Sorakaya/Anapakaya/Bottle Gourd Curry with Milk (Paluposina Koora)

One lonely bottle gourd had been awaiting its turn in my refrigerator since about a week. I finally got my hands on it tonight! This is my second Sorakaya/Anapakaya/Lauki preperation. The first one was a dish called dappalam I had posted earlier. For dessert tonight, it was bananas foster. I made the bananas foster in the same way I made the mango-bananas foster. Instead of the mango, I added one more banana. I also added about 4 tbsp of cream (milk can be subsituted) toward the end of the bananas foster cooking to make it a little more creamy and it was just delicious!

The sorakaya curry is very easy to prepare as you can see below!

Software
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• 1 medium sized sorakaya/bottle gourd, peeled and cut into cubes
• 1 small-medium onion, diced
  
• 3-4 Indian green chilis/pachi mirapakaylu, sliced fine
  
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
• 1/2 inch piece of ginger, chopped fine
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder/pasupu/haldi
  
• 1 tsp coriander powder
  
• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp black mustard seeds/aavalu/rai
• 1 tsp cumin seeds/jeelakarra/jeera
• 1 sprig curry leaves, chopped
• 1/3 cup milk
  
• salt, to taste
• cilantro to garnish

Hardware
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• One pressure cooker

Method
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• Put the pressure cooker on medium-high heat, add the oil, add the mustard and the jeera seeds.
  
• After they pop add the curry leaves, green chilis, onion, garlic and ginger and fry until onions are translucent. Add the turmeric powder and stir.
  
• Add the bottle gourd pieces and saute for about 1-2 minutes.
  
• Add little water just to cover the bottle gourd pieces and cover the pressure cooker. Pressure cook for 1-2 whistles. Alternatively, you could cook covered in a regular saute pan until the bottle gourd pieces are soft.
• After the pressure dies down, open the pressure, add the coriander powder and the milk and cook until the milk heats through.
  
• Garnish with the cilantro leaves.

Serving Suggestion: This goes really well with plain white rice and chapathis.