Culinary Information
Gongura pacchadi is quintessentially Telugu cuisine along with pacchadi (chutney or relish). While it has many culinary uses, the most popular is the pickled version. Although Gongura is widely consumed all over Andhra Pradesh, Guntur Gongura is more popular in hotels, restaurants, eateries and food joints. In the Telengana region of Andhra Pradesh it is known as Puntikura Or Kuntikura. It is also available in Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh (north east region of India) and also some parts of Chittagong Hill Tracts region in Bangladesh (which is mainly a tribal people region). It is a very popular green vegetable in Chakma community and it is known as "Aamelli". Gongura is a very rich source of Iron, vitamins, folic acid and anti-oxidants essential for human nutrition. Similarly, Gongura is popular in Tamil Nadu as well, and is called pulichakeerai in Tamil. The famous combination with pulichakeerai is Ragi Kali/Ragi Mudde, which once used to be a regular food for the people in villages (since these items are easily available in agricultural forms). In Marathi, it is called Ambaadi (अंबाडी). It is known as Pitwaa in Hindi, Taka bhendi or Khata Palanga in Oriya, Kotrum in Jharkhand Mestapat in Bengali, Amaari in Chhattisgarhi, Pandi/Pundi in Kannada, Anthur in Mizo, Sougri in Manipuri, Aamelli in Chakma, Sorrel Leaves in English, and Chin Baung in Chinese. It is a summer crop, and the hotter the place, the more sour the leaf gets.
Gongura comes in two varieties, green stemmed leaf and red stemmed. The red stemmed variety is more sour than the green stemmed variety. Gongura is popular in the state of Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura and also Mizoram.A baby gongura leaf is a full leaf. As the leaf grows older, the leaf splits into four or more parts.
Other well known recipes made with Gongura as the main ingredient are Gongura Pappu (Lentils), Gongura mamsam (goat/mutton) and Gongura royyalu (shrimp). In recent times, Gongura Chicken is also being served in restaurants. Gongura and calabash is extremely popular with the Telugu community in South Africa.
Apart from the curries there are many varieties of pickles made with gongura such as:
- Pulla Gongura (Gongura + Red Chillies)
- Pulihara Gongura (Gongura and Tamarind)
Read more about this topic: Gongura
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