Budida Gummadikaya Vadiyalu (பூசனிக்காய் வடம், బూడిద గుమ్మడికాయ వడియాలు, ऐश लौकी की पापड़)

Gummadikaya Vadiyalu (பூசனிக்காய் வடம், బూడిద గుమ్మడికాయ వడియాలు, ऐश लौकी की पापड़) Apart from making pickles during summer time, making vadiyalu/vadams/vadis and papads to stock up for the entire year was another big process. Ashgourd or Boodida-Gummadikaya is a very useful gourd .It has great medicinal values and used in cooking too.

Regional Dish : Tamil Nadu; Andhra; Karnataka; South India and some places in North India.

Cuisine Style : Tamil Nadu | Cooking Time 35 minutes | Take it as side dish or snack | Type Papads | Shelf Life : 6 months if preserved in air tight container.

Appx. Nutritional values : ?

Ingredients to serve :

• Boodida Gummadikaya/Ash Gourd 1(medium)
• Urad Daal   1/4kg
• Saggubiyyam/Sago   50g
• Green Chilly Paste  to your taste
• Seasoning Ingredients :
• Asafoetida/Hing  1/4tsp
• Salt  to taste

Method :

1. Wash the ashgourd and wipe it clean.Cut it with the peel on ,into small pieces(2inch).You will need a nice big knife to cut it as this gourd is little hard skinned.
2. After cutting into pieces rub some salt to the pieces and place all these pieces in a cotton cloth and lock the cloth by twisting it .
3. You need to place this cloth of pieces in a strainer/colander and put heavy weight on this cloth of pieces and leave it like that throughout the night.(You can place this near the sink so that all the water strains into the sink, if not you can put the colander in a big dish so that all the water collects into it and you can discard that water).
4. After prepping the ash-gourd is done, take the urad daal nicely rinse it and soak it in water(Urad daal needs to soak atleast for 4 hours.)
5. Next day morning remove the  weight from the pieces and discard the strained juices.
6. Rinse the urad daal one more time and grind it with less water to a thick batter.While grinding you can add the chillies according to your taste(more or less) and grind the batter.
7. Now add the ashgourd pieces to the urad-chilli batter and also add sago/Sabudana to the(you don’t have to soak sago).
8. Now add hing and salt, first taste test the  batter as we already added salt to the ashgourd pieces and then add salt as needed.
9. Place a nice plastic sheet,table cloth or old cotton saree on the floor and place a spoonful of batter on the cloth and keep doing that with little distance between each spoonful.
10. Let them dry in the hot sun for 3 to 4 days or till they dry and come out easily off the sheet.
11. You can store these for a whole year or more (if they are still left) in an air-tight container.

Other variants / Cuisine Style : White Pumpkin Papads.