This is a delicious recipe of stuffed tinda or bharwan tinda where apple gourds aka tinda are made in an onion tomato based gravy.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 15 minutes
  • Cook time: 10 minutes
  • Total time: 25 minutes
  • Yield: 4
  • Category: Main Course
  • Cuisine: North Indian, Punjabi

Ingredients

  • 1 large sized onion (or 100 grams onion or ½ cup chopped onions)
  • 3 medium sized tomatoes (or 1 to 1.25 cups chopped tomatoes)
  • 4 medium garlic cloves ((lahsun) - roughly chopped)
  • ½ inch ginger ((adrak) - roughly chopped)
  • ½ teaspoon turmeric powder ((haldi))
  • ½ teaspoon red chilli powder ((lal mirch powder))
  • ½ teaspoon coriander powder ((dhania powder))
  • ½ teaspoon cumin powder ((jeera powder))
  • ½ teaspoon garam masala
  • ½ teaspoon dry mango powder ((amchur powder))
  • 1 pinch asafoetida ((hing))
  • salt (as required)
  • 500 grams tinda ((apple gourds))
  • 3 to 4 tablespoons oil
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves ((dhania patta))

Method

preparation and making stuffing masala

  1. Firstly rinse 500 grams tinda (apple gourds) very well in water. Also rinse the other veggies like tomatoes. Keep aside.
  2. Now in a blender or grinder jar or food processor/chopper, take ½ cup roughly chopped onions, 1 to 1.25 cups chopped tomatoes, 4 medium garlic cloves (roughly chopped) and ½ inch ginger (roughly chopped).
  3. Without adding any water grind to a fine paste. Keep aside.
  4. Peel or scrape the outer green skin of the apple gourds.
  5. Now make a cross section slice on each tinda without cutting it entirely. Slice all the apple gourds this way. Keep aside.
  6. Now take all of the ground onion-tomato paste in a bowl. Add ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, ½ teaspoon red chilli powder, ½ teaspoon coriander powder, ½ teaspoon cumin powder, ½ teaspoon garam masala powder, ½ teaspoon dry mango powder, 1 pinch of asafoetida (hing) and salt as required.
  7. Mix the spice powders very well with the onion-tomato paste.

stuffing tinda with masala

  1. Take each tinda and first stuff the ground paste on one side of the cut.
  2. Then stuff the ground paste on the second side.
  3. This way stuff the ground masala paste in all the tinda (apple gourds).
  4. There will be remaining masala paste in the bowl. Keep this aside as we will be using this.

making bharwan tinda

  1. Now heat 4 tablespoons oil in a pressure cooker. Add the remaining masala paste. Be careful as the paste splutters.
  2. Saute for 2 minutes on a low to medium flame.
  3. Now gently place the stuffed tinda in the cooker. No need to add water.
  4. Pressure cook bharwan tinda on medium flame for 2 to 3 whistles or 6 to 8 minutes. Tender tinda will take 2 whistles. Slightly more mature ones will take 3 to 4 whistles.
  5. Once the pressure settles down, then open the lid. Check if the tinda have cooked by sliding a knife through it. If the knife slides easily, then the tinda are cooked. If not then pressure cook for 1 to 2 whistle more.
  6. There will be some water in the cooker. So cook the bharwan tinda gravy without the lid on medium flame till most of the water evaporates. This bharwan tinda gravy has medium consistency.
  7. Serve bharwan tinda garnished with coriander leaves with chapati, parathas or phulkas.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.