Sponge Gourd with Mustard Seed

I am definitely encouraging everyone here to try and cook more veggies to your family. It is really a healthy lifestyle and cheaper to your budget. Well, this recipe is just so easy to make especially if you have the following ingredients. But as for sure, I know that you can avail in your place any type of sponge gourd or ridge gourd (loofah) / patola which is just cheap.

It is soft, watery and it is in the family of Cucurbitaceae. It is rich in Vit. C, riboflavin, magnesium, zinc and thiamin. It is low in fat and calories perfect for those who likes to trim down their weight. This vegetable contains insulin like peptides which is good to lower down blood sugar. It is also good for our stomach since it helps overcome constipation.

Young Sponge gourd with Mustard seed


It does not matter if you use sponge gourd or the ridge gourd for this one, they will just taste the same. Here is the quick recipe that I want to share with you.

Ingredients:

Sponge gourd / Ridge Gourd
Medium size onions (chopped)
2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
Turmeric powder
Red chili powder
Mustard seed or rai
Salt
Ground black pepper
Water
Oil
Fresh coriander leaves

Preparation / Method of Cooking Sponge gourd with mustard seed:

Step 1: Heat oil in a pan and put the mustard seed. Once it crackles you may now add your garlic and onions. Next is to put some turmeric powder, red chili powder once the onion is golden brown in color.

Step 2: Put some salt and then your sponge gourd which is cut into half a ring in size. You can put some water for about 2-4 tbsp. only since this veggie will produce water of its own. Cover the pan and put the flame into slow.

Step 3: After 3 minutes of cooking, check the taste if it still requires more salt and you can now sprinkle some ground black pepper and for the final touch, put the chopped coriander leaves. Don’t overcook the sponge gourd. It is soft so you don’t even need to worry about extending more time to cook it, not unless the gourd that you bought was old already with thick seeds, you may need to add few more minutes.

Mutton Curry with Coconut Milk

At last a goat’s meat for dinner and hubby bought it in a local market nearby which costs about Rs140 for 500 grams. I was thinking that it is good for caldereta but I don’t have any caldereta mix with me, I just told my husband to cook curry the way he likes it.

It was his off day so he has the time to prepare this wonderful dish and all I need to do is to help him with the preparations like cutting the onions, setting aside the spices or masala needed for the curry and of course cleaning and boiling the goat’s meat first.


You can see mustard seed and jeera in this Mutton Curry recipe



Mutton needs to be boiled first to get the meat tenderized. We did choose a portion with meat and bone parts so that the curry would be so thick, rich and yummy. The coconut milk is perfect to make the curry very rich in taste and the taste really sticks to the bone. But if you think this curry is like any other curry, well it is not since it is not reddish in color but more on yellowish. It is also chili hot and if you don’t like hot and spicy foods, then this dish is really not for you.


Rich and Thick Mutton Curry sprinkled with Coriander leaves



I really got used of eating foods with spice but I just know how to limit myself on what I can take since too much spice is not also good for me and I am already having breakouts on my face. Anyway, it’s just once a while that we do eat mutton since it is much cheaper to consider other meat like chicken and beef.

We don’t have potatoes at the moment, but we can include potatoes in this dish. The finishing touches for completing this dish are the fresh coriander leaves. This makes the taste of every curry much more interesting aside from the curry leaves that we also included in this meal.