Bottle Gourd (Sorakkai) Sambar

          Sambar, is a common dish in most South Indian homes, usually prepared at least 2 or 3 times in a week. It's basically a lentil (usually tuvar dal or split pigeon peas) and vegetable gravy, you can make it with almost any vegetable, or sometimes with more than one vegetable. Usually, we use a sambar powder which is prepared in bulk and stored, but for today's bottle gourd sambar I am using a freshly prepared masala, which makes it more flavorful. It goes well with rice and also with idlis and dosas..

Need To Have

• Bottle Gourd - 2 cups diced
• Tuvar Dal - 1/2 cup
• Tomato - 1 medium chopped
• Tamarind - 1 small lime size
• Mustard Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Cumin Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Urad Dal Or Black Gram - 1 teaspoon
• Fenugreek Seeds - 1/4 teaspoon
• Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
• Turmeric Powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Curry Leaves - about 10

Grind To Paste

• Chana Dal - 1 teaspoon
• Coriander Seeds - 1 tablespoon
• Dried Red Chillies - 5
• Sesame Seeds - 1 teaspoon
• Cumin Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Grated Coconut - 1 + 1/2 tablespoon

Method
          Pressure cook the tuvar dal with water and the turmeric powder till mushy ( takes the same amount of time as rice), remove, mash slightly and keep. Soak the tamarind in 1/2 cup of hot water, squeeze and take out extract, repeat again with another 1/2 cup of normal water, strain and keep. Roast all the ingredients except coconut given under 'grind to paste', adding sesame seeds at the end, when it starts popping, mix for 1/2 a minute, cool and grind it with the coconut, adding little water. Heat some oil, add the mustard, cumin, fenugreek seeds and the urad dal, when it starts spluttering add the asafoetida, curry leaves and the bottlegourd. Add some water and cook  the bottle gourd for 5 minutes, then add the chopped tomatoes, tamarind extract and salt, cover and cook till the vegetable becomes soft. Now add the tuvar dal and the ground paste, if needed some more water, give it a boil, add some more curry leaves and remove. Serve it warm over some rice with some pappads or any vegetable curry on the side.
Sending it to Anu's Healthy Kitchen for the "South Indian Cooking" Series event and
                to Nalini's Kitchen for Sangeetha's Show Me Your Hits - Legumes & Lentils event.

Note 
Do not add the tamarind and tomatoes along with the vegetable, give it at least 5 minutes to cook on its own, otherwise the vegetable does not become soft even after you cook a long time.