yummy everyday meal: Zucchini Kottu

Today is the final day in Journey through Tamil Cuisine in A-Z series in mega BM and the letter is Z.Usually I end up the mega marathon with a sweet note,as Z is one of the toughest letter to find a Tamil recipe I made a simple kootu with Zucchini.Since zucchini belongs to the squash family,I made the kootu the way we make soraikkai/squash.
As zucchini cooks very fast,it takes few minutes to cook.Here I used the cooked channa dhal,but any type of dhal can be used.
Kootu can be mixed along with rice as well as can be an accompaniment for a spicy and tangy kuzhambu varieties.I paired up with the ennai kathirikkai kuzhambu,lets move on to the recipe...........

Zucchini Kootu

Basic Information

Preparation time 10 minutes
Cooking time 20 minutes

Serves 3

Ingredients

Ingredient	Quantity
Zucchini	2 (chopped)
Channa dhal/kadala paruppu	3 tbs
Turmeric powder/manjal podi	a pinch
Salt	3/4 tsp
Oil	1 tsp
Curry leaves/karivepillai	few leaves

To grind to a fine paste

Ingredient	Quantity
Dried red chilly/varmilagai	1
Green chilly/Pachamilagai	1
Coconut(grated)	2 tbs
Cumin seeds/jeergam	1 tsp

For the tempering

Ingredient	Quantity
Mustard seeds/kadugu	1/2 tsp
Urad dhal/uluthamparuppu	1 tsp
Asafoetida/perungayam	a pinch
Dried red chilly/varamilagai	1(broken)

Method

Cook the channa dhal in a pressure cooker for 2-3 whistles.It should not turn mushy but needs to cook until soft.Grind the given ingredients to a fine paste and keep it aside.

Peel the skin if needed for the zucchini and chop it.Keep a pan on the stove and add the chopped zucchini and to this add 1/4 cup of water.Add the salt and turmeric powder to it.Cook it covered for 3 - 4 minutes or until 3/4th cooked.Now add the cooked channa dhal and mix it well.

Add the ground paste and let it cook for 3 minutes or till the raw smell disappears.Do the tempering in a pan and add it to the kootu and mix it well.Put off the flame.