Beerakaya pottu pacchadi – Ridge gourd’s skin chutney

 

I love beerakaya or beerakaya pottu pacchadi. Plus this vegetable is one of the easiest to work with, needs almost no oil, and cooks fast. It’s skin is not a waste and is just as tasty too. You don’t have to buy ridge gourd just to peel the skin and make chutney out of it. Whenever you peel save the skin.

Do not refrigerate it. Best way is to wrap it tightly with a newspaper and put it in a corner in the kitchen. Add more to it whenever you peel the skin. This recipe will give you measures for 4-5 beerakaya skin. You can make instant pacchadi with the skin of 1 beerakaya also.

Ingredients:

1. Beerakaya pottu: skin of 4-5 ridge gourds
2. Green chillies: 7
3. Tomatoes: 3
4. Salt to taste
5. Garlic: 3-4 cloves
6. Ginger: 1 teaspoon full of pieces
7. Lemon rind: 1/2 tea spoon (optional)
8. Lemon juice: 1 table spoon (optional)

Preparation:

1. Heat 3-4 tea spoons of oil in the pan.
2. Fry ginger and garlic pieces for a minute.
3. Add beerakaya pottu and fry for 5 minutes.
4. Toss all the other ingredients barring lemon juice into the pan and cover with lid.
5. In medium flame let the ingredients cook for 10 – 15 minutes.
6. Cool all for a while.
7. Once cool transfer the ingredients into the blender.
8. Blend until you get a smooth consistency. Add little water for moisture and easy blending.
9. Add lemon juice in the end and mix with a spoon.

Your pacchadi is ready.

Susmita

Pudina Kothimeera pacchadi (chutney)

Trust the telugus to make a pacchadi out of anything. A leaf, vegetable and even a root!! What is traditionally called the rotu pacchadi is a favourite of all, young and old. Some famous pacchadlu are pudina kothimeera pacchadi, beerakaya pacchadi, carrot cabbage pacchadi .. well the list goes on. Like I said hand us an eatable and we'll make a pacchadi out of it.

Pudina kothimeera is not just a favourite of the masses but also extremely easy to make. Traditional preparation of this pacchadi requires only 4 ingredients.
1) Pudina/mint leaves - 4-5 bunches
2)Kothimeera/coriander leaves - 3-4 bunches or less if you want pudina to dominate
3)7-8 green chillies cut into small pieces. Mostly depending on your taste buds, more or less

Pudina/Mint leaves

4)1 teaspoon chintapandu (tamarind) , you can even use the same amount of tamarind paste if you have it ready.
5)Salt to taste

Tempering (tiragamota/popu) is left to your discretion. Most pacchadis tend to enhance their taste when tempering is added in the end. I sometimes ignore it.


Prepation:
1)In your non stick pan add 2-3 tea spoons of oil.
2)Once hot add pudina, kothimeera, tamarind, and green chillies to the pan.
3)Add salt and cover to let it cook in its own steam on low flame.
4)After about 10 min either move the ingredients into a plate and let them cool, preferably under the fan, or take the pan itself to cool under the fan.
5)Once cool, grind them in the blender. 2 rounds of grinding is usually enough.
6)Add little water if you feel the pacchadi requires moistness.
6)Depending on hotness, add more chillies. If you feel you've overdone the chillies, add a tea spoon of sugar or a small piece of bellam (jaggery) and blend once more.

Your pacchadi is ready.
Sometimes I get adventurous and add onion, tomato, ginger, garlic along with the above ingredients. I like that taste too. You can try that if you want a change from usual. But remember pudina+kothimeera's taste should not be dominated. That's the whole idea :D

Susmita