Bottlegourd In Peanut Sauce

          Bottlegourd or Sorakkai in Tamil, is a very bland vegetable, because of that, it can blend itself into any kind of dish, be it sweet or savory, it gets it taste from the other ingredients. Usually I make a kootu or dal or more kuzhambu with it, today for a change I made a peanut gravy with the vegetable. I was not too sure of the finished dish, but it turned out to be really rich and delicious..


Need To Have

• Bottlegourd - 2 cups chopped
• Capsicum - 1/2 chopped
• Tomato - 1 big chopped
• Mustard Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Cumin Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Curry Leaves - a sprig
• Coriander Leaves - to garnish

Roast And Grind

• Peanuts - 1/4 cup
• Coriander Seeds - 1 + 1/2 tablespoon
• Cumin Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Sesame Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Fenugreek Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon 
• Green Chillies - 4 or 5
• Ginger - 1 tablespoon chopped

Grind the ingredients under roast and grind

Add the paste and saute

Add the bottlegourd and tomatoes

Method
          Dry roast the peanuts separately and the green chillies and ginger separately in a drop of oil. Roast the remaining ingredients, adding the sesame seeds last, grind everything into paste. Heat oil in a pressure pan, add the mustard and cumin seeds, once they stop sputtering, add the curry leaves, followed by the capsicum, saute for 3 mins, add the ground paste, mix for few mins. Now add the bottlegourd and the tomato, mix everything for some more time, add enough water (3 cups or more), close the lid. After one whistle, reduce the heat to low and cook for another 7 mins. Remove, garnish with the chopped coriander and serve warm with rotis or any kind of mixed rice, we had ours with ragi rotis.

Sending this to Veggie/ Fruit A Month Event created by Priya of Mharo Rajasthan and hosted by Raji of Vegetarian Tastebuds.

Note
Do not avoid the capsicum, that gives a nice flavor.
If your tomatoes are very tart, reduce them accordingly.