Mai Kan

A few days ago I was doing a collaboration of food from different parts of India with my friends on Instagram, in which we decided to cook food from North East India.

The North eastern Indian food has very different flavours, it’s spicy, it’s pungent and it is simple yet delicious. The North-Eastern Cuisine of India is influenced by many cuisines like Tibetan, Chinese and Jain Cuisine. This dish in particular has a big Sichuan influence. Thanks to Pushpesh Pant’s cookbook India, I got to know about this recipe. This is my take on the original recipe.

Do give it a try.

Ingredients:

• 500 g peeled, deseeded and cut in cubes Ash gourd or bottle gourd
• 1 onion medium diced
• 6 garlic cloves finely chopped
• 6 dried red chillies
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• ½ tsp turmeric powder
• Salt to taste
• 1 tbsp mustard oil

Instructions:

Heat oil, add in the red chillies and onions. Sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add in the garlic, red chilli powder and turmeric powder with the gourd.

Don’t cover the wok and keep stirring it. Fry till it’s completely cooked. Adjust salt and serve hot with roti and dal.