Andhrula Athagaru

I stepped into patel brothers on this sweet saturday morning..i woke up in the middle of my sleep to
go buy something to cook...I expected some fresh brinjals or snakegourds welcoming my way into the
store...but to my surprise i saw some fresh teenage gongura looking at me daunted in between the villainous
thotakura and palakura...and my duty was to rescue her...if u know what I say..hehe...I just grabbed the
entire stack of gongura and stuck it in my cart to the surprise of other telgus running towards it...
I cant forget how much I paid for it later though.....

On my way back I was wondering why gongura is called andhrula athagaru....(literally means the mother
in law of telgus). In general no daughter in law is in agreement with her mother in law...its the rule of the world..
but such a name to a famous andhra vegetable is peculiar....I understand we should not take the meaning as it is..its
more in applying the essence of a mother in law to her....She is "callous" in a way that she can be cooked only
by a connoisseur... She is sour and sharp as an athagaru's sarcasm...Needs adequate chillipowder to neutralize
the sourness (like how a daughter in law has to put her own spicy arguments to neutralize her athagaru) But
at the same time it is like amrutham.... just melts away on the tongue ..like a mother in law who melts away
with flattery......

Whatever name we may call her ....the taste it gives when made into a "Pulusu" is unmatched....the only thing is to make
sure the leaves are fried in olive oil till they turn brown before making it into a paste in the grinder..When the paste
is being made we just have to add some avalu- menthulu powder (premade with a mix of two spoons mustard powder
and one spoon menthi powder) and some sarcasms (hehe I mean chilli powder adequate to neutralize the sourness that
it is born with). When this paste is made, we heat some oil, fry some mustard seeds, garlic cloves and red chillies together
with inghuva or hinge..add this paste to it....and try frying this paste for some time....till u think the leafy smell or taste would have vanished....Then we add some water to make it into a pulusu consistency..add curry leaves, green chillies, and slowly heat it on low flame.....add salt, turmeric ....

The pulusu goes extremely good with kandi podi and any curry mixed with rice...its just tht taste tht makes u feel quitting work in the middle of the day to run home and feel it ..once ...only once.....