Indian Zuchini in coconut milk

Here's a traditional Indian zucchini (aka janhi in oriya, or ridge gourd in English) curry with, guess what - coconut milk. Simply mouth watering, isn't it!

This one is so simple and yet so tasty you won't believe it! Great coastal flavors, and goes great with rice, roti or dosas. I can't decide which combination I like better. With so much good taste all around, it's hard to decide sometimes! Having it with dosa certainly reminds one of the classic appam-stew from Kerala, and with rice it just brings back memories of childhood. It's actually not so well known outside of Odisha, but so many oriya dishes have coconut as their key ingredient. As they say in Oriya 'Padichi Nadia, lagiba badhia' - translated poorly as "Got coconut, tastes great" !!

 

 

So here's what you need:

 

(Serves 2)

 

1 long Indian zucchini (12 inch) peeled and cut into bite sized chunks

1 tbsp mustard seeds

1 green chili (slit)

1 tomato cut into chunks

1 inch ginger (grated)

2 cups coconut milk

Curry leaves

1/2 tbsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

Salt to taste

 

And here's what you do with these simple ingredients:

 

• Lightly peel the zucchini. Peeling all of the skin will make them gooey and loose their form and texture.
• Lightly fry the zucchini chunks in oil till golden and keep aside
• In a pan, heat up oil and add mustard seeds. Let them crackle.
• Add the slit green chili and curry leaves.
• Add the grated ginger and fry for 30 seconds
• Now add the chunked up tomato, turmeric and coriander powder and mix
• Cover and cook for 3-5 mins till the raw smell is gone.
• At low heat, add the coconut milk in while stirring
• Cover and cook for another 5 mins
• Now add the fried zucchini and let it simmer for 2 mins
• Add salt to taste and enjoy!

This one is the no-onion-no-garlic version, but you can also add in ginger and garlic in the masala if you like. It tastes heavenly either way. Leave me a comment if you like this one. There's so much comfort in coastal flavors, that when I savor this, I think fresh water ponds with coconut trees on the rims, breezy yet sultry afternoons, yeah and fish.. Yes! Fish, I need to have some fish!

 

Later!