Lauki Kofta Curry - Bottle Gourd Kofta Curry

A creative twist to a simple humble vegetable, Lauki (Bottle Gourd). This kofta curry dish combines the classic curry notes and invigorates the simple tones of the Lauki. This dish is an ideal start for those of you who have generally stayed away from this vegetable. This dish is also going for Sri's Curry Mela. Ingredients: For Koftas 1 Thin lauki
2 Tablespoon of rice flour
1 Tablespoon of Maida
1 Teaspoon of Coriander-Cumin seed powder
1 Teaspoon of red chilly powder
salt to taste
oil for frying
For Curry
2 Onions
2 Tomatoes
1/2 Cup cashew nuts
3 Garlic cloves
1 small piece of ginger
2 -3 Curry leaves
2 Cloves
1/2 small stick of cinnamon
1 Badyan (Star aniseed)
1 Teaspoon of Cumin seeds
1 Teaspoon of Garam masala
1 Teaspoon of Turmeric powder
1 Teaspoon of Coriander-Cumin seed powder
1 Teaspoon of red chilly powder
Salt to taste
Oil
Water.

Method: 1. For Koftas, remove the skin from the lauki. Grate the lauki, add pinch of salt to remove excess water from the vegetable. Keep aisde for a minute. Press the garted lauki and remove the excess water from it.
2. Mix all the other ingredients of koftas, except oil and mix it properly. Make a dough like consistency, if you feel the batter is still sticky, then add more rice flour to it.

3. Make small koftas out of the batter. Deep fry the koftas, if you want you can shallow fry the kotas on a frying pan, by adding only 2 teaspoons of oil. Keep the koftas aside.

4. For curry, make a smooth paste of the cashewnuts. Now take onions, ginger and garlic and blend it in to a smooth paste. Make a puree of tomatoes.
5. Take a kadhai, add oil and heat it, add badyan, cloves and cinnamon. Once you start smelling the whole masalas, add cumin seeds.
6. Once they start spluttering, add onion mixture and saute the onions till they are light pink in colour. Add cashewnut paste and mix it with the onions.
7. Add tomato puree, turmeric powder, red chilly powder, coriander-cumin seeds powder. Cook till oil starts leaving the sides of the vessel.
8. Add kofats and water if required. Let it simmer on law flame for few minutes, so that the curry gets mixed with the koftas.
9. Serve with rotis or any kind of parathas