Thursday, January 9, 2014

Dr. Mantena's Special - Gongura Chutney

Today’s special in Dr. Mantena’s Kitchen is “Gongura Pacchadi.” It is one of the favorite dishes of Andhra people. It’s nutritious, healthy, sour, spicy, pungent and irresistible in taste.

I have come across people who can’t resist themselves from eating Gongura Chutney and end up scratching their skin, suffer from stomach ache, high blood pressure and gas trouble. I guess many of you might have faced similar problem with Gongura Chutney. And finally the blame goes to Gongura or Sorrel Leaves. Actually none of these problems are the result of Sorrel Leaves but the problem is due to the way it is often made.

Since the Sorrel Leaves is quite sour in taste people add plenty of salt in order to reduce the sourness. Sorrel Leaves is already rich in sodium by nature and addition of salt in large quantity leads to high blood pressure and the volume of oil added to it in order to preserve for long, leads to itching and inflammation of skin and stomach ache due to release of additional gases and enzymes to digest it.

As you are all aware that Dr. Mantena’s kitchen offers you the recipes that are harmless to your health and rich in nutrition. Unlike the traditional method of making Gongura Pacchadi we are about to make it in a healthy, harmless and nutritious manner keeping the taste of the chutney alive. Let me remind you that we don’t use the seven tastes that lead to diseases which are salt, sugar, ghee, oil, tamarind, red chili powder and masalas in our recipes. We try to replace all these tastes with natural substitutes available in the market.  For example we try to choose the food that is naturally rich in sodium to replace the salt. Sorrel Leaves and cauliflower stems in this recipe are such things for example. Honey is often replaced for sugar. Lemon, raw mango etc. is replaced for tamarind, green chilies for spice instead of red chili powder and curry powder for masalas etc.

Gongura Pacchadi is very easy to make and do not consume much time to cook. Let me remind you that unlike the regular Gongura Pacchadi it is not for storing and should be used instantly. Since it is not soaked in oil as it is often done to preserve it from fungus, it is advisable to use instantly. Now let us go into the details of preparing Gongura Pacchadi in a healthy way.

Ingredients:

    
   

1. Sorrel Leaves                           -        10 bunches
2. Peanuts                                  -        1 cup
3. Sesame seeds                          -        ½ cup
4. roasted chick pea gram (putana) -        1 cup
5. Cauliflower stem                       -        10-15 nos.
6. Green chilies                            -        10 nos.
7. Yogurt                                    -        1 Cup

Method:

1. Rinse the Sorrel Leaves well in water and keep it aside in a bowl.

2. Chop Cauliflower stems into small pieces, rinse and keep it aside.

3. Roast peanuts, sesame seeds and grind them separately in a mixer grinder one after the other along with putana and keep it in a bowl.


4. Now light on the stove and cook the cauliflower stems and Sorrel Leaves for 10 minutes in a pan covered with lid. Then add yogurt and cook till the water is completely evaporated from it. Then put off the flame and let it cool down for some time. Now grind it into paste in a mixer grinder.


5. Now mix this paste with the peanut, sesame and putana powder and saute it well. The dish is now ready to serve.


You can serve this chutney with phulkas and also alongside brown rice and dall.



I hope you liked this update. Keep watching the space for more updates.

Comments:
sir, I have arthritis is it ok to add peanuts and putnalu to the recepie? one more thing sir, for arthritis I hav to avoid some vegetables lik brinjal, gongura, etc., and also curd. is it ok I can take all these foods without salt and oil.pls reply me im trying to follow all ur recepies without salt and oil.
 
Some foods like Brinjal, Potatoes, gongura etc are not recommended for arthritic people. If you take peanuts and putnalu in small number without salt is not going to harm you. First you avoid the salt completely from your diet for few months and you see a world of relief in your arthritis pain. If you find the pain aggravating on eating those food then stop them. If not you can continue.
 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]





<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Subscribe to Posts [Atom]