Su's Recipes: Stuffed Gilki

stuffed gilki, sponge gourd, turai, turi, guthibira, galaka, tuppahirekai, pongonsali, kattupeechal, ghiatori, mozhuku pirkankai

Gilki is the vegetable, especially prepared in Northern parts of India though it is cropped all over the country. Stuffed vegetable is prepared all over in a variety of different ways giving different flavor and adding different spices. Usually stuffed vegetable means, which comes to everyone's mind is the brinjal stuffing, capsicum stuffing and bitter gourd among few. The Gilki vegetable as the name suggests is like a sponge-like texture, which blends with the spices well when cooked. Stuffed Gilki is a vegetable side dish, best relished with Chapatis and Rice.

Gilki is nothing but the Sponge Gourd or Vegetable Sponge, which is a large climber with a stout. The vegetable is known in assorted names all over India. In Gujarati it is called as Galaka; in telugu it is named as Guthibira; in Karnataka Tuppahirekai; in Konkani Porgonsali; in Malayalam as Kattupeechal; in Urdu it is called Turi; in Punjabi as Ghiatori, and in Tamil it is known as Mozhuku Pirkankai and so on.

gilki, vegetable, sabzi, palyam, side dish, indian, north meals, north indian vegetable

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Ingredients

1. Sponge Gourd - 5 nos.
2. Onion - 2 no.
3. Chilly powder - 2 tsp.
4. Coriander powder/Dhania- 1 tsp.
5. Turmeric - 1/2 tsp.
6. Salt to taste
7. Oil - 3 tbsp.

Cooking Method:

1. Chop the onions and blend it coaresely.

2. Heat 2 tbsp. of oil in a pan and cook them absolutely in low flame until the oil leaves to the sides. Add salt, turmeric, Coriander powder and chilly powder to it giving it a thorough stir switching off the flame (may be little amount of water can be sprinkled here without the spices getting burnt). And finally allow it to cool.

3. Peel the outer layer of the sponge gourd and chop them into an 3 inch piece cutting them on one side without it getting into 2 pieces to fill the onion stuffing. Fill the cooked onion spice mix into it and arrange it onto a plate.

4. Again in the same pan, heat one tbsp. of oil and add these Gilki stuffed pieces and cook it covered lightly sprinkling some water until the vegetable goes little tender. Garnish The Stuffed Gilki with fresh coriander leaves and serve as a side dish paring with Dal fry of your choice. Here in the pic is the masoor dal (tur dal is added in small quantity here), which makes a better accompaniment to serve for the complete meal.