The name sounds weird – either Chichinga or Snake gourd. It looks weird too! But it does not mean this tropical vegetable taste weird. Chichinga taste in between cucumber and bottle gourd, but it has crunchier texture than cucumber. As this grow mainly in tropical areas, no wonder I hardly find it in Denmark. Luckily last week, a Bangladeshi shop imported them along with other Bangladeshi veggies. It might be 7 years since I had eaten chichinga bhaji!

This recipe is so simple and easy to make! Even the ingredients are few! Great thing about this recipe is you can cook Zucchini in the same way! But before we start cooking, we need to prepare this ‘snake’ gourd or chichinga properly.

Chichinga has a very thin waxy layer outside, so we have to shear the outer skin very lightly with the tip of the knife. As you can see in the picture, the outer skin gives the typical stripped look on this peculiar vegetable. The more you shear, the more you see the inner bright green middle layer. However, some people prefer to keep the layer. I myself eaten chichinga with outer skin on lots of time. So you can skip this step totally.

After we are done with shearing, cut them in half. You will see a soft foam like core inside. Again, some prefer to keep this core, as it does not taste bad at all. But I have chose to scoop them with a help of a spoon.

Slice chichinga very thinly. I have cut them around 1cm thick. Also slice onion and chili.

Now its time to cook. In a pan, warm 2 teaspoon of vegetable oil under medium heat. When the oil is warm, add black cumin (nigella) seeds. Add sliced onion when black cumin starts to bubble. Fry onion until golden brown.

Now add sliced chichinga, salt and chili. Mix everything well and stir fry for 5 minutes in medium low flame.

After 5 minutes of stir fry, cover the pan and simmer in low flame for 5 more minutes. This step ensures that chichinga gets properly cooked.

After 5 minutes of simmering, you will see some water released. Check with spoon if chichinga has gotten soft. You can actually finish cooking at this step, but I will stir fry them for few more minutes.

You can see that chichinga started to change colors, from bright green to pale green. It is releasing oils too. So I will stop at this point, take them off from heat and serve with rice or ruti or khichuri!

Recipe: 4 Servings Prep time: 5 minutes, Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients: 2 Snake Gourd or Chichinga 1 Medium onion 2 Green Chili 1 teaspoon Black cumin 20ml Vegetable oil 1teaspoon Salt

Instruction: 1. Clean and shear the outer layer of chichinga. Cut in half and scoop out the white core. 2. Slice cleaned chichinga and onion very thin. 3. Warm oil in a pan and add black cumin seeds. When bubbling add, sliced onioChichinga Bhajins. Fry until golden. 4. Add sliced chichinga. Stir fry for 5 minutes in medium heat. 5. Cover the pan with lid and simmer for 5 minutes in low heat. 6. After 5 minutes, uncover and stir fry until the vegetable changes color and oil starts to separate. Take out of heat and serve with rice or ruti!