Pumpkin-pointed gourd curry

Whenever I cook this dish my childhood memories always comes into my mind. Ma used to cook this very dish during summer. Unlike the USA in India all the vegetables are not available throughout the year, apart from few. These seasonal vegetable and fruits give a different pleasure in mind when we can get for the first time in the season. The pointed gourd lovers wait until the summer to get the taste of it. 

Pumpkin and Potato

May be you can get this vegetable apart from summer, but the price is always out of reach. Anyway, during the summer vacation, when outside it was burning, ma used to serve pointed gourd curry, lentil soup and fish curry at lunch, which tasted heavenly. Still I can smell the aroma of paanch-phoron (five spices) from ma’s kitchen. Gone are those days, time has changed. That childhood has gone long back. Now I’m watching my little is growing, and unknowingly I compare his time and my time. Growing up in a different country, he doesn’t know what seasonal vegetable is or fruit is. Anyway, it is not time for lamenting; it is the time give the recipe of ma’s pointed gourd curry.

Pointed Gourd

Ingredients:Two cups large cube of pumpkin

Seven-eight pointed gourd

Two medium sized potato

One medium sized tomato (this is my addition)

One tbsp. ginger paste

One tsp. coriander powder

One tsp. cumin powder ( though ma uses paste, here I’ve no option to doing that)

One-fourth tsp. paanch-phoron

One bay leaf

Salt to taste

Pinch of turmeric

Oil to fry

Method:

Peel the pointed gourd. There is a special method of peeling pointed gourd. Don’t peel off the outer skill fully, rather than start peeling length-wise, alternatively leaving a piece of the skin. So, that after peeling there will be stripe of peel on the gourds. Cut the gourds into halves, side-wise. Peel and cut the potato into medium size cube. Finely chop the tomato. Fry the vegetables separately and keep aside. Heat one tsp. of oil, and paach-phoron, and bay leaf into it. When it starts crackling, add the vegetables. Stir for few minutes, and then add the ginger paste. Then add the chopped tomato, stir, and let the curry cook for until the tomato becomes tender, covering the wok. Add salt and turmeric, and add two cups of water. Bring it to boil, and cook to you desired consistency, covering the wok. Serve hot with rice or roti. I like it with rice.