Tindora Sabzi

Tindora, sometimes called "ivy gourd" from its green-streaked flesh, is one of those vegetables Cafe Drake has strolled past in Indian markets for years. Something seemed daunting about their unusual shape and coloring and a description once heard of the flavor being a cross between an English hothouse cucumber and a string bean. Plus, tindora curries never seem to make it on the menus of even the most authentic and uncompromising of Indian restaurants, probably due to their limited availability in the U.S. - though plentiful in mid-late summer tindora has an apparently short growing season (?)

We were enthralled by the preparation as above, culled from Sailu's Kitchen, a wonderful blog packed with innovative Indian recipes. Once you score the tindora the only remaining exotic ingredient is amchur, or powdered dried green mango. The amchur adds such a unique, floral tartness to the dish that it's hard to imagine leaving it out - if you must, substitute plenty of lemon juice to achieve the right salty/sour balance.

Cafe Drake enjoyed our tindora sabzi alongside Nawabi Murg, an East Indian chicken curry. That recipe can be found here, although as you'll see in the photographs we added tomatoes in a successful attempt to lighten the dish for the hot season.