Bottle Gourd-Oatmeal Balls Curry/
Lauki ka Kofta, oatmeal ke saath
This is a
very popular North-Indian curry. It is very simple to make but tastes great. I
have made a small twist to the recipe by adding oatmeal to it and making it
more nutritious. Traditional recipe asks for boiled potato while making the
koftas (balls) but I have removed that and added oatmeal instead. Thus, diabetics
too can enjoy this recipe to the fullest.
Bottle gourd is very good for our digestive system. It is
cooling, calming, diuretic and anti-bilious. Its great for diabetic people and also helps in weight reduction.
Ingredients
· Bottle Gourd/Lauki – 2 cups grated
· Oatmeal – 3 tsp
· Bread slices – 2
· Salt to taste
· Chili powder – 1 tsp
· Corriander powder – 2 tsp
· Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
· Garam masala powder – 1 tsp
· Cloves – 4 pods
· Whole black pepper – 4-5 nos. (1/2 tsp)
· Green chilies – 1 finely chopped
· Jeera/Carrom seeds – 2 tsp
· Onion – 2 medium sized
· Tomato – 1 medium sized
· Ginger – 2” piece finely chopped
· Garlic – 3 cloves
finely chopped
· Kasoori Methi – 2 tsp
· Coriander leaves – 3 tsp finely chopped
Method
1. Squeeze excess water from the
grated bottle gourd. Keep aside.
2. Soak the bread slices in water and
squeeze it hard to remove the excess water and crumble it. Keep aside.
3. In a bowl, mix the crumbled bread
slices, grated bottle gourd, oatmeal, salt, green chilies, 1 tsp coriander
powder, 1 tsp jeera, half the amount of ginger. Mix all nicely to form dough
like consistency.
4. Divide the mixture into small-small
portions to make balls out of each. Approximately this mixture makes 15 koftas
(balls).
5. Grease your palms with oil and
roll each portion into small balls.
6. Take oil in a wok. Heat over
medium heat.
7. Deep-fry the bottle gourd balls
till golden brown. Keep aside.
8. Grind the onion, tomato, garlic, garlic cloves and black pepper, to a thick paste. Keep aside.
9. Remove excess oil from the wok and
let remain 5 tsp of oil in it.
10.Heat the wok again over medium
heat.
11.When hot, add the remaining jeera
and chopped ginger. Stir for 2-3 seconds.
12.Now add the onion-tomato paste and
increase the flame to high.
13.Add 4 to 5 tsp of water, salt,
turmeric, coriander powder, garam masala powder, chili powder and fry the
masala for a while.
14.Now add kasoori methi and further
fry the masala till the masala starts separating oil from it.
15. Now add 1.5 cups of water and
bring the mixture to boil.
16.When it starts boiling, reduce the
flame to simmer. Let the mixture simmer for 4-5 minutes.
17.Now turn the flame off. Add the
bottle gourd balls (koftas) into the mixute and stir it so that the gravy coats
each koftas well.
18.Cover the wok so that the gravy is
properly absorbed into the koftas (balls).
19.Before serving, re-heat the curry,
transfer it to a bowl and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.
Serving
Serve hot
with puffed phulkas (rotis), parathas or pooris. Steaming hot plain rice also
goes well with this nutritious curry.
