'Padwalkai' is Kannada for 'Indian Snake gourd'. .. the long green gourd which i have'nt managed to find in London yet, not even at the Taj Stores on brick lane. Padwalkai Warka is what i miss most when i think of home food... and reason enough for this wonderous recipe to be my first contribution on this blog.and because i cant cook it here, instead of pictures of the dish i have for you a drawing of akka when she was very small.. another true warka lover.
Padwalkai Warka is a very local dish from 'Konasagara' (literal translation: sea of buffaloes'!), the village my father comes from. It was when my mother married my father and went to the village (she was 17 and this was 46 years ago), that she was taught how to make this dish. It is best eaten with ragi balls, with a bit of pickle and fried chillies on the side. It is also wonderful with white rice.
So here's the recipe:
1 snake gourd: Peel this strange wonderful vegetable, cut it open and deseed it.
Cut it into small-medium pieces. ( to give you an idea of small- medium:about 2.5 cms roughly)
In a small bowl, pour a little bit of water for soaking in the following ingredients:
6 pods garlic
1 spoon whole black pepper
chopped ginger
4 green chillies
2 spoons raw rice
1 spoon ghasghas
Keep the bowl aside and let these soak in a bit.
Heat some oil in the pressure cooker.
Fry in a bit of mustard seeds, curry leaf and few pods of chopped garlic.
Put in the cut gourd and fry it for just one minute.
Pour in 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of milk (coffee cup)
Pressure cook this for just one whistle.
Open the cooker and mash up the cooked gourd.
Add salt to taste and a little sugar (quarter tea spoon)
Put 1 table spoon of fresh grated coconut into the soaking bowl mixture, and grind all the bowls ingredients in the mixer.
Mix the ground mixture with the cooked gourd and give it one more boil.
Check for salt and spice. If more spice is desired split a fresh green chillie and drop it in.
Eat with hot steamed rice, pickle and papad.
and think of meg.
with love.
6 comments:
megii I love the drawing and the recipe sounds very good, will try and locate vegi in delhi, you know alternative names? sounds yummy...
pal, its a long light green gourd. i hope you get it in the north aswell. very long and thinnish: each one can be as long as your arm. i made upma today....will put that on the blog soon.xx
Great recipe! and nice picture. Here is a picture of padwalkai
http://www.evergreenseeds.com/sngosgo.html
Gosh this is so much fun! I think we get that gourd here in Toronto, we make a deadly raita with it too.
Shall check it out.
Loves
meghu, you make me homesick in a wonderful sort of way ....you wrapped up the experience so beautifully along with the recipe. Love, mayu
Lovely drawing! I tried this recipe and it turned out very tasty. Another time I added two tbsp of channa dhal that was soaked for 20 mins, along with the vegetable and it tasted excellent . Everyone at home loved it . I love traditional recipes , thank you for posting such a good recipe.
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