Lauki (Bottle gourd) ka kofta

Again thanks to Madhuri for bringing such fresh lauki. I had many dishes in mind with lauki but finally I settled for Lauki ke kofte. The trick is to make plain lauki kofta in a spicy gravy. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

For koftas
1 medium size lauki
1/4 cup besan (gram flour)
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
a pinch salt
Oil for frying

For gravy:
1 onion
6-7 garlic cloves
2 tomatoes
2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp garam masala
salt to taste
1/2 tsp red chili powder (or as per your taste)
Few coriander leaves to garnish

Grate lauki and add a pinch salt and keep aside for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, sqeeze grated lauki to remove  water. Now add besan bit by bit until the lauki starts binding. Add some chili powder and mix well. Make big lemon size rounds and fry them. Now keep them on a tissue paper to absorb extra oil. Your koftas will look like this:

Now grind onion and garlic together and keep aside. Grind tomatoes and keep aside. Heat oil in a wok/pan/kadai. When oil is hot, add cumin seeds. When seeds crackle, add onion garlic paste. Add some salt, turmeric powder, coriander powder, chili powder and fry until the paste leaves oil. Now add grind tomatoes for another 6-7 minutes. Now add garam masala and saute for 2 more minutes. Add water and let it come to a boil. Add koftas carefully so that they do not break. Cook i ton sim for 5 minutes and garnish with coriander leaves. It goes best with rice or roti.