I associated bottle gourd (gardudde in Konkani) with mostly with the burfis(khadi). It was my favorite sweetdish while growing up. So whenever we got this vegetable, which was not that frequent, aayi made sure to prepare the burfis. Thanks to the yoga guru Ramdev’s TV programs, I started hearing more about this lauki(in Hindi). Due to the medicinal values of this vegetable, I started buying it and now it has become a regular in our diet. When I asked aayi for other dishes that we make with bottlegourd, she mentioned this ambat. This gardudde ambat is made like any other Konkani dali ambats.
Dali ambat is made with toor dal, a coconut masala and a vegetable. Finally a onion or mustard seeds-curry leaves seasoning is added. The taste of dal is influenced largely by the taste of the vegetable used.
Pictorial:
Cook bottle gourd with dal and onions.
Fry coriander seeds and grind with red chillies and coconut to a smooth paste. Add it to cooked dal.
Fry remaining onions and add as seasoning.
Bottlegourd Dal (Gardudde Ambat)
Ingredients
- 2 cups peeled and chopped bottle gourd lauki or gardudde
- 1/2 cup fresh/grated coconut
- 1 cup toor dal
- A pinch turmeric
- 1/2 cup onion
- 1 tea spn coriander seeds
- 4-5 red chillies
- Oil
- 1 tea spn tamarind extract or 2-3 pieces of tamarind
- Salt
Instructions
- Cook toor dal with bottle gourd pieces, 1/4 cup onion and pinch turmeric - for 3-4 whistles.
- Heat a little oil and fry coriander seeds.
- Grind them with coconut, red chillies and tamarind to a smooth paste.
- Add the paste and salt to the dal.
- Add water to make it to required consistency.
- Cook till it starts boiling. Continue cooking for few more minutes. Take off heat.
- Heat oil separately and fry remaining onions till they turn slightly brownish.
- Pour the fried onions over the dal.
- Serve hot with rice.
Will definitely try this.In north India same we make loaki with channa dal(yellow one).A pinch of hing is necessary when channa dal is used for digestion purpose.I just pressure cook dal (soaked first)and loaki with turmeric, salt, ground ginger with green chili paste. Then throw in tarka of jeera and hing with fried onions and garam masala.
I love bottle gourd dal. Lauki with chana dal is one of my favourites. We do not usually put coconut in it. Will try your recipe. Thank you for sharing!