Gongura pachhadi - 1

Happened to get Gongura (not commonly available here) while I went vegetable shopping yesterday.
This is my one of daugther's favourite dishes.. and so picked up some to make the Andhra Special - Gongura Pachhadi.


Gongura is a leafy plant item like palak. It is basically very tangy by nature and is said to be a good source of iron, vitamins and folic acid.

For reference, gongura looks like below.

Gongura pachhadi is famous Andhra cuisine which is basically used as a pickle/chutney.

Below is the recipe for the pachhadi...

Ingredients

1) Gongura

2) Dry Red Chillies

3) White Ellu seeds - (sesame seeds - also called Thil in Hindi)

4) Dhania seeds

5) Jaggery

6) Salt

Method:

1) Remove the red stems from the leaf, wash the gongura well.

2) Spread the gongura on a paper or a muslin cloth so that the gongura dries well (there should be no water in the leaves, the leaves should be fresh - not dried).

This helps in storing the pachhadi for a long time.

3) In a thick bottomed pan, dry roast some dhania seeds, sesame and dry red chillies according to your taste levels.

4) Grind this above mixture into a nice powder in the mixie.

5) Add oil to the pan and add the gongura leaves and fry till the gongura becomes soft.

6) Now add this gongura to the mixie along with the powdered spices, add required amount of salt and jaggery and grind. Need not be a smooth mixture. Let all the ingredients mix well.

7) Now heat oil (use little bit more oil like in a pickle) in a pan, and add mustard seeds and let it splutter.

Add the ground mixture into this oil and deep fry on low flame till the mixture absorbs all the oil into it well.

Gongura pachhadi is ready to be served.

Tips:

You may add garlic to the pachhadi i.e when  frying the gongura, garlic can be added along and ground.

Normally garlic is used as part of gongura pachhadi, since I am not a huge fan of garlic, I have skipped that part.

Gongura pachhadi tastes wonderful with hot white rice served with ghee.

Add some finely chopped raw onions along with this and the taste will be awesome.

Enjoy :)