Lauki Mung Dal Sabzi

You guys might be thinking whats the deal with me and lauki?!! but the thing is after having junk food all weekend I tend to take shelter under the Bottle gourd tent to relax my digestive track.
As bottle gourd has cooling effect on our digestive system.
Today I'm preparing a dish which my M-I-L cooks to perfection. Her version has that rustic old charm to cooking mine is rather like "cooking in a jiffy" kinda touch. But the end result is almost similar.

so here goes the recipe.

Ingredients :
3 cups peeled and diced bottle gourd/lauki
1 cup washed mung dal
2 tbs green chilli, ginger and garlic paste
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp mustard seeds/rai
1/2 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
pinch of asafoetida
salt to taste
1 tbs oil for tempering
2 sprig curry leaves
2 dry red chillies
hand full of freshly chopped coriander leaves/cilantro

Preparation Method :

Put Pressure pan on medium heat, add oil and once it starts to smoke add mustard seeds, cumin seeds. let them crackle up, now add asafoetida, curry leaves, dry red chillies and turmeric.
Add diced bottle gourd and ginger garlic chilli paste.
Saute for two mins and add mung dal along with 2 1/2 cups of water.
Add salt to taste.
Close the pressure pan and cook up to 3 whistles.
Once the pressure pan is removed frm the stove and the pressure has subsided, open the pan and remove the sabzi into serving bowl, garnish it with fresh cilantro.
Serve hot with Steamed rice or roti.

Remember to keep this curry simple as possible. Flavors from fresh green chillies, ginger and garlic are the key to this recipe. But in case you want a bit more spicier you can add red chilli powder but rather adjust green chilli paste to get more spiciness. Aroma of curry leaves and fresh chilli along with garlic itself is soothing to gastronomics of our body.