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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Luffa(Peerkankai) Skin & Vadagam Chutney(Thuvayal)



I had this chutney with rice at my friend, Rev's house. It was so yummy and I had to buy the "Curry Vadam" from shop to make this.

Very good for lunch boxes and can be refrigerated for a week and used.


Ingredients:
Luffa (Peerkankai or Ridge Gourd) Skin - 2 cups
Vadagam (see below for more details) - 1/2 cup
Tamarind - a small lemon sized
Red chillies - 6-8 (or as spicy required)
Salt to taste
Coconut - 1/4 cup
Oil - 1/2 tablespoon

For tempering:
Oil - 1/2 tablespoon
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Curry leaves - few
Red chillies - 2, split into halves

Method:
Wash luffa skin and saute them with red chillies in oil, until its turns pale brown. Fry vadagam seperately in few drops of oil and keep aside.

Grind luffa skin, chillies, vadagam, coconut, tamarind, salt to a fine paste. Sprinkle little water if required.

Temper(Add mustard seeds to hot oil, allow it splitter. Then add curry leaves, red chillies, fry for 2 mintues) it with the ingredients mentioned above.

Serve hot with rice. This can be refrigerated for a week and used.


Cooking time - 20 minutes
Serves 5-6 persons


About Vadagam


Picture of vadagam I bought .......

Vadagam is a must in most of the South Indian homes. It is usually used for curries(Kozhambhu). It will have very good flavour and taste, if used. I have never prepared it but might try in future.

Presenting the recipe of it from Harushi.com.

Ingredients:
Small onions - 3kg
Garlic - 1/2 kg
Mustard seeds - 200gms
Fenugreek seeds - 100gms
Split black gram - 250gms
Cumin seeds - 250grams
Salt especially crystalsalt - 2 handfull
Turmeric powder - 2tbls
Castor oil - 200ml


Method:
Onion and garlic are peeled and chopped finely. Add all the other ingredients (except castor oil) with it. These combined ingredients are smashed or grinded coarsely in ural lightly. But it's hard to go for ural these days. So try to crush them with a hammer (or something of that sort) lightly so that they can be molded into balls.

Take care not to crush them heavily then the juice will ooze out. Make the balls and place them all in a plate. Dry them in hot sun. In the evening, break all of them, add half of the castor oil, mix well and make balls again. In the morning, place them on the plate and again let it dry on the heat of the sun. Again in the evening do the same process using the other half portion of the castor oil.

These balls must be dried in the hot sun for 6 or 7 days until they are well dried. You can keep them for a couple of years.

22 Comments:

Indian Khana said...

Looks so delicious and mouth watering...lovely recipe dear

Unknown said...

yummy aa 2 undalu nake na looking so yum yum norulo neelu vastunnayi thanks for vadam recipe

Sum Raj said...

this dish is new to me..and looks delicious and great entry..

Unknown said...

This is new for me... will try... looks perfect.. nice click..

Unknown said...

nice one..easy to make too..I would love with plain rice..

Deepthi Shankar said...

its a new dish for me .. looks very nie .. great combo

EC said...

Nice recipe for peerkankai skin..never heard of vadagam..

Prema Sundar said...

nice one illatharasi... many people make chutneys out of the skin of this vegetable, but i usally waste it. would love to try it out but iam not sure whether i will get the vadagams here..will check it out, thanks.

anudivya said...

Vadagam! It has been such a long time since I even heard that word. I love them... never knew how to make them. Thanks so much!

Cham said...

I use vadagam a lot but the chutney is excellent! I want to taste right away!

Sujatha said...

Nice recipe, Vani! I have heard about this chutney.. never tried it though.. Yours looks so tempting and delicious..

My eyes are on your Badam halwa too.. Drooling.. :)

Unknown said...

Adding vadagam sounds new..Rice balls look lovely.

raaji said...

i love chutneys......esp this one.....

Ivy said...

This is new to me but sounds good.

Vidhya said...

looks delicious Vani. Yummy. I make peerkangai skin thogayal very often. Yours is very different.

Lakshmi said...

I bought 2 packets of diff.variety of vadams hoping to cook up something but it is still sitting in my pantry. I think I can make use of it now. Chutney looks delicious.

Vijitha said...

looks yummy!! this dish is something we can always relate to as comfort food....yogurt rice n thoogaiyal!!! wow mouthwaterin rite?!!

Unknown said...

Have heard a lo......t abt this vadagam(we call vadaam as vadagam)..one of my friend gave me..but was nt gd n it didnt look like the one u have it the pic...I o..enaku eppa thaan indha vadagam pakara sapdra naal varumo...

Valarmathi Sanjeev said...

Totally new to me. Looks delicious and mouth watering.

Madhavi said...

This is new for me too, nice recipe and look yummm!!!

Sukanya Yogesh said...

Now I know what to do with Vadagam, I used to always look at the packets and keep drooling, knowing its vegetarian but not knowing what to do with it. Nice Recipe

notyet100 said...

vadagam looks yum,..new for me,...hppy weekend,..;-)