Bottle Gourd or Lauki or Doodhi as it is popularly known in greater parts of India is a very bland tasting vegetable that almost all of us have run away from as kids and avoided as adults. Surprisingly it is one of the healthiest and easiest vegetables to cook. It is believed to be light on the digestive system and is widely recommended to jaundice patients.

 

You can serve this as a vegetable dish on the side or to make things more interesting you could serve it in a wrap or a sandwich.

 

1 Medium Onion, Chopped

1 Green Chilly, Slit into half

1 Cup Boiled Potato, Cubed

1 Cup Bottle Gourd, Cubed

1 Cup Spinach

1 Pinch Turmeric Powder

Half cup Coconut milk

Salt to taste

1 Tbs Oil

 

Add oil to a pan and fry the onion until soft. Add the slit green chilly, stir and leave for a minute. Add the bottle gourd* to the pan let it cook until soft. Avoid adding water as far as possible. If required add a little bit at a time. Once the gourd is tender, add the potato, and let it cook for a minute. Add the coconut milk and the turmeric, Stir, bring to a boil and let it cook till it just begins to coat the vegetable. Add salt to taste. And finally add the spinach leaves just before taking it off the heat.

 

 

*You could also try to pressure cook the bottle gourd till soft. This should take roughly one and a half whistle and would reduce your cooking time.

Mutton Masala

Combine the love experimenting with food, the sense of taste with a last minute person and you'll never know what feast's in store for dinner!

I had actually gone to the market to pick up pork meat to prepare Ham, when i saw lovely mutton bones, as fresh as they come. The immediate abandonment of the ham recipe in my head gave way to the spicy mutton masala i hadn't had in years!

1/2 kg meaty bone mutton
3 dried red chillies
6 cloves garlic
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cumin seeds
10 pepper corns
4 cloves
2 sticks cinnamon
3 cardamoms
1 tbs turmeric powder
salt to taste
2 onions chopped
oil
tamarind water


Wash and clean the mutton. Apply salt and keep aside.
Grind all the remaining ingredients with tamarind water to make the masala paste.
Marinate the mutton with the masala paste for at least 2 hours.
Fry the chopped onion till tender. Add the mutton pieces and semi fry for 3 mins.
Add the remaining masala from the container, a little water, and let the mutton cook till done.
Reduce the gravy till it coats the mutton bones evenly.