Enjoy a lipsmacking thogayal made with dals and peels of the ridge gourd in traditional south Indian flavour. Pair it with meals of your choice to wow, your family.

What I see as a difference between home cooks and chefs is not just in the size of meals that we make. Chefs have to keep up with so many of our taste factors, cost control and visual appeal. Home cooks, do know the people they cook for, so fairly easier for them to play around with the ingredients to suit the home needs. Moreover, home cooks can focus on ensuring the best of nutrition from best of produce.What do you think

Here is an age old recipe that a lot of South Indian home cooks rely on, peerkangai thol thogayal.

What is peerkangai thol thogayal?

Peerkangai thol is the peel of ridgegrord. This along with roasted lentils, spices, coconut and tamarind is ground into a coarse paste. This is peerkangai thogayal or ridgegourd chutney. It is a popular recipe among all South Indian states and has a few different names, peechinga chutney in Kerala, beerakaya pachadi in Telugu,  heerakai chutney in Kannada.  Often paired with steamed rice, a dollop of ghee and some stirfried vegetables on the side, the recipe is a classic homestyle one.
The recipe as such is

• Vegan
• Gluten free
• Onion and garlic free
• No nightshade added
• And dairy free

Ingredients from ridge gourd chutney

 Angled loofah or ridge gourd belongs to the cucumber family. The tough outer skin has predominant ridges. The gourd as such has soft flesh that is cooked into curries or stirfries. The peel is the one we have used to make this recipe

Dals: the dals add volume and depth of flavour to this recipe. I use a mix of skinned black gram dal (urad dal) and chick pea dal(channa dal). When roasted thr dals and ground the dals add the necessary volume to the dish.
Spices:there is very minimal spices in the recipe. Red dried chillies are a huge part if the flavour. The second main flavour comes from curry leaves. Along with the salt, the small pinch of asafoetida added offsets any need for garlic or onion.
Coconut: grated coconut added a softness. The milky flavour of the coconut works well with the ridgegourd. Tamarind: there is a slight hint of sourness that you experience while having this recipe. This comes frontiers dried tamarind that is added and  ground along with the ingredients. It adds a zesty flavour to the dish when having with grains or breads.

Let’s make peerkangai thogayal

The recipe is a medium intensity one where the roasting of dals is the one that can go wrong as it burns easily.

Prep the peerkangai: the peel of the ridge gourd is the one used to make this recipe. However, the ridges have a tough fiber running through them that needs to be removed.

• Wash and pat dry the riodge gourd.
• Using a knife or peeler approach of the pointed ridges. This js where the fibres are.
• Press down the peeler and remove the green skin completely. Save this part of this chutney. Save the spongy part to make kootu or stirfry.

Roast the dals and spices: in a heavy bottomed pan, add the urad dal and channa dal and a tsp of coconut oil. Dry roast this on low heat. Add the curry leaves and red chillies as the dals start turning golden and roast all together till the chillies are crisp and the dals deep golden. Remove this from heat on to a plate and set it aside.

Roast the peerkangai thol: Add the skin. Stir fry this till the peels look deep green and vibrant. Remove and add to the same plate. Let this cool down as well.

Grind the thogayal: once cooler to handle add the roasted dals, chilli,curry leaves, sauteed ridgegourd peel, tamarind, salt and coconut to the food processor and blend into a coarse mix.
Remove the coarse ground mix to a bowl and the thogayal is ready to be served.

Best pairings with peerkangai thol thogayal

Here are a few ideas for you to try with this thogayal
Peerkangai thogayal with steamed rice, a small spoon of ghee and poriyal on the side is one great Sunday meal.
At home, we like this as a side to rasam rice and often with some kootu.
Alternatively, you can use this as a dip for idlies, dosa etc too.
We use this as a spread for wraps and sandwiches. Pretty much the thogayal and cheese sandwich is a great try. Use some  grana padano or  aged cheddar instead of saltier ones like feta.

Meal prep and lunch boxes

Thogayal stays well in the fridge for up to a week without any issues. It also freezes so well, that we often rely on a frozen block for quick lunches. We love thogayal cheese sandwiches for our lunch box. You could also use it to stirfry the rice with, like we made ghee podi rice.

Other chutneys and thogayals

Thogayals, chammandi and chutneys are a big part of South Indian meals. Here are a couple of ideas
Thenga chammandi
Curry leaves thogayal
Doddapathra chutney
Mango chammandhi
Watermelon rind thogayal

Stay connected

The comfort of hot rasam on a plate with steamed rice and a ball of this thogayal is Sunday for us. We enjoy it as a meal together that screams simplicity yet home.Hope you enjoy making this chutney as much as we love bring it to you. If you make it slightly different tell us your version, we always love to try different ones .
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See you in the next post. 

I was recently watching the Megan and Harry series on Netflix. There was one particular part I actually liked. The friends’ idea for the new year is to set a word. My instant reaction to that was wow,  that’s profound.  Rather than having a resolution that you drop off after a few days,  finding a word that is adding meaning to you in multiple ways sounded far better.
Guess what word I am choosing…after a bit of thought! Imperfect that is my word. As we evolve this year I will share with you how we are taking it forward. For now,  we are starting with imperfect produce. We have imperfect radishes that we are using to make this lesser-known South Indian style preparation.

Prepping the radishes

Radishes or Raphanus sativus, come in long cylinder ones or small round varieties. They have red or white skin. Inside they can be white, variegated or watermelon colour. I choose the small round red varieties to make this dish. The skin is red here and the flesh white. To prep, these, wash them thoroughly especially if they are not in perfect shape. I use a toothbrush to get rid of the mud in the folds. remove the leaves (don’t discard make mullangi keerai poriyal) and trim the root. Now slice the radishes into wedges. Save a few radishes to make our much-loved Radish pear salad with tahini dresssing.

Ingredients to make puli mullangi

Red radishes: prep the radishes as per the notes above. These radishes are crunchy and have a slightly stronger peppery flavour than daikon. Thus goes nicely with the spices added. If you are looking for a low food map option make it with daikon as this has been tested.

Sambhar powder: the archetypal curry powder for anything South Indian is the Sambhar podi. It works for this one too imparting the classic mix of heat from the chillies,  smokiness from the coriander seeds and complexity from the fenugreek.

Tamarind extract:  a thick extract of tamarind is the souring agent in this puli mullangi. This along with the salt and the sambhar podi forms that thick sauce that coats the red radish wedges.

Tempering: spices most South Indian dishes start or layer on with a spice-infused oil. This is created by crackling mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves and red chillies in sesame seed oil.
Seasoning: to balance the flavours salt is needed. My mum swears by crystalline salt in anything she wants to keep for a while. This is not the pink rock salt but clusters of sea salt that are not powdered. The flavour this imparts minutely changes depending on the other minerals in it. For acutely trained tastebuds like hers, these are important.

Serving ideas for the radish in tamarind sauce

The puli mullangi is kind of a spicy side dish. You could pair it with a South Indian thali meal. For a simpler platter, I would choose keerai molagutal and puli mullangi with cooked millet.
Fill up a wrap with some cooked beans, stir-fried kalonji rice and pieces for puli mullangi spicy filling wrapped burrito lunch on the go.

Meal prep and saving for later.

The puli mullangi will stay well in the refrigerator for up to a week. In freezer-safe containers, they stay well for up to 3 months. The radishes do go a bit limp but taste fantastic even upon thawing. Save in smaller portions so you thaw only what is needed.

Stay connected

This new year share with us what you think you will be doing. Stay subscribed to see how we are going with our word. Connect with us (instagram or facebook) as we plan to travel a bit more and share new locations and experiences with you.