Punjabi Lauki Kofta Curry | Lauki ka Kofta | Doodhi Kofta| Bottle gourd kofta in red gravy | No meat balls in red gravy | Low Calorie Koftas

It's Zini's vacation time again and it makes me think that she is perpetually on vacation!! One of the side effects of having her at home all the time is that I can't really blog or photograph much. But today she went to her friend's place and I immediately clicked the photos of this curry I had made for lunch..
Talking about this curry, it's really simple yet satisfying curry.. Something that is liked by almost all the Punjabis I've met (and I've met quite a few including my hubby :) ).. And what more it goes well with rotis and rice!! In case you don't have bottle gourd, you can substitute it with Zucchini or Courgette.
It's comparatively healthy and a great way to eat your lauki AKA bottle gourd. Before hubby started eating Muthiya, Handvo and Thepla, this was the only way he consumed his bottle gourds...
I am sharing our day to day no frills recipe that I learnt from my MIL, if you want you can make it rich by adding cream to the gravy and potato/bread to the koftas..

Lauki Kofta | No meat balls | Low calorie koftas

Lauki Kofta | No meat balls | Low calorie koftas

Ingredients:

For gravy
2 big onions
2 medium sized tomatoes
1 green chili
1/4 teaspoon ginger paste
3-4 garlic cloves peeled
1/4 teaspoon garam masala (curry powder - in case you don't have it mix black pepper, cloves, corriander seeds, a little cardamom powder, star anise and cumin seeds and churn in mixer to get yours)
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
salt to taste
1 tablespoon oil

For koftas
1 medium sized bottle gourd peeled and grated (If you don't have a bottle gourd then use Zuchhini or Courgette)
3-4 tablespoon besan (garbanzo bean flour/ chick pea flour)
salt to taste
1/8 teaspoon red chili powder
pinch of hing (Traditional recipe doesn't call for this, but I add hing to anything that has besan)
Oil for deep frying or shallow frying

Method:

For Koftas (no meat balls)
1) Squeeze water out of the grated bottle gourd.
2) Add besan (chick pea flour), salt, red chili powder and turmeric powder and hing to it. Mix well.
3) Make small lemon sized balls and deep fry in hot oil in a wok. If you don't want to deep fry then you can alternatively use pancake popper/ Paniyaram pan to get the balls. Or you can shallow fry them like cutlets on a tawa/skillet.
4) Take out on a tissue paper and let them cool down.

For gravy
1) In a mixer or food processor, churn onions, tomatoes, green chili, ginger and garlic to get a paste.
2) In a kadai (wok), take oil and heat it. Add the prepared paste to it and mix well.
3) Keep cooking (and in between stirring) till all the water evaporates and the oil separates.
4) Now add garam masala (Curry powder) and turmeric powder. Mix well.
5) Cook for 1 minute while stirring continuously.
6) Add 1 cup water, mix well and add salt to taste.
7) Let it boil. You can add koftas if serving immediately.

Assemble it when ready to serve otherwise the koftas will get soggy.
To Assemble
1) Heat the gravy and add the prepared koftas to the gravy.
2) Let them cook for 7-10 minutes. Don't stir vigorously, else your koftas will break.

Notes:
1) You can adjust masalas as per your taste. If you like it spicy, add red chili powder. If you are not a fan of hot food, taper down chili (Green/red).
2) As I said, you can make more rich version with cream and potatoes/bread.

Lauki Kofta | No meat balls | Low calorie koftas

Lauki Kofta | No meat balls | Low calorie koftas

Lauki Kofta | No meat balls | Low calorie koftas

+techie ZM