Name: Watakolu vanjanaya (Ridged gourd curry)
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: Sri Lankan
Ingredients: 2 ridged gourds; ½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds; 1 fresh curry leaf sprig, leaves picked; salt, to taste; 300 ml (10½ fl oz) coconut milk; 200 ml (7 fl oz) coconut cream; juice of ½ lime; 1 teaspoon Maldive fish (optional), finely pounded using a mortar and pestle; 1 teaspoon ground turmeric; 2 teaspoons Raw curry powder; ½ teaspoon chilli powder; a pinch of Dark roasted curry powder; 1 onion, diced; 2 Indian green chillies, halved lengthways

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy
Ready in
45 min

Appears in

Lands of the Curry Leaf

By Peter Kuruvita

Published 2018

About

This is a beautiful and unique curry, using an equally unique vegetable that is surprisingly easy to grow. In Sri Lanka, this is one of the curries you would have in your rice and curry selection. On a recent trip there I tasted this curry after many years, and it took me straight back to my grandmother’s smoky black kitchen, where one of the house girls would meticulously clean the gourd, ensuring that the skin on the hard outer ridges was removed, but the skin within the concave dips reta