Kantola Tawa Fry

Kantola has many names like Spine gourd, Mada hagala, .Locally we call this as “Kaadu peere” in Mangalore .Kantola is one of the famous and nutritious vegetables of the coastal region and loved by all. This resembles a bitter gourd in structure, but not in taste. It is a crunchy mild flavoured vegetable.  It is a great health food as it is rich in proteins, iron and anti-oxidants and low in calories. It is high in fibre too.

In my family, we usually relish this in tawa fry form. Let’s see how I do this.

Ingredients:

Kantola: 5 to 6

Salt to taste

Red chilli powder – ½ tsp

Turmeric – ½ tsp

Coconut oil – to shallow fry

Ingredients for outer cover:

Chiroti/fine rawa – 1 small cup

Salt

Asafoetida  powder – ¼ to ½ tsp.

Red chilli powder – 1 tsp

Method:

-Wash Kantola and slice them into very thin slices. Don’t remove outer skin or inner seeds. Use as it is.

– Sprinkle salt ,red chilli powder ,turmeric  on these slices  and mix this nicely by using your hand and   keep aside for 10 to 15 minutes to  marinate. While marinating it will leave some water and it helps to hold outer coating.

– Now take one bowl, dry mix all the ingredients like fine rawa, salt, asafoetida, red chilli powder, for outer cover, don’t add any water.

– Now take each marinated Kantola piece and roll both the sides over rawa mix, keep aside after coating one by one.

-Take one iron Dosa tawa ,heat it ,keep 6 to 7 coated pieces over it and pour one or two teaspoons of coconut oil and fry nicely on one side. After some time, flip the side, once again pour one tsp of coconut oil and fry this side too.

– After frying both the sides, serve this as a side dish with dhal -rice, Rasam –rice or curd- rice.

Note: You should use coconut oil and more asafoetida to get the authentic taste.