Roma's Space

Snake Gourd Fry

This is by nature one of the tastier gourds as compared to bottle gourd, bitter gourd and its other gourd counterparts. The natural taste of this vegetable is the best and hence it should not contain too many spices. Here is a simple recipe which gives you a delicious Snake Gourd sabzi.

Ingredients :

• 2 long, slim snake gourds
• 1 teaspoon rai
• 1 teaspoon jeera
• Pinch of Haldi powder
• 1 teaspoon dhania powder
• Pinch of hing
• Few curry leaves
• 1 green chilly
• Finely chopped Coriander leaves
• 1 tablespoon curds (optional)

Procedure :

1. Peal away the skin of the gourd well. Cut it into small cubes.
2. Heat oil. Add rai, jeera, curry leaves, slit green chilly and hing.
3. Add gourd cubes, haldi powder, dhania powder, salt and stir well. Cover and cook till done.
4. Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves.

Variation :

Once the sabzi is cool add a tablespoon of curds to get a delicious, semi-gravy dish to go with rice/rotis’.

Lauki Ka Bharta

This is for all those people who run away at the very thought of eating bottle gourd. Despite its nutritional value we tend to avoid it for its bland taste.

Lauki Ka Bharta is another dish invented by accident. About 6 years ago, I was cooking a meal for myself and my father when my mother was out of town. There was this bottle gourd at home and I simply didn’t know how to cook it. I remember mom telling me that it takes long to get done but I didnt have the patience to wait that long. So lauki ka bharta was created.

Surprisingly, it tasted well. My cook these days, makes it with a twist of his own which does justice to the original recipe.

Ingredients :

• 1 medium sized Lauki (Bottle Gourd)
• 1 teaspoon Rai
• 1-2 Green Chillies
• Few Curry leaves
• 2 Tomatoes
• 1 Onion
• 1 teaspoon Ginger-Garlic paste
• 1/2 teaspoon Haldi powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Mirchi powder (optional)
• 2 teaspoon Dhania powder

Procedure :

1. Pressure cook lauki. Mash and let it cool.
2. In a kadai heat oil. Add rai, chillies, curry leaves, onions and saute well.
3. Now add ginger-garlic paste and fry for a few minutes. Add tomatoes and fry till they go brown.
4. To this add haldi powder, mirchi powder, dhania powder, salt and the mashed lauki.
5. Mix well, beating the lauki with your cooking spoon (poor lauki!)
6. Since the lauki is already cooked this dish is ready quickly. After the mixture comes together, turn off the heat, garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rotis.

Lauki Channa Dal

Lauki is a bland vegetable that tastes best with channa dal. In most parts of North India this dal is made thick in consistency and eaten with rotis. This can afterwards be eaten with rice as well. So when you dont want to prepare two separate dishes this is the way to go.

Ingredients :

• 3/4 cup channa dal
• 1 cup lauki (peeled and cut into cubes)
• Few red chilly flakes broken into half
• Pinch of haldi powder
• Pinch of hing
• 1 teaspoon rai (Big)
• 1 teaspoon jeera
• 1 lemon

Procedure :

1. Soak channa dal for an hour.
2. Pressure cook lauki cubes with tomatoes and channa dal giving it about 4 whistles.
3. Heat oil. Add rai, jeera, haldi, hing, red chillies and onions. Fry well. Now add the dal and fry again.
4. Squeeze in the juice of a fresh lime, garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with roti or rice.

Variation :

Instead of using lemon to give the tang in this dal you can try cooking the dal with kokum.

Toor Moong Combo

This dal serves as a welcome change to the usual dal we make at home. The green moong dal combined with the heat of ginger and pepper corns gives toor dal a twist in taste.

Ingredients :

• 1/2 cup toor dal
• 1/2 cup moong dal (whole, green one)
• 2 tomatoes
• One onion
• Green chilly (optional)
• 2 teaspoons of black pepper corns
• 3-4 cloves
• A small piece of ginger
• Pinch of haldi powder
• Pinch of Hing

Procedure :

1. Wash the dals and mix them in a pressure cooker. Add salt, turmeric powder and tomatoes with some water and pressure cook till its done. You will need give it 3-4 whistles approx
2. Make a paste of black pepper corns – ginger- cloves in mortar pestle.
3. Heat oil. Add jeera seeds, hing, onions, ginger paste, fry well. If you like more fire, add green chillies.
4. Fry the dal in this tadka. Give it a boil, garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rice.

Please NOTE :

1. You need to give 3-4 whistles to the dal combination since green Moong dal takes longer than toor dal to cook. In this case, toor may get a bit mashed but its important that moong is done completely. Alternately, you can soak moong for a few hours and then cook the combination with fewer whistles.

Choch O Chill O !

This drink is for all you chocoholics who want to beat the heat this summer, in style! Enjoy your Coffee on the rocks (rocks here refers to ice cubes please )

Ingredients :

• 3/4 Glass milk
• 1 tablespoon fresh cream
• 1 tablespoon chocolate syrup
• 1 teaspoon coffee powder
• 2 teaspoons sugar

Procedure :

1. Blend milk, cream, sugar, chocolate syrup and coffee powder in a mixie jar. Now taste the mixture and add more sugar if required.
2. Pour chocolate sauce along the inner sides of a tall glass, leave some sauce at the bottom too. Place a generous amount of ice cubes inside the glass. Pour the drink into your chocolate laden glass and serve.

Please NOTE :

1. The milk and cream should both be chilled to get a good blend else the milk can make the cream split.
2. Serve the drink immediately after blending it. If it reaches room temperature it will make the ice cubes melt quickly making your drink dilute.
3. Since most of the space is taken up by ice cubes the drink you make with one glass measurement can actually serve two.
4. I used Bru instant coffee, Amul fresh cream and Hersheys chocolate syrup in this drink and was satisfied with the result.