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Route · 10 stops · 1 h

17.3850° N, 78.4867° E · Hyderabad, Telangana

Gongura pachadi (roselle-leaf chutney)

Hibiscus sabdariffa · Gongura (roselle leaves)

5,210 KM · HIBISCUS SABDARIFFASUDAN AND THE SAHEL · NATIVE GROUNDWHERE THIS DISH IS COOKED

If Telugu food had a flag, it would be gongura. The sour, slightly slippery leaf of the roselle plant is wilted in a little oil, ground coarse with roasted dried chilli, garlic and cumin, and finished with a popu — and that is the pachadi. Eaten with hot rice and a spoon of sesame oil, with sangati, with curd rice, with anything. Red-stemmed gongura is the sourer and the one to buy; green-stemmed makes a milder version.

This is the fresh pachadi, made and eaten within the week. The sun-cured pickle (gongura nilva pachadi) is its long-lived cousin, salted hard and put away in April for the year. Both start the same way: strip, wash, and above all dry the leaves — water is what spoils a pachadi. In a millet week it is the sour, hot counterpoint that makes a plain ball of sangati into a meal.

Servings
8
Prep time
45 min
Cook time
15 min
Difficulty
easy

Before you start

  • Gongura (roselle leaves) · 250 g
  • Dry red chilli (endu mirchi) · 8 pieces
  • Garlic (vellulli) · 25 g
  • Cumin seeds (jeelakarra) · 2 g
  • Sesame oil (nuvvula noone) · 60 ml
  • Mustard seeds (aavalu) · 2 g
  • Urad dal (minapa pappu) · 5 g
  • Curry leaves (karivepaku) · 1 piece
  • Turmeric powder (pasupu) · 0.5 g

Adapt

  • 250 g Gongura (roselle leaves)
  • 8 pieces Dry red chilli (endu mirchi)
  • 25 g Garlic (vellulli)
  • 2 g Cumin seeds (jeelakarra)
  • 60 ml Sesame oil (nuvvula noone)
  • 2 g Mustard seeds (aavalu)
  • 5 g Urad dal (minapa pappu)
  • 1 piece Curry leaves (karivepaku)
  • 0.5 g Turmeric powder (pasupu)

Plan

1 h 59 min planned · 2 h 2 min if done one after another

59 min at the stove

  1. Stop 1 · 0:00–1:30
  2. Stop 2 · 1:30–31:30
  3. Stop 3 · 1:30–2:30
  4. Stop 4 · 31:30–39:30
  5. Stop 5 · 39:30–54:30
  6. Stop 6 · 39:30–41:00
  7. Stop 7 · 54:30–56:00
  8. Stop 8 · 56:00–57:30
  9. Stop 9 · 57:30–59:00
  10. Stop 10 · 59:00–1:59:00

Route

  1. Stop 1

    Strip the leaves from the stems, discard the stems, and wash the leaves in three changes of water until no grit settles at the bottom.

  2. Stop 2

    Spread the washed leaves on a clean cloth and leave them to dry completely, about thirty minutes.

    Timer · 30 min

  3. Stop 3

    Heat a tablespoon of sesame oil in a wide pan on medium and roast the dried red chillies until they puff, darken a shade and smell smoky, about one minute; lift them out onto a plate.

    Timer · 1 min

  4. Stop 4

    Add another tablespoon of oil to the same pan, add all the gongura leaves, and cook on medium, stirring, until they wilt, collapse and turn a dull olive colour, about eight minutes.

    Timer · 8 min

  5. Stop 5

    Take the leaves off the heat and let them cool to room temperature, about fifteen minutes.

    Timer · 15 min

  6. Stop 6

    Grind the roasted chillies with the cumin and a teaspoon and a half of salt to a coarse powder, dry, without water.

  7. Stop 7

    Add the cooled leaves and half the garlic cloves to the chilli powder and pulse to a coarse, spoonable paste — five or six short pulses, no water.

  8. Stop 8

    Heat the remaining two tablespoons of oil in the small pan and make the popu — mustard until it pops, then urad dal until golden, then the crushed garlic, then the curry leaves, and the turmeric last, off the heat.

    Timer · 2 min

  9. Stop 9

    Pour the hot popu, oil and all, over the pachadi and stir it through.

  10. Stop 10

    Let the pachadi rest, covered, for an hour before serving so the garlic mellows and the flavours settle.

    Timer · 1 h

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