Beerkaya Royyalu / Ridge Gourd Prawns Curry

Absolutely enjoying "Fall", specially when I jog my first grader to school in the morning. Trees with leaves changing colors, a blanket of fallen dried leaves on the ground, got to take the fullest of the season, before cold winter sets in.

Seasonal changes bring change in the way we cook food too. From outdoors BBQs to strict indoor dishes. Most of my indoor cooking is Desi style which requires preparation. Its not like you are hungry and you just sandwiched slices of buttered multi grain bread with a slice of ham, cheese with some lettuce. Your meal is ready to go. Indian cooking is all about intensity, flavour, spice, lots of ingredients and time to cook them up. But its worth the wait, because of the exceptional taste.

This is one Andhra preparation which puts all together with end result being irresistible. Its so strange that I have never tasted this dish whenever my mother cooked it growing up, in fact for some reason I was so averted towards it. but since its was known for its taste, after so many years I cooked it to see what comes of it..and honestly it lived up to its popularity. And this can just be eaten up with plain rice. But let me warn you for the temptation of over-eating here, which is why I don't cook this curry so often, it would disturb my diet of  keeping my serving of rice under one cup per day.

The ridge gourd (Beerakaya in Telugu) forms a creamy base for the curried shrimp. A real match that you are so tempted to call heavenly. Well, ridge gourd is such a versatile vegetable that it embraces any other ingredient, be it veg or non-veg to be subtle and yet give a wholesome lift to the dish. More delicacies of ridge gourd I would be blogging are with Kheema, mutton, Channa dhal..

Now lets is the making of Prawns with Ridge gourd.


Ingredients:
2 big - Beerakaya/ Ridge Gourd / Beerkankai (De-skinned and chopped into small cubes)
1 to 1.5 lb Prawns / Shrimp (De-shelled, De-veined)
2 tsp oil
2 medium Onions chopped
4-5 Green Chillies slit
A Few Curry leaves
1 Tbsp Ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp Red chilly powder
A pinch of garam masala powder
Salt to taste
Finely chopped fresh coriander leaves to garnish

To marinate shrimp :
1 tsp red chilly powder
1/2 tsp each of cumin and coriander powder
1/2 tsp Turmeric
Little Salt
A splash of oil to put all together

Procedure :
Clean prawns and marinate with the marinade items..keep aside.

In a hot pan add oil and add the marinated prawns and stir fry them till all the water evaporates and a beautiful aroma comes out. Remove from pan and keep aside

In the same pan add some more oil, add chopped onions, slit green chillies, curry leaves, and cook till onions are translucent.

Add ginger garlic paste and cook till rawness is gone.

Add chopped ridge gourd pieces, salt mix together and cook covered, till ridge gourd is half done.

Then add the stir fried prawns, little water and cook covered till the gourd and prawns are fully done.

Add finely chopped coriander and remove from heat.

Serve it with plain cooked basmati, ponni or sona masoori rice.

Chutney with Ridge Gourd Skin/Beerapottu pachadi

As I shared in my last post, ridge gourd is one vegetable which can be used both in and out. A Delicious curry with the body and yet another yummy spicy chutney with the skin.

Growing up this was one of my favourite chutney/pachadi..My granny knew how much i cherished this chutney , so she use to preserve the skin and make the chutney for me..to enjoy it with plain hot rice and ghee/oil and the best accompaniment for this is a piece of raw onion. A first serve of rice will be done in a jiffy..

Ingredients :

Skin of 2 or 3 Ridge gourds /Beerapottu (cut into small pieces)
1 tbsp - oil
1 tbsp - Channa dhal
1 tbsp - Urad dhal
1 tsp - Cumin seeds
1 tsp - Coriander seeds
3-5 - Red chillies
4 -5 Garlic pods
Tamarind - A big marble size soaked in little water to soften.
Salt to taste
Water enough to grind into chutney.

Procedure :
Stir Fry the ridge gourd pieces in oil for 2 - 3 mins and keep aside.
In the same vessel, now fry the all the remaining dry ingredients.
Remove from heat and let cool. Once the fried ingredients are cooled grind them to a coarse powder.
Now add the ridge gourd skin, soaked tamarind, salt and enough water and grind thoroughly till all the ingredients mix well and chutney is almost smooth.
Adjust salt.
Serve with either plain rice or have it as a side for rice with sambar.

Ridge Gourd or Chinese Melon curry

(AKA) Beerakaya Kura(Telugu), Beerkankai Kuttu(Tamil)

Growing up I never liked this vegetable until once I tasted this preparation done by my dear dear aunt(My Father's sis). It was so simple and yet tasted so great with just plain rice. A perfect accompaniment for this rice and vegie is a south Indian pappad.

My mom used to cook this vegie along with fresh or dried prawns too. I still remember my how dearly dad used to enjoy this combo preparation of hers. Being so far from home I often miss the pleasure to cook for my parents especially for my dad. Anyway coming back to one other way of preparing this vegie, is to cook it with mutton also..Again what ever is the preparation or combination this vegie is mostly good with just plain rice itself..

An important feature of this vegetable is that it is a must in all the south Indian households especially in Andhra when they have to prepare a meal for a lady who has just delivered. They believe that including this in the diet of a women who has given birth will help her in nursing of the baby. So all soon to be moms add this into your diet when you give birth to your baby.

Another feature of this vegetable is we don't need too discard its thick coarse skin..The skin can be combined with spices, lentils and made into a spicy tasty chutney, which I will publish in my next post.





As much as it is Indian, I'm happy that even in this part of the world we can easily get them in Indian or Asian stores under name Chinese melon

And here is my simple South Indian preparation of this Chinese melon:
Note : Chinese melon is reduced in its size drastically once cooked, so when u are seasoning it with salt take care not to add lots. Here less is more.

Ingredients:
2 large Ridge Gourd/Chinese melon(Beeakaya) - Skin removed
1 Tbsp oil
5 - 6 Garlic pods
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
3-4 Red chillies slit
1 tsp Channa dhal(yellow lentils)
8 - 10 Curry leaves
1/2 tsp red chilly powder
Salt to taste

Directions:
Peel the rough edges of the skin first, discard it and then peel off the skin totally and reserve for later use to make chutney. Now cut the melon into cubes.
In a wok or kaddai, add oil after heated allow mustard to splutter.
Add channa dhal, and fry till color changes slightly.
Add cumin seeds, red chillies and curry leaves and fry.
Add garlic and fry till nice aroma emits.
Now add the melon cubes and season with little salt and chilly powder.
Mix thoroughly to coat the vegie with the spices and oil.
Cover and cook on medium till the melon emits waters completely. Around 5-7 min.
Remove lid and let the water evaporate as the vegie cooks till done and oil emits.
Once the oil emits remove from heat and serve with plain rice.