Winter melon / Ash gourd Majjige huli

Ingredients:

Ash gourd / winter melon - 2 cup
Sour Buttermilk / Beaten Curd - 1 cup or slightly more
Salt to taste
Bengal Gram / channa dal - 3 teaspoons 
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Green chillies - 4-6 
Coriander Seeds / Dhania - 2 tsp
Cumin Seeds / jeera - 1/2 tsp
Ginger -1 inch piece
Turmeric / haldi - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida / Hing - 1/2 tbsp
Oil - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Broken Red Chilly - 1
Curry leaves - few

Method :

1) Soak channa dal in little water for 20 minutes or until soft.
2) Remove the skin of the ash gourd , deseed them and cut into small cubes.
3) Cook the ashgourd with little turmeric either in a cooker / microwave or directly in the vessel.But don't overcook and make it mushy. It should be about 75 % cooked.
4) Meanwhile grind the soaked bengal gram, coconut, green chillies, coriander seeds, jeera, ginger turmeric, hing to a very very smooth paste adding little water.
5) Add masala paste and salt to the cooked veggie.
6) In a vessel, add this masala paste and cooked ash gourd for couple of minutes.
7) Now add buttermilk and mix such that  the masala and buttermilk blends well.Add some water to get the desired consistency. Let the mixture to come to a boil. You will see that as it boils, the gravy thickens.Stir for 1-2 mins and switch off. 
8) Heat oil in a small pan . Temper with mustard seeds ,hing & curry leaves.When the mustard crackles,pour the tempering over the curry.

Ash gourd majjige huli is ready to serve.

Enjoy it with steamed rice along with some sun dried chillies / spicy pappad / spicy chutney .

Note:

1) Instead of soaking chana dal and grinding, you can use few tsps of besan too. Add it by dissolving in curd / buttermilk such that no lumps are formed.
2) The amount of chana dal changes the consistency of the final product .The more the chana dal thicker the gravy.
3) Majjige huli tastes best when the yogurt is sour, so do not use fresh curds in this recipe.
4) Don't over boil this curry.It will curdle the curry and loose its creamy texture.If you are reheating also ,do it mildly.
5) Don't forget to grind the masala to a very very smooth paste. This helps in blending well.
6) Coriander and jeera can be replaced with sambhar powder too.