Goan Verdur with Bottle Gourd | Coconut Curry With Vegetables

The Goan Verdur curry is a Coconut-based curry flavoured subtly and cooked with vegetables such as bottle gourd, red pumpkin, okra and, usually, also with the addition of fresh or dry prawns. In many homes only coconut milk is used, some use a part of the grated coconut and milk the remainder. This recipe is one I learned from my mother, where she'd use all the grated coconut flesh in the curry, not just the milk, thus giving the curry more substance. 'Verdura' is a Portuguese term that means 'greenery' while in Italian it means 'vegetables'. Whether it's because of the vegetables cooked in this curry or its slight green hue, or another reason, the history of its name is still unclear to me. If anyone could shed some light on this, I'd love to read it in the comments! Ingredients: 1/2 cup fresh, grated Coconut (about half of a small coconut) 1 Tablespoon Coriander Powder 10 Peppercorns 5 Cloves 1 (levelled) teaspoon Cumin Seeds 1/4 teaspoon Turmeric 1" Cinnamon 4 Garlic cloves, fairly large 1" Ginger *Grind the above ingredients into a fine paste using water. 2-3 Tablespoons Oil 1 Onion, finely chopped 2 Green Chilies, slit 1 Tomato, small, finely chopped 250 grams of Bottle gourd, peeled and diced 1 & 1/2 (+/-) cups of Water, 1 dry red chili, either Bedki or Kashmiri Salt to taste 1/2 teaspoon Sugar Music Credits: Sardana by‪@incompetech_kmac‬