Ashgourd Avial-A guest post by Meena Kumar

Hello Foodies , today there is a special guest on my blog . She is none other than Meena Kumar of Elephants and coconut trees. I am so much inspired by her amazing pictures and recipes. She made every recipe with special efforts that a single click in the post speaks for her talent. Few of the recipes I wanted to learn from her space are Cabbage Rolls , Stained Glass Cookies , and Shahi Falooda and I have even bookmarked them. She is an amateur cook and very much inspiring for us to learn photography techniques.  May God Bless you to reach pinnacle of success in your life. Over to Meena…
Thank you so much Sapana for inviting me over to your space. I wanted to bring something for you that is close to my heart .It was a task to think of a dish you have not made.I am amazed your blogging speed and number of recipes u have put here.Wish your blog all the very best in the years to come.

Hello lovely readers,
I am Meena, the hand behind the blog elephants and the coconut trees . I am a Keralite currently living in California with my Husband and tween. Like many of you I started this blog to keep track of recipes and now I find myself constantly trying to improve to keep up with the blog.
When Sapana asked me for a guest post I was little worried because she has successfully made even chatti pathiri( a typical Kerala dish) which I know most malayalees have not even attempted for the fear of becoming flop. She is a cooking marathon runner who posts two recipes on most days and I feel ashamed to say I find it hard to post two recipes a week :))
So here is a very easy to make aviyal, my favorite one that brings back a lot of fond memories.

ASHGOURD AVIAL

Kerala is known for aviyal, a medley of vegetables with crushed coconut.

The traditional aviyal / avial has a lot of different vegetables which is the only one made for feasts.But it can be made with other combinations for everyday meal with available seasonal fruits and veggies .The basic rule remains the same of adding raw curry leaves and raw coconut oil as seasoning if someone accidentally does that it is considered grave mistake :)) The mangoes and jack fruit season is like a celebration at our place and used in most dishes made during that time. Jackfruit seed is often used in this aviyal and I don’t mind diving into the dish and gobbling them…

Ingredients :
Ashgourd / Wintermelon / Kumbalanga – 1/2 cup
Drumstick / Muringakai – 1 – 1 1/2 cup
Mango – 1/2 of 1 (reduce if it is sour)

To crush :
Coconut – 3/4 – 1 cup
Jeera / cumin- 1 small pinch
Ripe green chili – 1 or green chili is fine
Small onion – 1
Garlic – 1
Salt to taste

Seasoning :
Curry leaves- few
Raw coconut oil – 1 tbsp

Method:
1.Cut the ashgourd into large cubes, drumstick into 3 inch long pieces and mango into thin long pieces.
2. Roughly crush the coconut and other ingredients in the list.
3.Cook drumstick and ashgourd until three fourth cooked (cook in just enough water to dry up by the end of cooking as it is a dry dish)
then put the mango and the coconut mix gently mix and cook till all the pieces are tender but not mashed and the dish is completely dry.Switch off flame.
4.Season with raw curry leaves(slightly crush with ur fingers) and raw coconut oil gently mix keep it closed until served.
Serve along with Rasam,sambar,or any spicy curry and pickle and pappadam.

Thank you for inviting me over to your lovely blog, Sapana. Wish you and the blog all the very best in the years to come.