Simple yet awesome side dish made with snake gourd (pudalangai) and bare minimum ingredients.
Wash, cut the snake gourd vertically into halves and remove seeds and the soft whitish flesh part covering the seeds. Cut them into thin slices.
Take a pan, prepare the tadka (mustard, red chillies, urad dal, curry leaves) and add sliced snake gourd, salt, sprinkle some water (about 3 or 4 tbsp), cover and cook in medium heat for 5 mins. There is no need to add lot of water as snake gourd has high water content already.
Check and continue cooking with lid on (add some extra water if needed) until fully cooked (the tender ones cook fast, but the mature snake gourds are harder and may take extra time to cook).
When the snake gourd is fully cooked, remove the lid and saute for few mins to remove any excess water until it gets to a dry porial consistency.
Add grated (or coarsely ground) coconut, mix well.