Snake gourd kofta/Pudalangai kofta/Chichinda kofta is one of the dishes I tried out to use up a whole lot of snake gourds that I harvested from my backyard. Unexpectedly it turned out exceptionally good and thus born a new unconventional recipe 😀 .
Snake gourd is a nutrient-dense vegetable with good amounts of vitamins A, B, C, and E, as well as minerals like calcium, and potassium. It has high water content and fiber and so is considered very good for the skin and aids in digestion.
When my younger one was around 4 years old he was so fond of snake gourd. We lived in Odisha for some time where we had a nice garden and he used to keep on asking the gardener for pudalangai, which is what we call it in Tamil.
But kid’s favorites are often short-lived. Now it is on the list of not-so-liked vegetables in our house. So I keep trying out some new ways to include it in our diet.
The usual stuff that is made in our part of the world is the poriyal & kootu, in Tamilnadu and mulakushyam in Kerala. Of course, there are the not-so-frequently-made pudalangai paal curry and stuffed snake gourd.
Even if u don’t like this vegetable you should give this Snake gourd kofta recipe a try and you will see how the vegetable vanishes right in front of your eyes 🙂 .
O’er to the recipe….
Snake gourd kofta / Pudalangai kofta
Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped snake gourd (around 350g taken from 3 small snake gourds)
- 1 medium-sized big onion
- 2-3 green chillies
- 5 cloves garlic
- a pea-sized piece of tamarind
- a bit of curry leaves and coriander leaves
- 1 tsp gram dal (pottukadalai)
- ½ tsp fennel seeds(sombu/saunf)
- a handful of roasted peanuts
- ½-1 cup rava/sooji (as needed)
- salt as needed
- ½-1 tsp red chilly powder(if needed)
- oil for deep frying( as needed)
- 3 - 4 tbsp rice flour
- water as needed
- bread crumbs as needed
Instructions
- Get the ingredients ready. Remove the pith from the snake gourd and chop it into smaller pieces.
- In a mixer first pulse the fennel seeds, gram dal, green chillies, tamarind, garlic, and curry leaves. Then add the snake gourd and grind to a coarse paste without adding water.
- Transfer this to a container. In the same mixer, pulse the peanuts and add them to the snake gourd mix.
- Next, add the chopped onions and coriander leaves. Give it a mix and then add the sooji and salt as needed to make a nice dough.
- Taste test, adjust salt and spices, and rest for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, heat up the oil. Mix the rice flour with water to make a medium-thick paste. Keep the bread crumbs ready.
- Pinch small portions of the mix, and roll into a cylindrical shape.
- Coat the koftas in rice flour paste, roll over the bread crumbs to coat evenly, and deep fry in oil.
- Serve with ketchup or some chutney
Hema’s P.S
- Do not use water anywhere in making the koftas
- Add as much rava as needed to make it into a dough, enough to hold shape.
- You can add more peanuts if you wish.
- Chilly and coriander leaves can also be added to preference.
- You can add chilly powder to the final mix if you feel it is less spicy. I did not have to add.
- I have deep-fried, you can shallow-fry or tawa-fry if you prefer. Air-frying should also work. I haven’t tried. If you want to air-fry, mix 1-2 tsp of oil with the bread crumbs before rolling.
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