beerakaya pala koora (Ridge gourd curry with milk)

There are thousands of vegetarian dishes out there it still amazes me to find new ones everyday. Ive learnt too many dishes from my mother and sisters now my mother-in-law has been another cooking guru of me. She made amazing dishes when they came to visit us which were completely different from what my mom used to make. So ive started writing down all her recipes and trying it out one by one.This dish has captured my appetite too well that ive made it numerous times after her visit. Never I imaged that a dish with ridge gourd can be soo interesting and ive always cooked only dal with this vegetable.

Ingredients:

Beerakaya /ridge gourd - 1
Onions- 2
red chilli powder - 1 tspn
turmeric - 1 pinch
mustard seeds - 1/2 tspn
cumin seeds - 1/2 tspn
channa dal - 1/2 tspn
milk - 4 tbspn
salt - 1 tspn
oil - 1tbspn

Procedure:

Clean the ridge gourd and peel the skin.
Cut the gourd into small pieces and keep aside.
Finely chop onions and keep aside.

Take a tawa and add oil.Once oil is heated add the channa dal,mustard seeds and cumin seeds.
Once the seeds splutter add onions and fry till transluscent.

Add the gourd pieces and salt and mix well.
Cook with closed lid for 10 mins under low flame. Cooking in low flame for a long time makes it more tastier than cooking in high flame in less time. But if time is constraint can cook in high flame , but make sure to stay put near stove to check if the water has evapourated.

As the gourd has lots of water content, it will become little watery its the right consistency.

Add turmeric and chilli powder and cook for another 5 mins.

Once cooked add milk and cook for 5 mins with closed lid.
You dont have to add boiled milk, raw milk is also acceptable.

You can add coriander leaves/parsley at the end for enhanced flavour.

This dish can be had with either rice/roti.