Bottle Gourd Tomato Gravy ~ Sorakaya Shorva

Today is the last day of this marathon and I decided to post a shorva recipe.  As I mentioned couple of days ago, I was undecided about today's curry.  I was debating on what to post until 3-4 of hours ago.  We had gone out of town this weekend and got back this evening.  We thought of having some curry puffs in the evening, as soon we got back home and skip dinner.  We changed our minds and decided to have an early dinner instead. I made some curry puffs with some left over ground turkey and made some sorakaya shorva to go with rice.  I thought of making a quick tomato curry and since I had a bottle gourd sitting in my fridge for almost 2 weeks, I decided to add some bottle gourd to it.  I started off making the tomato bottle gourd curry (subzi) and the end up with a shorva!  Sorakaya shorva is bottle gourd stew or bottle gourd in a tomato based gravy.

The recipe given below is how I made it today.  This is how I normally make and I sometimes add roasted onion paste to the preparation.   However, I did not use it today.  Also, I used little bit of milk which is optional and milk can be substituted with yogurt for a tangy gravy.  I usually add 2-3 green chilies to the seasoning but today I used only chili powder.  If using green chilies, adjust chili powder accordingly. The picture below was taken after dinner, with leftover shorva.

Total Time:
Preparation: 5-10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 3

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp. Oil
• ½ medium sized Onion chopped or ⅓ cup chopped Onion
• 1 tbsp. Ginger Garlic Paste
• 1 tbsp. Coriander Powder
• 2 tsp. Chili Powder (adjust to tolerance level)
• Turmeric Powder
• 1 medium sized Bottle Gourd / Sorakaya
• 1 medium sized Tomato chopped or 1 cup chopped Tomato
• Salt to taste
• 1 Cardamom, 1 Clove, ⅛” Cinnamon powdered
• 1 ¼ - 1 ½ cup Water
• 2 tbsp. Milk
• Cilantro to garnish

Preparation:

1. Peel the gourd and cut it into 2” rectangular pieces or as you like.
2. Heat oil in a wide sauce pan and sauté the onions until translucent.
3. Add ginger garlic paste and sauté for a minute.
4. Add chili powder, coriander powder, turmeric and mix well.
5. Add bottle gourd pieces and mix well. Cover and cook for couple of minutes or until the bottle gourd pieces are lightly roasted in the spices. Add little water, approximately ⅛ cup water, cover and cook until gourd is semi cooked.
6. Add tomatoes, salt, garam masala powder, mix well, cover and cook until the tomatoes are soft and mushy.
7. Add water, milk and mix well.  Add less or more water depending on how you want the gravy.   Mix the gravy as soon as you add milk otherwise, the milk will curdle.  First add water, this will cool the curry a little, than add milk and stir immediately.
8. Cover the pan again and bring it to boil. Taste the gravy and adjust the seasoning.  Continue to cook it until the gourd is cooked.
9. Turn off the heat, transfer to serving bowl, garnish with cilantro.
10. Serve it will rice or roti.

Variation:

• I use vine ripe tomatoes and I find these a little sour.  So, I use milk.  If your tomatoes are not sour and would like a tangy flavor, add some yogurt instead of milk.    Addition of yogurt gives a thick gravy too.
• I normally don’t use coconut but addition of coconut powder to this gravy enhances the taste. If using coconut, grind it with garam masala. You can use roasted dry coconut or unroasted coconut.
• If the gravy is too thin, add some coconut powder and simmer the gravy for few minutes to thicken it.