imageGongura pachadi

Gongura is red sorrel leaves in English. Gongura and Telugu homes are inseparable. Recipes with gongura are very spicy and delicious. For a Telugu wedding or even for a small gathering gongura pachadi is a must. There are two varieties of Gongura(White stem and red stem). Red variety is more sour than white variety. Usually for pickles we use red stem variety and white one for gongura pappu(Dal) and gongura pulla kura. Here I present spicy, tangy gongura pachadi which can be served with hot steamed rice topped with melted ghee/sesame oil. Njoy Cooking, Serving n Savoring!

Author: Akshayakumbham
Course: Pickles
Cuisine: Andhra
Servings: 15-20

Ingredients:

Gongura leaves: 6 medium bunches

Red chillies: 10 nos.

Green chillies: 10nos.

Coriander seeds: 2 tsp

Chana dal: 1 tbsp

Urad dal: 1 tbsp

Oil: 3 tbsp

Turmeric: generous pinch

Salt: As required.

Tempering:

Oil: 1 tbsp.

Mustard: 1 tbsp

Urad dal: 1 tsp

Method of preparation:

1. Pluck the gongura leaves from the stem. Rinse thoroughly well with water and keep in a veggie basket to drain all water present in it. The leaves approximately filled in 2 lt. capacity vessel.image

2. Keep the leaves on a kitchen towel or news paper to dry completely. This increases the shelf life of the pickle.image

3. Heat kadai, pour 1 tbsp oil put urad dal, chana dal and coriander seeds. When they slightly turns into brown colour add red chillies, green chillies and fry for a minute. When frying green chillies in oil, make a small slit on them so that green chillies will not pop up.image

4. Transfer them onto a plate.image

5. Now in the same kadai, pour oil and put the dried gongura leaves. Mix well and allow them to fry on low flame flame.image

6. Mix occasionally and fry till oil oozes out and also changes its colour.imageimage

7. Transfer the fried gongura onto a plate and allow it to come down to normal temperature.image

8. Take a mixer grinder, first add the roasted urad dal, chana dal, coriander seeds and both chillies adding salt and turmeric.image

9. Grind to a fine powder. Now add fried gongura into it and grind once again to get coarse texture. Don’t add any water.image

image10. Transfer the pachadi onto a bowl.

11. Heat oil, put urad dal and mustard seeds. When mustard splutters add hing into it. Pour this tempering onto the gongura pachadi. Mix well.image

12. Transfer the pachadi onto an air tight container and serve with hot steamed rice. Use clean and dry spoon for serving. The shelf life of the pachadi is 1-1 1/2 months.image

Gongura pachadi with garlic

This is almost similar to the above recipe. After making pachadi, finally tempered with garlic flakes. Instead of the combination of chillies, only red chillies are used. Remaining procedure is same as above.

Ingredients:

Gongura leaves: 6 medium bunches

Red chillies: 15-20 nos.

Coriander seeds: 2 tsp

Chana dal: 1 tsp

Urad dal: 1 tsp

Oil: 3 tbsp.

Salt: As required

Turmeric: generous pinch.

Tempering:

Oil: 1 1/2 tbsp.

Mustard seeds: 1 tsp

Garlic flakes: 15-20 nos.

Hing: A pinch.

Method of preparation:

1. Rinse the leaves and keep them in a veggie basket to drain water. Air dry them for 1 hour.

2. Heat kadai, pour oil. Put chana dal, urad dal and coriander seeds. When they slightly change into brown colour add red chillies and fry for a minute.image

3. Transfer them onto a plate.image

4. Now in the same kadai pour little oil and keep the dried gongura leaves. Fry them on low flame till oil oozes out. Keep aside and allow them to cool.image

imageimage5. Now take a mixer grinder, put the roasted ingredients adding required amount of salt and turmeric. Grind into a fine powder and add fried gongura.image

6. Grind all of them to get smooth texture.image

7. Transfer them onto a bowl.

8. Now heat kadai, pour oil for tempering.

9. Put mustard, when it splutters add garlic flakes and fry for a minute. Allow the tempering to come down to normal temperature.image

image10. Pour this tempering onto the pachadi and mix well.image

image11. Transfer the pachadi into an airtight container and serve with hot steamed rice. Take one tsp of pachadi along with one serving spoon of steamed rice n melted ghee. Mix well and eat along with finely chopped onions. This tastes amazing.image