have mesmerising ads for smoothies or fruit on the bottom kind of yogurts. Still we did have our daily share of dairy. With out the knowledge of food pyramids, calories and other nutritional data, majority of Indian moms always try to imbibe the kids with this fact that how milk can make them 'taakatwar' or stronger. One which makes you stronger must be good, that's all we knew when we were little. Science classes later taught that milk is a good source of calcium which is important for bones. I enjoyed and still do when it comes to dairy products. Yogurt, being my favorite.
Naturally fermented yogurt / dahi/ perugu has been part of the Indian food from the earliest times. It is a norm in South Indian families to finish their meal with yogurt (and cooked rice) since it aids digestion and has a cooling effect after a spicy meal. In India, apart from the culinary usage, yogurt is eaten as it is, made into delicious lassis, khadis, raitas and more.
We don't throw away even our sour yogurt, :) Either it goes into majjiga pulusu (Andhra Kadhi) or perugu pachchadi (Can be called raita but made with sour yogurt). A roasted / cooked vegetable is added to the spiced up sour yogurt. The popular choices of veggies added are eggplant, snake gourd and bottle gourd. This is some what similar to my earlier post 'Vankaya Perugu Pachchadi' (Baingan raitha). In Andhra homes, usually it is eaten with rice and muddha pappu (toor dal cooked to a thicker consistency and salt added). Rice and dal are mixed well with a generous amount of ghee and then each 'muddha' (morsel) is dipped in this pachchadi and eaten. (Mu in muddha pronounced as in 'Municipal' and 'ddha' as in 'that' with a stress). It can be also eaten with rotis.

Ingredients :Snake gourd chopped into circles - 1/2 cupYogurt (preferably sour) - 1 cupSmall piece of ginger
2 or 3 Green chillies
Oil - 1 Tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
A little asafoetida
A few curry leaves
Cilantro to garnish
Salt
Preparation:
Heat oil in a small pan and add mustard seeds, asafoetida and curry leaves. When mustard seeds start to splutter, add snake gourd and turmeric powder. Cover and cook on low flame till the snake gourds are done.
Mean while, grind the green chillies and ginger into a paste. If it is difficult to grind add a little yogurt to facilitate grinding.
Whisk or beat the yogurt with a spoon for a few seconds to reach a smooth, uniform consistency. Add salt, ginger - chillie paste, snake gourd mixture to the yogurt and mix well.
Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice & dal combo or rotis.

This goes to Nupur's A-Z vegetable series for the 'Y' entry.
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19 comments:

Sharmi said...

hey, that looks so comforting. I used to have this in India. you reminded me. great recipe.

Tee said...

This is something new for me...looks yummy!

Jyothi said...

Hi Suma! snake gourd with yogurt looks awesome. Whatever you told about our Indians tastes regarding diary products is absolutely accepted. Thanks for sharing and a great entry too.

masalapav said...

hi suma, i am here for the first time....i recently tried this at home and messed up the vegetable big time by adding the yogurt mix from the beginning...i will follow yours when i do it the next time!!

Richa said...

hey, ur dish looks yum! nice to know one more recipe for snake gourd.

Suganya said...

Rightly said Suma. When I first came here, I was surprised by these 'flavoured' yogurt.

Nupur said...

The combination of yogurt and vegetables is always so delicious! Thanks for sharing this recipe, Suma.

FH said...

You are right.My mom made yogurt every single day,never thought of making curds as a big talent as some of us think here!:D
We drank milk not thinking as nutrition and ate Ice Creams not thinking as fat! It's terrible these days which make us guilty for eating anything and everything.Eating little butter or ghee everyday is good for your skin to keep it supple too!
Anyway, Pachadi looks yum! After many years,I got one Padavalkai few months back!:))

Sia said...

i agree with what u said. its a everyday task to make curds at home n it was never considered as something extraordinary:)
coming to the recipe...let me drool for few more mins plz:)

ushaprashanth said...

Hi !
yes! you are right! not a day goeswiyhout yoghurt in my house! this recipe is very different! very good entry for the event!

Roopa said...

wow i am drooling at the photo! it is looking delicious!:)

Dee said...

simple, soul satisfying pachadi

USHA said...

Hi Suma..

Nice traditional recipe..looks cool..Thanks for sharing.

Shivapriya said...

Yummy suma. Fresh coconut and snakegourd goes really well.

Anonymous said...

My husband loves it whenever I make it. That is one lovely dish that we enjoy at our home. Good entry.

Anonymous said...

Hi Suma -- I'd be one of those "strangers" (aka non-Indian) in the store, but I wouldn't be asking what you do with the milk, as I like to make my own yogurt too :) I love snake gourd... the pachadi looks really tasty so I will have to try. BTW it's nice to know the pronunciation of muddha, too, thanks for that! :)

Viji said...

Suma many gravies this week. Very yummy. Viji

SeeC said...

Very inviting one.
LOL - 'Thats a lot'

Unknown said...

juz now made it,n relishing it wid,kichidi!yummm..