Many years ago (1997) while we had a short sujourn in UAE, we used to visit Woodlands in Sharjah.
Here they used to serve this particular thoran (if we were lucky, as the menu kept changing) and I was not interested in cooking at all then and did not bother getting the recipe.
Years later I stumbled on a preparation made with spinach (cheera thoran) by my neighbor. I used the same base and substituted the spinach with ivy gourd / kovakkai and the end result tastes quite similar to Woodland's kovakkai.
Recipe courtesy : Jesamma Boban
Ingredients:
Kovakka(i) / Ivy gourd / tindora - 300 gms
Salt to taste
Coconut oil - 4 tbsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Red chilly - 2, broken
Curry leaf - 1 sprig
To be ground into a coarse paste without water:
Coconut - 1/3 cup
Curry leaf - 1 sprig
Red Chilli - 4
Small onion - 5
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Garlic (opt) - 1 pod
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
Jeera - 1 tsp
Method:
Wash the ivy gourd well and cut into thin slices.
Heat the coconut oil and add the mustard seeds and red chillies.
Once it crackles, add the coarsely ground paste and salt. Saute on a medium flame, stirring continuously for 1 minute.
Now add the ivy gourd. Mix well. Reduce flame and cook covered for 10 minutes.
Open, mix well and cook on a medium flame till all water evaporates and it starts getting fried.
It is better to not brown the vegetable too much, as this means the coconut will blacken.
The thoran is ready!
No comments:
Post a Comment