Pan Fried Chayote Squash (Chow chow/Seemebadnekai Phodi Recipe)

If you sit down to have a Konkani cuisine meal, you'll definitely be served atleast one pan fried veggie. They're locally known rava fry. Phodi in Konkani.

Semolina is used to shallow fry slices of veggies to make crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, delicious phodis. They're simple & easy to make & make an amazing appetizer, side dish for lunch/dinner. Best part they take just 5 minutes to make.

Konkani cuisine includes breadfruit (jeevkadgi) phodi, kantola (phagla) phodi, eggplant (gulla) phodi, plantain (kele) phodi, ripe bananas phodi, bittergourd (karathe) phodi, potato phodi, capsicum phodi, colocasia tuber (maaddi) phodi, sweet potato (kanag) phodi, rigde gourd (gosale), chayote squash (seemebadane), bamboo (kirlu) phodi and elephant foot yam (surna) phodi.

Here's how to make seemebadne phodi real quick. They're rich in Vitamin C too. So, you can also make chayote stir fry (seemebadnekai palya /upkari ) to include them in your diet.

How to pick the best ones, tender ones:

Pick chayote that are tender. How do you knoew they are tender? Tender ones have closer ridges. As they mature they move apart. Tender ones are also usually a nice green in colour. As they mature they tend to turn slightly yellow or lighten in colour.

Ingredients:

1 chayote squash
1/4 cup semolina (sooji rava)
1 teaspoon of red chilli powder
Salt to taste
Oil for shallow frying

Serves: 2

Prep time: 4-5 minutes

Cooking time: 6 minutes

Preparation Method:

1. Peel chayote squash.

2. Slice them into thin slices.

3. Add salt to the slices & toss them in a bowl. Let them rest for 3-5 minutes depending on how thick/thin they are.

4. Meanwhile, in another bowl, mix semolina with salt (just enough for the semolina) and red chilli powder.

5. Heat up a frying pan.

6. Dip salted chayote slices in the semolina mixture, coat them uniformly all around with semolina.

7. Keep them one by one on the hot frying pan.

8. Drizzle oil on top uniformly on all slices. Cook closed on high flame for 2-3 minutes. Put off the flame.

9. Keep it closed for 2-3 minutes. Lift open the lid & overturn all the slices.

10. Drizzle oil if required & now cook them on another side.

11. Cook closed again for 2-3 minutes on high flame. Put off flame.

12. Leave it closed again for 2-3 minutes, after which open the lid & remove all the slices onto a plate. They would be well cooked.

12. Serve them hot as a side & enjoy.

P.S: You can make them using my Mil's phodi pitti too. Tastes super yum. Coat it with phodi pitti instead with semolina mix above. Rest of the steps stay same as above.

You can also add asafoetida powder, little rice flour to the semolina mixture to make it tasty & crispy.

Simebadane is the Kannada name, Simethoushe is the Konkani name.

Tags: tomato saaru, phodi, simethoushe, pan fry, rava fry, tawa fry, veggie tava fry, healthy, side dish, lunch, dinner