Kovakkai Curry / Tindora Fry / Dondakaya Fry

Kovakkai / Tindora / Donadakaya vegetable has good medicinal values and rich in beta carotene. Its good for diabetic patients as it regulates the blood sugar level. I made tindora fry with Brinjal, drumstick sambar for dinner yesterday. Mostly, this fry would get over fast and wont have any left over. Cutting this tindora would be a debate topic whenever I make this tindora fry. One person would like to see the round shaped fried tindora and the other one would like to have finger shaped fried tindora. Finally the cutting process would be decided by Mommy's mood and time factor. Yesterday, finger shaped fried tindora won the debate, of course.

Ingredients

Fresh Tindora / Kovakkai / Dondakaya -  25-30 pieces

Turmeric Powder - 2 tsp

Red Chilli Powder - 2 tsp

Sambar Powder - 2 tsp

Salt - Enough to taste

Sugar -- 1 Pinch

For Tempering

Olive Oil - 2 tbsp

Hing / Asafoetida - 1 Dash

Mustard Seeds - 2 tsp

Jeera - 2 tsp

Urad Dal / Ullutham Paruppu / Minna Pappu - 1/2 tbsp

Curry Leaves - 5 or 6 ( if you have )

Dry Red Chillies - 3 or 4  

Method

1. Wash all the tindora thoroughly and drain the water. Keep the tindora aside for drying.
2. After its dried, cut the tindora into thin slices lengthwise.
3. On a thick bottomed kadai, add oil. When it gets heated, add all ingredients for tempering as mentioned above in order. Make sure that the heat is on medium flame and the items on the kadai don't turn black.
4. After tempering is done, add the cut tindora slices into the kadai. Add a pinch of sugar, turmeric powder into the kadai and little water too. Close the lid and allow the vegetable to cook inside.
5. After 4-5 minutes, check to see if its cooked fully. If cooked, then add the red chilli powder, sambar powder, required amount of salt and mix them well.
6. Let the vegetable gets cooked and fried openly on low flame for another 6-7 minutes.
7. On low flame, the tindora fry would be done automatically after few minutes and you could see the fried thin slices of tindora.
8. Now the tindora fry is ready to be served in a meal.

Tips

Try to make this fry as soon as you get this vegetable from the store. Does not taste good with aged and soggy tindora.

Don't add more water while cooking. Actually very little water is enough for cooking  tindora. If you add more water, the fry would turn into a regular soggy curry!!!

Variations

You can add grounded powders to make this tindora fry spicy, make it richer in a special meal. You can add grounded mix of coriander seeds, dry red chilli powder, little coconut flakes, channa dal ( kadalai paruppu / Senaga Pappu ) into the vegetable and fry them..It tastes so good.