Kovakkai oorugai / Dondakaya pachadi / Tindora or Indian ivy-gourd pickle

 

One more invention in my culinary journey :). It all started just yesterday.  I was looking in the fridge and found few kovakkai. They were very less for making a dish. I donno what to do with them. Then I thought of pickling them. I am seeing many of my blogger friends preparing nice pickles and I wanted to make one too. Kovakkai is very crispy, delicious to eat even when it is raw and it doesn't have any strong smell or taste. The only thing it lacks for making a delicious pickle is the sour taste. But it doesn't matter because lemon juice could do the magic. Thus started the idea of pickling kovakkai and you won't beleive, it turned out to be a very yummy and crispy pickle.  I have finished half of the pickle just by eating them like a salad. 

The crispiness of kovakkai is the highlight of this pickle. Even raw mango looses its crispiness when pickled but kovakkai remained very crispy and fresh in the lemon juice, mustard-fenugreek powder gravy. Friends, do try it. You will definitely love it. The preparation is also very, very easy. The below picture is taken immediately after making the pickle and the second picture is taken today morning. You can see that the kovakkai have shrunken in size and totally immersed in the gravy.

 

Ingredients :

Kovakkai / Tindora- 12 nos

Mustard- 1 tspn

Fenugreek seeds- 1/4 tspn

Lemon- 2 nos (medium sized)

Garlic- 5 pods (thinly sliced)

Green chillies- 4 nos (slit longitudinally)

Chilli powder- 1 tbspn ( or as per your taste)

Turmeric powder- a pinch

Asafoetida powder- few pinches

Mustard seeds- 1/2 tspn

Curry leaves- 10 leaflets

Oil- 4 tbsons

Salt to taste

Method :

Cut kovakkai as shown in picture. Slice the garlic pods. Squeeze the lemons and take out the juice. Fry mustard and fenugreek seeds in a pan until the fenugreek turns brown in colour. Now dry grind the fried mustard and fenugreek into a coarse powder. Heat oil in a pan. When the oil gets heated add mustard seeds. When they splutter add the curry leaves and garlic pieces. Saute well until the garlic browns. Now switch off the stove and to the hot oil add chilli powder, mustard-fenugreek powder, turmeric and asafoetida powder. Saute for a few seconds. Take care not to burn them. In the mean time add the squeezed lemon juice and enough salt to the kovakkai and slit green chilli pieces. Now transfer the entire hot temepered mixture to the bowl containing kovakkai. A very tasty pickle which goes very well with curd rice will be ready.

Taste enhancing tips for this recipe : Select only the kovakkai which are very firm and crispy. When tempering take care not to burn any ingredient. Wait for a day (if you can) before using the pickle. I have used only 12 kovakkai. If you use more adjust the ingredients according to your requirement.  Use green chillies along with kovakkai for that nice, green chilli smell. Green chilli adds a lot of flavour. Salt, oil and chilli powder should be used leniently to keep them preserved. I think they will stay  for a few weeks if you keep them refrigerated. Happy cooking !!!