I love tindora! Tejas picked some up over the weekend, so I was very excited to make it for dinner last night. I found this interesting recipe in Sailu’s Kitchen for dondakaya vepudu which is an Andhra style tindora fry and uses ground peanuts. Tindora is also called ivy gourd. They are these little squashes look like mini skinny watermelons. The recipe said to serve it with rice, sambar or dal and so we had it with this really yummy Andhra dish called pappu charu which is a cross between sambar and rasam. I will post that recipe soon!

1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
10-12 curry leaves
1 1/2 to 2 lbs tindoras sliced lengthwise into fourths
1/2 teaspoon more oil
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
salt
1/2 teaspoon oil
1 teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds)
3 dried red chilis
2 tablespoons roasted peanuts

1. Heat the oil in a medium stockpot or wok.
2. Add the mustard seeds and when they start to pop, add the curry leaves and let them toast a little.
3. Add the tindora and cook over medium heat stirring often until they are soft and tender, adding the turmeric, chili powder and salt part way through. Keep the cover on when you’re not stirring. This part takes a while, maybe 15-20 minutes. The more often you stir, the higher you can have the heat!
4. Meanwhile heat the 1/2 teaspoon of oil in a tadka or other small pan and roast the jeera until toasty, then add the red chilis.
5. Let cool and grind with the roasted peanuts (if the peanuts are not already roasted, do this first and let them cool before grinding with the cumin and red chilis). I used a coffee grinder.
6. Add this to the cooked tindora and stir for a couple of more minutes.