Like bhindi(okra), ivy gourds are liked by almost all people. When I found some fresh ivy gourds in Indian store, I prepared a variety of dishes with it. I used to buy this vegetable almost every time I went to market in India.
Tendli-bibbe upkari is very famous among Konkanis. During season, fresh raw cashews (called bibbe in Konkani) are available in the market. These cashews are used for ‘tendli-bibbe upkari‘. If cashews are not available, potatoes can be used for this dish. This dish is a must in the meals served at temples (anna-santarpane or devla-javan). Since onion and garlic are not used in it, this dish is prepared in almost all functions and festivals.
Here is Ashwini’s version of this dish. A few other recipes of ivy gourd can be found at Sailu’s food, Lakshmi’s Flavors of Indian Rasoi, and many more.
Ivy gourd sidedish (Tendli upkari)
Ingredients
- 1 cup ivy gourd cut into long pieces
- 1/2 cup fresh raw cashew or potato cut into long pieces
- 1 tbl spn fresh or frozen coconut
- Oil
- 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds
- 4-5 curry leaves
- A pinch asafoetida hingu
- 3/4 tea spn chili powder
- A pinch turmeric
- Salt
Instructions
- Heat oil and add mustard seeds.
- When they start popping, add curry leaves and asafoetida. Fry for sometime.
- Add ivy gourds and potato, turmeric, chilli powder and salt. (Alternatively, ivy gourds and potatoes can be cooked in cooker and used for this dish to reduce the cooking time).
- Add 1/2 cup water, close the lid and cook on a medium flame till gourds and potatoes are cooked completely.
- Add coconut and mix lightly.
- Serve as a side dish with rice or chapati.
Hi Shilpa,
I pcked up some frozen tendli from the market a few weeks ago, since fresh is not available here…any tips for me ?
Hi Supriya, You can use the frozen tendli also for this dish. Just keep the tendli in water for some time to bring them to room temperature for sometime and then use like fresh ones.
I love this upkari….its my fave. I will def give it a try with potatoes too
I always add urad dal in the tempering to most of my upkaris..
Recently, my mom told be about a slight variation to the above which I amde for Diwali. I added jeera intead of urad dal. All the other ingredients were smae as yours. On my last visit to India, I bought a lot of “Bibbe” from Goa. So I added them. I soak the bibbes in boiling water for a few minutes and then take off the skin. Added cocnut and coriander leaves at the end. I also used frozen Tendlis and was able to cook this in a jiffy, less than 10 minutes !!!
It has become my hubby’s favourite tendli recipe and I amke it for all festive occassions !!
where can i get raw cashews in US?
Nandini, I haven’t seen raw cashews yet in US. I used normal cashew for this upkari.
Shilpa, I tried your tendle-bibbe upkari and it is fabulously tasty and crunchy as I strictly followed your steps and no short-cut. Thanks. For information, export quality bibbos are available in nice half kg. packets in Mumbai at dryfruit stores which I happen to bring them this time. Many times Mangalore store do not have good quality bibbos.
About Tendli !
InjiPennu (your link) in her blogsite descibes Tendle as Ivy Gourd (this name is used in US only) which is a nuisance as weed in Hawaii islands(by the way, Hawaii has plenty of Jeeva Kadgi trees along many road sides and local do not seem to be eating). While doing plenty of web search today, I have found some useful information and pictures with due respect for links to the site:
Retrieved on 5/5/2007 from
http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Ivy%20Gourd.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccinia_grandis
http://www.cucurbit.org/family.html
http://gardenbed.com/C/4479.cfm
http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/Coccinia.html
Hi
What is bimbi in Gujarati.
I find this all over the place where indian stuff has translation in every language but indian languages except a few. I am Gujarati and proud to be indian but this leads me to think indian people from different states hate each other.
Shilpa: Jay, what is bimbi? I have no idea what you are asking. Btw…every person has a limitation of number of languages he/she knows. I know hardly 4 languages and whenever I know the names, I write them here. I try to learn as many different languages as possible. But it is not possible to learn all languages. Your conclusion about Indian people surprises me. I do not agree with this conclusion.
Hi shilpa,
Will be trying this recipe today. thanks. looks yummy, i always liked this bhaji
Thanks,
Hello,
I live in the Northern Mariana Islands on the island of Saipan and was very excited to see your Ivy Gourd recipe. Your recipe may just help us with are real environmental problem. Ivy gourd was innocently brought to our island, no doubt by someone who did not mean any harm, but wished to eat it. However island ecosystems are very fragile, more so than continents. Introduced plants may quickly become a problem. Ivy gourd has become invasive and is now listed as our number one threat to native plants. It is estimated that 40-50% of our island has ivy vines growing over the top of our native trees!!!!!
As a natural resources planner I have been working with other agencies to try and find the fastest way to hold back the growth of the vines. We will never get rid of it and will be lucky if we can control it. We have introduced natural biological controls to attack the vines, but this will take many years to control and I thought that there must be something we can do now. That’s when I thought, if we can’t beat it, let’s eat it. So I started talking to my Thai friends to ask for recipes in the hopes of creating a cook book to be produced for island residents. The book’s preface would include information about the effects of introducing non-native plants to island ecosystems and ask readers to spread the word and develop a taste for the ivy gourd. Humans, after all, we humans make very good biological controls.
Anyway, I would like to know if you would be willing to let me use your recipe in the cook book and if you agree, I would give you full credit. I have already received permission for Malay recipes from another blogger.
Thanks so much for sharing your recipe in your blog. If you have any other ivy gourd recipes, I would love to use these too.
Thanks (Si Yu’use ma’ase),
Kathy
hello Shilpa
I made this on a trial basis last week, came out very well. I am planning to make it tomorrow on a much larger scale for Ganpati.
Thanks for this and happy Ganesh Chaturthi to you and all your readers!
Just wanted you to know this turned out very well. I used about a kilo of tendlis, and normal cashews since I dint have the raw ones. Thank you very much!
Tried the above recipe. It was really good and different. I added some dry cashew nuts and also 1 poiled potato to give it a bit of nutty flavour too. Thank you for the ideas.
Hi Shilpa,
I tried tendli upkari by referring to your website. I added more water and it became randai(gravy) instead of upkari(dry dish) :-). still it was yummy. I have tried other dishes from your website too. Though I missed one or two points in each, they turned out to be gud.
Thanks Shilpa for helping ppl like me learn and try cooking. Really ur blogs make the recipes look very simple and the photos are so inspiring.
Your website has become the one point source for amchi recipes. Thanks and keep up the good work.
Jaaith. athakk ithle comments pooro. 🙂