Vaali Ambat-Spinach and Cucumber cooked in a Spicy coconut sauce and Seasoned with onions

I have already posted a couple of ambat recipes before  in this blog whereas each combination has a peculiar taste.'Vaali' is the Konkani term of the spinach and ambat means a type of gravy.This curry is native to Mangalore-udupi belt and prepared by GSB Konkani community and tastes heavenly when served with white rice and heavenliest with red boiled rice. 

Ingredients:
Spinach(Malabar variety)
(washed and chopped)
also a few tender stems                            3cups
Cucumber(mangalore/madras)
chunks(peeled)                                             1cup
Tuvar daal,cooked
(split pigeon peas)                                       1/4 cup
Onion(L)finely chopped                            1 nos(reserve 2tbsp for seasoning)
Turmeric powder/haldi                            1/4tsp
Jaggery                                                            1/4tsp
Salt                                                                     to taste

For masala:
Fresh grated coconut                                1/2cup
Roasted red chillies                                   3-4
Tamarind                                                       size of a peanut

For seasoning :
Oil                                                                      1tbsp

Method:

• Pressure cook spinach leaves along with its tender stems,cucumber chunks,chopped onion along with turmeric and a dash of salt  adding 2cups of water to just 1 whistle then cook on a low flame for 2-3 minutes.
• Tansfer the pressure cooked contents into a soup pot.
• Take out a little water and use it for preparing masala and texture adjustments
• Add salt to taste,cooked daal and jaggery and bring to boil.
• Meanwhile prepare a smooth masala paste with the mentioned ingredients.
• Add this masala paste to the soup pot and boil some more adding required amount of water to get a gravy consistency.
• In a small seasoning pan heat the oil and roast the reserved onions adding a pinch of salt to golden brown and drop into the pot of gravy.
• Boil for one more minute.
• Since the roasted onion is used here,the gravy thickens after sometime.

Note:
Cucumber may be substituted with peeled and cubed raw papaya(the best and authentic combination)or even peeled and cubed chayote chunks.
Similarly spinach(palak) may be substituted instead of Malabar spinach.

Mangalore/Madras/Malabar cucumber-

 

 

Malabar Spinach(vaali)-