Ash Gourd (White pumpkin) molagootal

A wholesome, popular tamil iyer dish. This is usually served with rice along with rasam and pickle, salad, thogayal or puli ingi.

Ingredients:

• White pumpkin - 1/2 kg
• Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
• Green Gram (moong)dal - 1 cup
• Grated coconut - 1 cup
• Cumin / Jeera seeds - 2 tsp
• Red chillies - 1
• Salt to taste
• Curry leaves - a few
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Urad dal - 1 tsp
• Oil - 1 tsp

Method:

• Wash and cut the white pumpkin into 1" thick pieces.
• Cook the green gram (moong) dal in a pressure cooker until it is cooked well.
• Transfer the pumpkin pieces into a thick bottomed vessel, add turmeric powder and water to cover the pumpkin pieces.
• Cover and cook until the pumpkin pieces become translucent and tender.
• Grind coconut, cumin seeds and red chillies into a paste in a mixie.
• Add the paste and salt to the pumpkin pieces.
• Bring to a boil. Add cooked moong dal, stir and bring to a boil again.
• In a separate pan, heat oil and add mustard seeds and urad dal. When the mustard seeds splutter and the urad dal turns red, add curry leaves and pour this onto the pumpkin mixture.
• Stir and serve hot with rice.

Variation - This can be made with a variety of vegetables like sweet pumpkin, bottle gourd, cabbage, cauliflower, banana stem, etc.

Instead of moong dal, toor dal can be used to give out a different flavour.