Lauki Kofta Making Tips: Poor gourd! Truly, this green vegetable has received a bad name, which no other vegetable has received. Forget children, even adults start making faces on hearing its name. Whereas everyone knows how beneficial gourd is for our health! Sometimes it seems as if someone is conspiring against gourd!
Leave all these things. Today I am going to tell you some such delicious recipes of gourd, that once you taste them, you will also become crazy about gourd. Believe me, whether children or adults, everyone will eat it as if it is a wonderful dish of paneer! So let’s know…
Kashmiri gourd yakhni
This is a wonderful and aromatic Kashmiri dish, which is made with curd and spices.
Ingredients:
Bottle gourd: 1 medium size
Curd: 1 cup, well whisked
Mustard oil: 2 tbsp
Salt: to taste
Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp
Fennel seeds: 1/2 tsp
Ginger: 1 inch piece, grated
Whole spices: 2 green cardamoms, 2 cloves, 1 inch cinnamon stick, 2 black peppercorns
Turmeric powder: 1/4 tsp
Coriander powder: 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder: 1/4 tsp (or as per taste)
Water: 1/4 cup
Method:
Peel the bottle gourd and cut it into round pieces.
Heat two tsp mustard oil in a pan.
When the oil is hot, add a few pieces of bottle gourd to it, sprinkle some salt and cook on medium flame till it turns golden and soft. Remove the cooked pieces from the pan. Cook the remaining bottle gourd pieces in the same way.
Add the remaining oil to the same pan and heat it. Lower the flame and add cumin seeds, fennel seeds and grated ginger to it.
When the cumin seeds crackle, add all the whole spices, turmeric powder, coriander powder, red chili powder, salt and a quarter cup of water to the pan and mix well.
Keep the flame very low and add the beaten curd to the pan and cook while stirring continuously. Keep in mind that the curd does not split, so it is important to stir continuously.
Let the yakhni curry cook on low flame for about five to seven minutes.
Now add the cooked bottle gourd pieces and cook on low flame for 10 to 15 minutes or until the bottle gourd is well combined with the curd.
Adjust the salt according to your taste.
Turn off the gas. Serve Kashmiri Lauki Yakhni hot with roti or rice.
Lauki Kofta
This is a popular dish in which delicious bottle gourd koftas are dipped in a spicy gravy.
Ingredients:
For Kofta:
Gooseberry (lauki) : 1 medium size
Salt: to taste
Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
Ginger-garlic paste: 1 tsp
Kasuri methi: 1 tsp
Semolina: 1/3 cup
Gram flour: 4 tsp
Finely chopped green chillies: 2
Black pepper powder: 1/2 tsp
Whisked curd: 1 cup
Water: as required
Finely chopped coriander leaves: 2 tsp
Oil: 3 tsp + for frying
Baking soda: 1/4 tsp
Ajwain: a pinch
For Gravy:
Oil: 2 tsp
Fenugreek seeds: a pinch
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
Green chilli: 1, slit
Finely chopped onions: 2 medium size
Ginger-garlic paste: 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
Degi red chilli: 1 spoon
Coriander powder: 1 spoon
Tomato puree: 1 1/2 cup
Salt: according to taste
Water: 1/2 cup
Method:
Peel the skin of bottle gourd or ghiya and grate it.
Put the grated bottle gourd, salt and turmeric powder in a large vessel and mix well and leave it for 10-15 minutes. This will release the water from the bottle gourd.
Now put this mixture in a cotton cloth and squeeze it well so that all the excess water comes out.
In another vessel, put the squeezed bottle gourd, ginger-garlic paste, kasuri methi, semolina, gram flour, finely chopped green chilies, black pepper powder and beaten curd and mix well.
Add some water, salt according to taste, finely chopped coriander leaves, one teaspoon oil and baking soda to the mixture as per requirement and mix well. The mixture has to be kept thick so that koftas can be made.
Take a flat plate. Spread one teaspoon of oil on it well and sprinkle celery on the plate. Pour the prepared mixture on the plate and spread it evenly.
Heat water in a large vessel. Place a mesh strainer on it and place the plate with the prepared gourd mixture on it. Cover and steam for about 15 minutes.
Turn off the gas and let the mixture cool slightly. When cool, turn the plate over and take out the frozen koftas and cut them into desired shapes.
Heat two teaspoons of oil in a pan and fry the prepared koftas on medium flame till they turn golden.
To make the gravy: Heat oil in a pan and add fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds and green chillies and fry for a few seconds.
Now add finely chopped onion and ginger-garlic paste and fry till the onion turns golden.
Add turmeric powder, degi red chilli and coriander powder and fry for about a minute.
Add tomato puree and salt as per taste, mix well and cook for five to six minutes or till the gravy leaves oil.
Add water as required and cook till the gravy thickens.
Add the prepared koftas to the gravy and mix gently and cook on low flame for two-three minutes so that the koftas absorb the gravy.
Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with hot rice.