Low Fat Lauki Kofta Curry

I am part of the Blogging Marathon#6, organised by Srivalli.  I chose to blog recipes staring a main ingredient for 7 days. My choice is Bottle Gourd/Sorakkai/Lauki. Lauki is one vegetable, which was not used in my day-to-day cooking. During my hostel days, when this veggie was served, I never tasted it. And we were not allowed to waste any food, that is served on our plate. My room-mate was more than happy to take the lauki curry from my plate. She used to tell so much about the health benefits of lauki and somehow I could not bring myself to like this vegetable.  After moving to Pune, ash gourd/elavan was rarely found with the vegetable vendors in my area. And ash gourd is one of the inevitable veggie when it comes to Palakkad Iyer cuisine. So I started buying lauki to be used in place of elavan for molagootal, avial, morkootan- to name few dishes. So with the blogging marathon, I will try some new recipes where lauki is not used as replacement. 

You need

For Kofta

• Grated lauki - 1 cup
• Besan/Kadalamavu - 2 tspn heaped
• Rice flour - 1 tspn
• Red chilli powder - 1/2 tspn
• Salt
• Cumin powder - 1/2 tspn
• Amchoor powder -  a big pinch
• Oil - 1 tblspn

For Gravy

• Onion - 2 nos, chopped
• Ginger- 1 "
• Red chilly - 2 nos
• Coriander powder - 1 tspn
• Khus Khus/Poppu seeds - 1/2 tspn
• Tomato - 1, grated
• Oil - 1 tblspn
• Cumin - 1 tspn
• Curd - 2 tblspn, whipped.
• Kitchen King Masala - 1 tspn

Method

Mix all the ingredients under kofta in a bowl except oil. I did not squeeze the grated lauki to remove some juice. Divide the lauki mix into 12 balls. If you find it difficult to shape, can add some more besan.  Take the shaped balls on a greased thali and steam cook in pressure cooker for 10 minutes. Remove and cool the koftas. Take a broad based kadai and add a tablespoon of oil. When the oil is hot, place the steamed koftas. Shallow fry till the koftas turn golden brown. Remove the fried koftas. 

In the same kadai, add chopped onion and red chilly. When the onions turn translucent, remove. Grind the onion, red chilly, khus khus, ginger to a coarse paste.  Heat oil in the kadai. Add cumin seeds and when it crackles, add the ground paste. Add coriander powder, salt and grated tomato. Add half cup of water. Let it simmer and turn chick. Stir in the whipped curd and kitchen king masala. Boil for 2 minutes. 

Add koftas just before you serve. Heat the gravy and drop the koftas and serve hot.

Do check out what my fellow marathoners are cooking at the blogging marathon page.