"Spicy and Sweet Bottle Gourd Muddo" … All of you are aware of the health benefits of bottle gourd/Garduddhe/Lauki/Doodhi/ Dudhi/Sorekai here is a simple and fast breakfast dish for all of you … The calamity of rains can sometimes be destructive; the rains brought down a branch from Badam tree in front of my office, luckily no one was hurt … as for me I went and picked out tender green leaves from it and prepared these two varieties of Muddo from the garduddhe I had at home using them … You can relish these topped with hot melted ghee or homemade butter … Yummy Yumz …
** Rains in Mumbai can be disastrous at times, it hardly rains for a few hours and calamity hits, gutters clogged, and roads are filled with water, umbrella overturns, duppatta flies off and not to mention the muddy and oily water that spoils your sandals. Rains can be fun and rains can be a pain that is what I have learned living in Mumbai. Though, in childhood we had some bad experiences with heavy rains, flooding and those sorts it was something different, now things have turned worst, everything comes to a standstill. You have to prepare yourselves well ahead for the rains, by stocking up the right ingredients that you may run out on or may not be able to buy. And to our dismay, after going through all the trouble sometimes you may not even need it. My office and home are close by in the same vicinity, it hardly takes me 5 mins to reach from one place to another. There were so many monsoons when I did not even need umbrella, I would just walk fast when the rains slowed down. Then there were times when I had to walk like a tortoise slowly in the water filled roads and it would scare me if there were something that bit me in the dirty water.
** Worst of all are the overgrown trees, which the municipal corporation does not trim nor allows us to trim them down. You have to go through a whole lot of procedure before you get the permission for private societies and by the time 2 monsoon seasons will have conveniently passed off. It really creates havoc on our parked vehicles etc. but who can reason out with them. No one really seems to bother till someone is hit real badly, after that they wake up from their slumber. The danger of snapping and falling of weak branches scares me the most. It has happened many a times before me and it scares you to walk near the trees that have loose hanging branches. Just a strong breeze and some heavy rains had lashed the city two days back late in the evening and it was enough for a branch from the badam tree right in front of my office, say some 15 feet away to fall. Luckily no one was harmed, except for a nearby parked bike which got toppled but was not damaged. Once everything was cooled down, everybody disappeared back to normal life as usual. Since I had access, my hubby helped me in getting the green tender leaves picked up for me, which otherwise would have just gone to the dump yard.
** As I have mentioned before and posted too, we can use badam tree leaves just like how we use turmeric or jackfruit leaves etc. to prepare muddo, patholi, khotto etc. With these leaves muddo or patholi can be prepared with ease. However, You got to be careful and pick up the dark green tender ones, if they have reddish tinge, the color gets infused in the muddo while steaming, giving it reddish color too. I was able to get about only about 8-10 good one’s as the others were on the bottom side and obviously we can’t crawl down under the branch for it, also it was too heavy to turn it over. Sigh man is never satisfied with little, always want more. But I was satisfied, and went home happily to prepare muddo. You can also prepare this muddo in kudchampe leaves too, that is white champa flower leaves, the same like which I had prepared sweet jackfruit muddo and posted in blog. You can check out the same too. You can also prepare them on turmeric or banana leaves too. Basically you have to use leaves that are large enough or can be cut into pieces of at least 8 inches in length and that which can be folded over. Just pin up the leaves with wooden stick if you fear it will open as shown in the picture. I never pin up, but have included it here for those who are new to this method.
** After reaching home, I was wondering with which ingredient to prepare the muddo, as we Konkani Saraswat’s usually prepare with ripe jackfruit or cucumber or magge (south Indain cucumber), I did not have the other two though I did have ground jackfruit puree in freezer, which I have kept with other dishes in mind. I have successfully prepared the sweet muddo with addition of alphonso mango too, a few years back and it was delicious, check the same also. I have shared the link at the bottom of this recipe. But today, my eyes fell on the large sized bottle gourd/Garduddhe/ Lauki/Doodhi/ Dudhi/Sorekai which I had purchase for preparing halwa. So decided to try out the muddo with the same for a change. Somehow this happens always, I buy for one purpose and end up doing something else. It's been long since I relished dudhi halwa. Anyways, this is the first time I am preparing muddo with bottle gourd and it turned out fantastic, soft and delicious. For this recipe I have used readily available Rice Rava known as Idly Rava, which is easier method, if not available you can use normal rice soaked and ground coarsely too.
** Here is the Recipe for "Spicy and Sweet Bottle Gourd Muddo" … My Style ….
** Preparing the rice for Muddo : Wash and soak 3 cups of Rice Rava / Idly rava in water for 10 minutes. Tilt the vessel and drain off as much water as possible and allow it to rest for 30 minutes. Now the rice is ready for using.
** Note : Rice rava / Idly rava is ready available in stores. If it is not available, just wash and soak 2 cups of raw rice (preferably surti kolam) for 2 hrs. Wash well again, drain off the excess water and then grind to a coarse rava texture in mixer grinder and it is ready for using.
** Coconut to be ground for Spicy Muddo : Add in one cup of freshly grated coconut in a mixer grinder with ½ inch ginger finely chopped and 5-6 green chillies and coarse grind the same with little bit of water. Do not add in more water. The ground paste need not be very fine. Remove and keep this ready aside in a separate bowl.
** Coconut to be ground for Sweet Muddo : Add in one cup of freshy grated coconut with about 100 gms of grated jaggery in mixer grinder and grind to a semi fine texture. Here the jaggery should be mixed well with the coconut. Do not add in water while grinding as the jaggery leaves out water which is enough for grinding the coconut. Remove and keep this also ready aside in a separate bowl.
** Wash and wipe the the badam leaves or any which you are using ready. Trim off both the tapering edges too. Trimming helps is retaining the size equal and also the tapering edges are not necessary as you cannot fill mixture until the edge portion. It is easier while keeping it to steam too. The leaves should be prepared and kept ready before preparing the final mixture as once the mixture is prepared we do not want to waste time in filling them on leaves.
** Special Important Note : Prepare all the grinding part of coconut mixture, rice if you have to, washing and trimming of the leaves etc. before you start grating the lauki / bottle gourd. The bottle gourd should be grated and added in last as if you keep it for some time it gets discolored and looses it white color.
** Wash and wipe clean a small sized tender Bottle gourd/Garduddhe/Lauki/Doodhi/ Dudhi/ Sorekai. Slice off the edges and cut them into four pieces lengthwise. Now with the help of a medium size holed grater, grate the inner white fleshy portion of dudhi till you reach the outer green skin. Discard the skin, though you can grate and add them too, if you prefer. If they are very tender I do add at times.
** Squeeze out or sieve out as much water as possible from the grated bottle gourd. Do not throw away the water. Retain it so that if the mixture become too dry, it can be used in addition to bring to right consistency. In all you should have about 2 cups of grated squeezed out bottle gourd, one cup each for spicy and the sweet one’s.
** Add one cup of the squeezed out grated bottle gourd to the spicy mixture and the other to the sweet mixture kept in separate bowl. Divide the prepared Idly rava too into two parts and add one part of each to the separate bowl. The same method to be followed if using ground rice too. Roughly, mix the mixtures in the two bowl separately and check if water is needed. If so sprinkle some of the bottle gourd squeezed out water retained and get a binding texture consistency.
** Now add salt to taste to the spicy mixture and mix well. When you roll it between your palm it should come to a balling consistency without breaking up and without leaving out water. That is the right texture. The spicy mixture is ready. For the sweet mixture add in a pinch of salt and a large pinch of cardamom powder and mix well. The same binding texture requirement applies here too. Now both the mixtures are ready to be laid on the leaves.
** Keep the Idly steamer on heat with required amount of water in it and bring to a steam. Meanwhile keep the badam leaves in a row on a table or your kitchen platform. You should always keep the venial part on top facing you and the smooth part on the bottom side. This is done so, as when you fold over the and press the leaves together and steam you will get lines on the muddo which is a pleasant side to see. Also leaves always fold easily this way than the other way round. So do take a note of it and be careful when you place the leaves.
** Take a large handful of the mixture and place it on one side of the leaf, giving it a semi circle shape. You should leave out an inch of gap all round the mixture when the leaf get folder over, so take that to note when placing the mixture. You can check out on the pictures posted for you to get the right picture of the procedure. Once both spicy and sweet one’s are laid out of the leaves, it is time to fold them gently. Now fold over and press it gently to make a neat fold.
** An Important Note for all my friends who faced problem of leaves opening up : Though for a habitual cook like me and my friends this is easy and we are used to the method, I had a few complaints or should I say help request messaged from many of novice preparers that their leaves either toppled or that the mixture came out etc. So I have included this note exclusively for their sake.
1.. Though for turmeric leaves or banana leaves there is no need for pinning up with wooden thin sliver sticks as they bind well, sometime badam leaves or jackfruit tree leaves open up while prepared semi circle shaped muddo on single leaves. I have successfully done so without using the sticks before, but those of you who are new, I know get worried.
2.. You can pin up the center of the leaves together once you fold over the leaves so that they stay intact without opening up with wooden thin sticks. You can check out the picture for the same. This helps a lot, so try that trick.
3.. Always see to it that you keep the opening side of the folded leaves on top side of steaming vessel and not sideways on facing bottom. This is very important for newbies, especially for badam or other stiffer leaves when used, as they do not stick properly to each other.
4.. Always place a single row of the folded leaves facing upward in a single row clinging to each other and steam for 10 minutes, before laying the second layer if any. Remember to lay the second layer in similar pattern as before but by placing it over the first one at an angle of 40deg. turn. That way the second layer will not sink into the first one on its own weight.
5.. It is not adviceable to prepare may layer while steaming. Do not cross a maximum of three layers of laying of the leaves at a time each one should have the angle turned at 40 deg and should be placed only after steaming of the previous one for about 10 minutes.
6.. If you follow the above points, I don’t think there will be any difficulty in preparing the same. And off course to remember to add in sufficient water in the Idly steamer, lest it does not run off dry. I hope I have helped those who had sent in the request. I am also sending those of you who requested a separate mail too. Thank you for asking this question.
** By now the water in the steamer will have reached the boiling point. Lower the heat to minimum and gently place each folded muddo, by keeping the folded open side upwards. This is done to ensure that the paste does not drop off into the steamer. Also the heat is kept to minimum, so that it does not burn your hands when placing the patholi / muddo.
** Once they are laid in a single layer side by side, cover with the tight lid. Now keep the heat on medium and steam for 15-20 minutes or till done. Always remove the cover and then off the gas as the steam will then pass off and not fall on the muddo making it soggy.
** Let the steamer cool a bit before you remove the muddo. Once all the hot steam has passed off gently remove the muddo one at a time carefully and keep it on a place to cool. Open them up by removing the pinned wooden sticks if so and they are ready to be served.
** "Spicy and Sweet Bottle Gourd Muddo" is done and ready to be served. Both sweet and spicy one’s can be served with butter. While the sweeter one can be served with melted ghee too. These muddo contain all the required spices or sweetness within them and really do not need anything else to serve them with. However the spicy one can be served with chutney or pickle if you prefer. In my home we just relish both spicy and sweet one’s with fresh homemade butter.
** Do try these out and enjoy with your family and friends. You can carry them in your lunch box too. Serve them to children and they will enjoy them without a murmur. Do give me a feed back or query if any like the one’s who asked me how to prevent mishap on muddo. It never came to my mind I should include the points in detail or made me also think of the pinning with wooden stick point as I myself never faced such issue, but yes it can happen at times with anybody and it is safer to use the same if the leaves are stiffer and to not fold in well.
** For some step by step procedure pictures which I have not repeated again in this post do check the link given below. I have given in detail the same in that post and repeating the same is always unnecessary burden to all in this hectic lifestyle day. Thanks to all of you for your co-operation always … Here is the link ….
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