The bottle gourd is a common vegetable in India. It is yellowish green, having the shape of a bottle. It has white pulp, with white seeds in spongy flesh...Bottle gourd is not only rich in essential minerals, iron, protein and trace elements; it is also rich in fibre. The cooked vegetable is cooling, diuretic, sedative and antibilious. It gives a feeling of relaxation after eating it. In India, bottlegourd's woody shells serve as utensils and as sounding boxes for the sitar and ektara used by the bauls of Bengal....Bottle Gourd prevents excessive loss of sodium, quenches thirst and helps in preventing fatigue. This bottlegourd with peanut curry is one of the authentic village side dish, this curry is very much often prepared in my grandma's village for almost twice a week with fresh bottlegourd and roasted grounded peanuts...I just love this simple bottlegourd dish which tastes delicious with grounded peanut coarse paste.
2cups Bottlegourd pieces
1/4cup Raw peanuts
1/4tsp Mustard seeds
1/4tsp Urad dal
3nos Dry Red chillies (broken as pieces)
5nos Curry leaves
Salt
Oil
Heat enough oil and add mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves and broken dry red chillies and let them fry, add immediately the bottlegourd pieces and stir with enough salt, meanwhile microwave peanuts for 2 minutes( arrange the raw peanuts as single layer in microwave plate), ground the roasted peanuts as coarse powder and keep aside...once the bottlegourd pieces gets well cooked add the coarse peanut powder and toss gently until the cooked veggies get well mixed..put off the stove..
Serve as side dish!!!
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