Stuffed Snake Gourd (Pudalangaai)

 Srimathe Ramanujaya Nama:

If you are a pudalangaai lover, this dish will blow you away, if you are on the fence, you’ll be giving it another chance and might actually like to eat this vegetable this way. Try it out and post your comment.

Ingredients:

Snake gourd (pudalangaai) : 3-4 medium sized or 1-2 long , as much as your family can consume 

Peanuts - 1 cup

Channa Dal - 1/2 cup

Red chillies - 4-5, adjust to suit your spice tolerance

Coriander seeds - 1/2 cup

Coconut shreds - dry or fresh - 1/2 cup

Sesame - 1 tbsp

Salt - 2 tsp , adjust to your taste

Each of the above ingredient is optional and you can mix and match to pick the combo you prefer  

Recipe:

Wash and cut the snake gourd into finger length sized rings. Remove the inner mushy material and keep aside.

From the inner mushy material remove all the seeds and discard. 

In a thick bottom pan, add the sesame seeds and let it splitter, remove from the pan and keep aside. Then, dry roast all the peanuts, when they crack open, add the channa dal and roast. When they turn brown, add the coriander seeds and roast for 1-2 minutes, then add the shredded coconut and fry for another minute or two. 

Remove from the pan. Now add the snake gourd’s inner mushy material and fry it to remove the raw taste, it might lump up and that’s ok. Water will release, continue sautéing until well cooked.

Now powder the roasted sesame coarsely and then add the remaining spices and powder them coarsely as well. To this, add salt and the sautéed snake gourd inner mushy material, grind together and keep ready.

To the cut and prepared snake gourd rings, now start stuffing this powdered mixture, repeat until all the snake gourd pieces have been stuffed.

Take a wide bottomed sauté pan, add some oil and place these stuffed snake gourd pieces on the pan such that the skin of the gourd touches the pan. Place them all and cover the pan. Let it cook in low to medium heat. Every few minutes, turn the snake gourd pieces to let the other sides touch the pan and cook. Some of the stuffing may start coming out. Gently push it back in with the ladle. Cover and cook until the entire gourd is soft. You will see some charring and that's ok. 

Remove from the pan when fully done, offer to Krishna and serve with hot rice or rotis or by itself as a snack.