R081Moru Curry
Tempered buttermilk curry with ground coconut
Recipes › Curries, Pulissery and the Sour Family
R083
Kumbalanga Pulissery
Ash gourd in curd and coconut
Photograph: Adobe Stock · representative of the dish
The re-engineeringThe gourd raised to 500 g for four and the coconut cut to 50 g, which takes the dish to 0.6 kcal a gram — one of the three lowest energy densities in the book — with 5.9 g of fibre a portion arriving from the gourd and the coconut together.
Ash gourd is the most useful vegetable in this chapter: 17 kcal, 2.84 g of available carbohydrate and 3.37 g of fibre per 100 g, and a texture that goes from squeaky to silken in about eight minutes. In a sadya it is the vegetable of olan and of the cooling closing curries, classified by tradition as calming and paired with coconut for exactly that reason. In a fat-loss kitchen it is the ingredient that lets you put 500 g of food on a plate for 85 kcal.
Before you start: Cook the gourd, grind the paste and whisk the curd before the two are brought together. Once the curd is in the pan the dish has about three minutes of life and it will not wait while you find the mustard seeds.
Kumbalanga Pulissery
Active 15 minutes Total 30 minutes
Scale
4 servings
Ingredients — tap to tick off
- ✓500 g (about ½ a medium one) ash gourd (kumbalanga), peeled, seeded, in 2 cm dice
- ✓150 ml water
- ✓1.5 g (¾ tsp) ground turmeric
- ✓10 g (about 2) green chillies, slit
- ✓50 g (⅔ cup) freshly grated coconut
- ✓1.5 g (½ tsp) cumin seed
- ✓300 g (1¼ cups) thick curd, whisked smooth
- ✓2 g (⅓ tsp) M07 the 70:30 salt
- ✓5 g (1 tsp) coconut oil
- ✓1.5 g (⅓ tsp) mustard seed
- ✓0.5 g (⅛ tsp) fenugreek seed
- ✓2 dried red chillies, broken
- ✓3 g (1 sprig) curry leaves
Allergens: Milk, mustard.
Equipment: Heavy 2-litre pan; mixie; small pan for the tempering. Substitute: as R081.
Per serving (estimated)
| Energy | 137 kcal |
| Protein | 4.5 g |
| Fibre | 5.9 g |
| Net carbohydrate | 8.6 g |
| Total carbohydrate | 14.5 g |
| Sugars | 6.8 g |
| Fat | 9.3 g |
| Saturated fat | 7.3 g |
| Sodium | 190 mg |
From ICMR-NIN IFCT 2017 and USDA FoodData Central. Per-serving figures stay the same when you scale.
Method — tap a step to mark it done, tap a time to start a timer
- Simmer the ash gourd with the water, turmeric, green chilli and a pinch of the salt in the covered pan over a medium flame, , until the dice have turned from opaque white to translucent and a piece pressed with a spoon gives way without falling apart. Ash gourd goes from firm to disintegrated in about three minutes, so start checking at seven.
- Grind the coconut and cumin with 60 ml water to a fine paste, in bursts, until no grit remains on a fingertip.
- Stir the paste into the gourd and cook uncovered over a low flame , until the raw coconut smell has lifted and the liquid has thickened enough to cling to the vegetable. Take the pan off the heat and stand it for .
- Whisk the curd smooth and stir it in off the heat, along with the rest of the salt.
- Return to the very lowest flame and warm, stirring continuously, until hot to a fingertip and faintly steaming, . Never to a bubble. Off the heat at the first shudder of the surface.
- Temper as in R081: mustard seeds in coconut oil hot enough to pop one in 2 seconds, covered until they finish; then fenugreek and broken chilli, 10–15 seconds; then curry leaves, 10–15 seconds.
- Pour the tempering over the surface. Do not stir. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Why this worksAsh gourd is 92% water held in a loose parenchyma, so it releases most of that water into the pot as it cooks and takes up flavour in exchange — which is why the curry needs so little added liquid. The curd's acid then keeps the remaining pectin firm enough that the dice hold together, provided the pot never boils and shears them apart.
Sourcing note
Ash gourd is sold as winter melon or wax gourd in Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai grocers, usually cut by the wedge and usually fresher and cheaper than in Indian shops — buy it with the cut face still wet-looking and use it within two days. Bottle gourd (churakka, lauki, opo) is the closest substitute at the same weight, cooks in about the same time, and is slightly sweeter. Chayote works too and holds its shape more firmly. Do not use courgette here; it collapses into water.
If you are watching…
Blood sugar: 8.6 g of net carbohydrate against 5.9 g of fibre in a 230 g portion. There is very little here for glucose to do. This is the dish to put on the plate when you want the plate full and the numbers small.
Blood pressure: 190 mg a portion, most of it the curd's own sodium plus the M07. Leave the salt out and it falls to about 120 mg, and the dish still tastes seasoned because the curd's acid is doing that job.
Cholesterol: 7.3 g of saturated fat a portion, essentially all of it coconut — 50 g grated plus a teaspoon of oil across four. Cut the coconut to 30 g for about 5.5 g and add a tablespoon of rice flour slaked in water to keep the body. That is a real and reasonable trade.
Swap it
Ash gourd → 500 g bottle gourd, chayote or snake gourd. Snake gourd is the lowest-carbohydrate of the four at 1.27 g per 100 g and needs only 5–6 minutes.
Ash gourd → 400 g ripe nendran banana or 400 g cooked yam, for the sadya registers. Both take the net carbohydrate to about 20 g a portion; both are traditional; neither is a low-energy dish any more.
Curd → 300 g buttermilk plus 15 g rice flour for body. Saturated fat drops to about 5.8 g a portion and the curry is looser and sharper.
Add 80 g cooked vanpayar at step 4 → the dish becomes closer to an olan in spirit, gains about 4 g of protein and 2 g of fibre a portion, and now carries the plate's pulse.
Scale it
Water scales sub-linearly because the gourd's own water is the main liquid. At eight servings cook the gourd in two pans or a very wide one; piled deep, the bottom layer collapses before the top is done.
Make ahead · store · freeze
The cooked gourd with the coconut paste keeps 2 days in the fridge and the curd goes in on the day — this is the sensible way to make it ahead. Fridge 2 days for the finished curry, covered, non-metal. Do not freeze: the curd splits and the gourd turns to water. Reheat to barely warm over the lowest flame, or eat it cold.
Leftovers
Blend it smooth with a little water for a cold soup that is better than the description suggests. Or drain the gourd out and fold it into a thoran with fresh coconut and a mustard tempering.
Troubleshooting
Gourd disintegrated into the sauce: overcooked at step 1, or boiled after the curd went in. Seven minutes, then check every 30 seconds.
Split, grainy sauce: it boiled. No repair.
Watery and bland: too much water at step 1. Ash gourd supplies most of its own; 150 ml for 500 g is the ceiling, not the target.
Squeaky, raw-tasting gourd: undercooked. It should be translucent all the way through, not just at the edges.
Serve with
R015 Matta Rice, Properly Cooked · R023 Kerala Khichdi · R086 Rasam · R084 Ulli Theeyal
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