Lauki Ke Kofte

This was my first time with koftas. Since I had a bottle gourd/ lauki in  stock and I was bored  to death eating usual lauki curries, I thought of trying koftas. Up until now I perceived koftas recipe to be difficult and time taking. However, to my surprise, it is not a tedious recipe at all. I was indeed done in good 45 minutes. 

This recipe is again a simple one with less whole spices. Since it comes out really well, this preparation by itself is good enough to be served to the guests too.   

Quantity of ingredients listed below is good to serve 3.  

Ingredients:

Lauki/ Bottle Gourd - 1 grated 
Onion large - 1 finely chopped 
Tomatoes large - 3 finely grind
Garlic cloves - 10-12 peeled 
Ginger - 1.5 inch peeled 
Green Chili - 1  
Besan/ Gram Flour - 1 cup
Cumin seeds
Whole black cardamom - 1
Cinnamon stick - 1.5 inch 
Oil 
Salt 
Red Chili powder
Coriander/ dhaniya  powder
Amchoor/ dry mago powder
Garam masala powder


Recipe:

For Koftas

• Sprinkle some salt on grinded lauki and keep it aside for 2 mins. 
• Now squeeze out all the water from the lauki, add gram flour/ besan and red chili powder to it. Mix well. 
• Now make small round balls out of this mixture and keep aside. 
• Heat oil in a pan to deep fry the kofta balls. 
• Once the oil is hot enough, add the koftas to it until they turn dark brown and crispy.
• Take the koftas out of the pan and pat dry excess oil with a kitchen towel and keep aside. 

For Gravy

• Take ginger, garlic and green chili, add 1 tbsp water to it and finely grind it. 
• Now heat oil in a pan. Once hot, add cumin seeds, whole black cardamom, cinnamon stick to it and let them cook. 
• To this add ginger, garlic, green chili paste and let it cook for a minute. 
• Now add chopped onions and let them cook on low flame until golden brown. 
• Once the onions turn golden brown, add grinded tomatoes to this and let it cook. 
• Mix salt to taste, 1.5 red chili powder, 1.5 tbsp dhaniya powder, 1/2 tbsp amchoor powder, pinch of garam masala and 3 -4 tbsp water in a bowl. Add this masala mixture to your gravy and stir it well. Cover the lid and let it cook. 
• Keep stirring the gravy every 3-5 minutes to prevent burning. 
• Once your gravy is cooked, add koftas to it and cook for another 2 minutes and put the flame off.  

 Your lauki koftas are ready to be served. have them hot with roti or paratha. 

Hope you will like it!!

Happy Eating :)