Kaddu also called as pumpkin is good for health. Pumpkin can be boiled and eaten with ease. Varieties of dishes can be made with pumpkin; one pure vegetarian dish which can be prepared with pumpkin is Kaddu ka Dalcha. Kaddu in Hindi means pumpkin. In Andhra Pradesh, especially in Hyderabad this dish is prepared in weddings. Kaddu is also known as Luauki or Doodhi. It is also called as sorakaya or bottle gourd. Kaddu can also be used for general purposes. When it becomes dry, seeds can be removed from it and its outer part can be used for decoration. Bottle gourd has low calories and fat, that is why it’s good at improving the hearts health.
Ingredients:
Channa Dal 250gms
Kaddu, peeled and deseeded 1
Tomatoes 250gms
Onions 2
Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
Green chilies 3
Red chili powder 2 tsp
Ginger garlic pate 1 tbsp
Tamarind juice 1 cup
Springs curry leaves 4
Oil for cooking 150gms
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves 4
Shazeera, Elaichi, dalchini 3gms
Kotmira sticks 1
Jaggery 2tsp powdered
Kariapak 2sticks
Popular Accompaniments:
Kaddu ka dalcha can be served with any pickle like mango. Kaddu ka dalcha can be served along with roti. Biryani and Kaddu ka dalcha form a good combination.
Preparation:
Take toor dal in a vessel and clean it with drinking water.
Cut the vegetables and put them aside.
Chop onions and keep them aside.
Main Cooking:
Wash and cut Kaddu or bottle guard into pieces.
Dip tamarind into water, wait for some time and squeeze its juice.
Wash chand dal and boil it properly.
Grind the boiled dal into paste, add tamarind to it along with 2 glasses of water.
Fry onion and Kaddu in oil.
Add garlic paste, haldi, salt to taste and red chilly to the pan.
Add chopped tomatoes.
Pour water and cook Kaddu and tomatoes properly.
Add broth and channa dal to kaddu mixture and sprinkle some turmeric powder, elaichi, shazeera and dalchini into it.
After this add green chillies, Kotmir, Jaggery powder and Kariapak to it.
Boil it for few minutes, and see that everything gets in shape.
Finally remove it, allow it to cool and serve to people.
Presentation:
Best way to present kaddu ka dalcha is with mango pickle in a bowl. You can also present it in a plate, just by spreading it over the rice.
