மதுரை ஸ்ரீ கஸ்தூரி விலாஸ்

Ingredients:
Snake gourd – 2 small ones (scrape the skin & cut roughly)
Bengal gram – ¼ cup
Split green gram – 2 tbsp
Small onions – 4
Rice flour – ¼ tsp
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Salt – as required

For masala paste:
Coconut – ¼ cup
Red chillies – 4
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Aniseed – ¼ tsp

For seasoning:
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Black gram – 1 ½ tsp
Curry leaves – few

Method:
1) Pressure cook the lentils and the gourd pieces together along with turmeric powder till 3 whistles.
2) Grind the ingredients mentioned above for masala paste.
3) In a pan, heat little oil and fry onions till translucent.
4) Add the cooked lentils-gourds.
5) Add the ground masala paste and rice flour and cook till thick. Add salt.
6) In a small pan, heat oil, fry seasonings and this to the kootu.

Ingredients:
Eggplant – 5-6 (slit into four)
Onion – 1 big (sliced lengthwise)
Garlic- 8 pods (sliced lengthwise)
Green chillies – 7
Tomatoes -3 (finely chopped)
Tamarind – small lemon size
Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
Sambhar powder- 1 tsp
Salt – as required

For masala paste:
Grated coconut – 1/4 cup (i used frozen)
Poppy seeds – 2 tsp

For seasoning:
Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Bengal gram – 1/2 tsp
vadagam – 2 tsp (optional)
curry leaves – few

Method:
1) In a pan, heat sesame oil and fry the seasonings. Then, add onion, garlic and green chillies and fry till onions turn into golden brown.
2) Add eggplant and stir fry for 2 minutes.
3) Add tomatoes and stir fry for another couple of minutes.
4) Add turmeric, sambhar powder, salt and mix well.
5) Now add the tamarind extract and required amount of water and cook till eggplant becomes soft.
6) Now add the ground paste and cook for 2 minutes.