Snake Gourd (Patakil) Sahin

One speciality of coastal Karnataka and the Malnad region is that they can cook out of anything in the plant kingdom. Everything from the root to the seed is used in Chutney, Thambuli, Saasmi, Sihin, etc. This is very true in the rainy season. It could be attributed to the rains in this region. Rains made getting any grocery or vegetables very difficult. All vegetables were stored for the entire rainy season. In order to optimize the use of the limited resources, the seeds, bondu ((ಬೊಂಡು) - the part surrounding the seeds), roots, peel, stem, etc and everything else that was edible was cooked and fed (and eaten). Snake Gourd, Padwal kai, patakil, padwal, chachinda or you may call it whatever, is one such vegetable.

The custom continues ......

Snake Gourd is one such vegetable. According to http://www.naturalhealthcure.org/natural-diet/snake-gourd-a-tonic-for-the-heart.html, it has nutitional values too. It can be used to make palya/ajothno (ಆಜೋತ್ನೋ), Sihin (ಸಿಹಿಂ) Saasmi (ಸಾಸಮಿ), Thambuli (ತಂಬುಳಿ) (Thambuli (ತಂಬುಳಿ) is made from the bondu). All these are accompaniments to cooked rice.


Today I am writing about the Snake gourd sihin (ಸಿಹಿಂ). Sihin in kannada means sweet. This accompaniment is supposed to be sweet. It is serverd in small quantities and eaten with Rice.

You will need:

Snake Gourd - 1 medium sized (Peel very thin skin and cut into small)
Grated Coconut - 1/2 Cup
Rice - 1 tsp ( soaked)
Green chilli - 2 - 4 no. depending on your spice preference. I use 1green chilli only
Jaggery - 1 -2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Grind coconut, rice, green chilli and jaggery together. Add the chopped snake gourd, salt to the ground masala and mix it well.
Add mustard seasoning. The sihin is ready


Makes sihin for about 4-6 people
Skill level: easy
Goes well with: Rice
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Tip: Instead of grinding the green chilli, you can chop and add it to the mixture.