Ridge Gourd Peel Chutney /Beerakaya pottu(thokku) pacchadi

Andhra Pradesh is known for the fabulous pacchadi's which are prepared freshly with different kind of vegetables.These pacchadi's taste best when they are pounded in stone mortar and pestle which probably our grand parents and parents would have used.Now a days the usage of those stone one's are restrained only to the villages and some of the few house holds in cities.Many of us discard the peels of ridge gourd while cooking but infact those peels can be used to make this yummy pacchadi.So let us peek into the recipe to see how simple it is to make.

Ingredients:
2 large tender ridge gourd
5-6 dry red chillies
2 tsp urad dal
1 tsp chana dal
1 tsp jeers
2 tsp tamarind pulp
2 tsp oil
salt to taste

for Tadka:
1 tsp ghee/oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
a pinch of hing
1 red chili, broken
3-4 garlic pods
7-8 curry leaves

Method:

• Peel the outer skin of ridge gourds and use the chopped ridge gourd pieces for other preparations like making dal,kootu,pacchadi etc.Check the taste of it as sometimes the ridge gourd can be bitter too,if it is bitter its better to discard it and use another one.
  
• Heat a tsp of oil in a pan and add ridge gourd peels and fry until they are tender and keep it aside until it cools.
• Heat again a tsp of oil in the same pan and add chana dal,urad dal,jeera and fry until turn slight red in color.
• Add red chillies and fry again and add tamarind pulp at the end and switch off the flame.
• Grind the fried dal's.red chillies along with tamarind pulp and salt to a slight coarse powder.
• Now add the fried ridge gourd peels and blend in whipper mode to a coarse paste.Do not grind it to a fine paste.
• Heat ghee in a small pan and crackle mustard seeds and add garlic pods,broken red chili,curry leaves and hing and fry well and add to the ground paste.
  

Serve it with hot rice,ghee and papad.

In the above photo you can see the rice ball made with the prepared pacchadi with a dollop of ghee and in the background you can see ridge gourd dal and vankaya kotthimeera karam(stuffed brinjal with coriander) which I will try blogging them soon too.

Notes:

1. You can follow the same method and prepare the pacchadi with bottle gourd peels and ridge gourd pieces and skipping the peels of ridge gourd.
2. For a Vegan version use oil instead of ghee for tempering.