Wash and soak lobia for minimum 3 hours.Once done, drain water. Pressure cook with 2 cups water for 4-5 whistles in medium flame.
Keep aside. Grind roughly chopped tomato, ginger, green chilli into a paste.
Gather all the other ingredients needed.
Heat a heavy bottomed pan with oil. Splutter cumin seeds. Add chopped onion. Give it a fry.
Add crushed garlic (I used my garlic press, you can use paste or even minced garlic). Sautee till onion turns pink here and there.
Pour in the ground tomato paste. Add all the spice powders. Mix well.
Cook in medium flame until oil oozes out. Takes around 4 mins approx.
Add the cooked lobia along with its water. Top it with 1 more cup water and required salt. Mix well.
Bring to boil and simmer for 10 mins. Towards last 2 mins, you can mash few lobia to get a homogeneous mixture. Just use the ladle to mash few and mix in.
Once the gravy is thick, switch off the flame. Garnish with coriander leaves.