Lauki in Peppered Moong Dal and Coconut gravy | Lauki Ghasshi | Konkani Dish

Food blogging has become a cherished hobby of mine and last few weeks have been spent browsing through fellow blogger's blog pages, getting inspired by innovative recipes, participating in foodie events, learning about food photography and well just about anything and everything to do with it!

Last week, I bumped into very interesting event called Magic Mingle, hosted by Kalyani from Sizzling Tastebuds. Two ingredients are chosen every month and participants are to churn out dish(es) with these two ingredients featured as major ingredients. 

This month's ingredients: Moong Dal and Pepper. 

I loved this concept. Already an experimental cook, this spiced up my interest to be even more creative. I was eager to be a part of it. And being a keen follower of Master Chef Australia, this event sort of gave me the feel of experiencing an Innovation Test :) 

This dish was actually made by merging ideas from two different dishes my mum makes using lauki, coconut and moong dal. In addition, in order to meet this event's requirements, I used pepper pods as the spicing agent.

I am quiet thrilled by the final product, as it came out just how I had envisioned it. And watching hubby gleefully lick his fingers at the end of lunch today, made me feel like a Master Chef winner! :D

Ingredients

Lauki (bottle gourd) - 1/2 of a small sized lauki.
Moong Dal - 1/2 cup
Coconut - 1/2 cup grated
Dry Red Chillies - 2
Pepper pods - 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Coconut Oil - 1 tsp
Curry Leaves - a few
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Water - 3/4 cup

Method

• Wash, peel off the skin and chop the lauki into one-inch cubes.
• Par boil the chopped lauki cubes in a cup of water with a pinch of salt. 
• Pressure cook 1/2 cup of moong dal in 1/2 cup of water and a few drops of oil.
• Combine together the grated coconut, turmeric powder, dry red chillies, pepper pods and a pinch of salt with about a tblsp of water.
• Blend this mixture in a mixer into a fine paste.

• Add this coconut paste and the cooked moong dal into the pan of par boiled lauki.
• Stir well and allow to cook for 5 minutes.

• Season with a tempering of mustard and curry leaves, in hot coconut oil. Also, add some crushed pepper pods as garnish on top. 

• Serve hot with steamed rice.

Sending this to Magic Mingle July 2012: