Ash Gourd and potato Stir/fry with freshly grated coconut

Hi friends, I haven’t updated the blog for the past couple of weeks, after I wrote our Penang travelogue here, so thought of updating it with a vegetarian recipe this time. After all travel or no travel, cooking is integral part of my life, even though I may or may not update this blog.

I happened to pick ash gourd this time and wanted to make this with coconut- freshly grated coconut.Ash gourd has many health benefits. And this turned out a very flavourful dry stir/fry preparation and it reminded me of our very own ‘narkol diye chal kumro’.

Now I am not sure if 'chal kumro' is called ash gourd in English or not. As the ash gourds that are available here are different looking than the varieties, we find in Bengal. So as of now I am calling this recipe as ash gourd vegetable stir/fry with coconut. However, if you want to make chal kumro with narkol, the instructions are almost same. Ash gourd is high on water content. The dry stir/fry is slightly on a sweeter note due to the addition of coconut, however if you want a spicier version you can include green chillies as well or increase the hotness level.

Here is how I made it 

Ash gourd and Potato stir/fry with coconut

Recipe requirements-

1 medium size ash gourds

2 medium size potatoes

 1 medium tomatoes chopped or 8-10 ripened cherry tomatoes slit in between

1 cup of freshly grated coconut

¼ cup of coconut milk

3-4 red bird eye chilies/Thai chilies

 1 tsp of red pepper powder

½ tsp of turmeric powder

Salt as per taste

For tempering

1 tsp of cumin seeds

2 dry red chillies

5-6 tbs of cooking oil/mustard oil

Method

Clean and cut ash gourd, potatoes in to long juliennes, little bit thicker.

Heat up a fry pan/wok/kadai, Add in cooking oil to it, add cumin seeds, dry red pepper, let it splutter

Stir/fry it for 1-2 mints at med-high flame.

Add in ash gourd and potatoes pieces/juliennes.

Add in red chilly slit in between and finely chopped tomato pieces.

Add in grated coconut.

Add in all the dry spices- turmeric powder+red pepper powder+salt in a cup of water, mix it well.

Add this spices mixture to the above fried mix and keep on stir/fry for about 3-4 mints.

Add in coconut milk and cover. Let it cook for 10-12 mints at medium-low flame or till the potatoes turn soft.

Serve and enjoy with warm cooked rice.

Happy cooking friends