Bottle Gourd Kofta

Description

Veggie style kofta made grated bottle gourd, baked and served in spicy tomato onion sauce. Normally in any kofta the meat or veggie balls are deep fried and then served with a thick rich sauce. Here I've baked the veggie balls and served in a light sauce.

Doodhi Kofta / Dudhi Kofta / Surakkai Kofta / Sorrakkai Kofta / Cheraikai Kofta / Sorakaya Kofta / Sorekai / Lauki Kofta / Bottlegourd Kofta Curry / Maharashtrian / Kofta Curry / Kofta masala

Ingredients-1
2 cup	Bottle gourd (shredded)
3 no	Onion shallots( chopped)
1 inch	Ginger (finely chopped)
2 nos	Green chili (finely chopped) (medium)
1 pinch	Baking soda
3 tbsp	Besan flour (kadalai maavu)
¼ tsp	Red chili powder
2 pinch	Ajwain powder
½ cup	Coriander leaves (chopped )
¼ tsp	Salt
½ no	Potato (boiled and mashed)

Ingredients-2
2 nos	Onion (roughly chopped)
2 nos	Tomato (ripe, chopped)
1 inch	Ginger (crushed)
3 clove	Garlic (crushed)
1 no	Green chili (slit open)
3 nos	Cashews
1 tsp	Poppy seeds
1 tsp	Cumin seeds
¼ tsp	Turmeric powder
1 tsp	Red chili powder
2 tsp	Coriander powder
½ tsp	Garam masala powder
½ tsp	Salt (or to taste)
4 tsp	Oil (for gravy)
1 tsp	Oil (for veggie saute)
½ cup	Low fat milk
2 stks	Corainder leaves (chopped for garnishing)

Instructions

For Kofta: Wash, peel the skin, cut open, remove the spongy tissue from inside and grate the bottle gourd flesh. Half a bottle gourd should yield about 2 cups of grated flesh. Place the grated bottle gourd in a colander and sprinkle little salt over it. Let it stay for 10 minutes, slowly the gourd will release water. Squeeze tightly to drain all the water from the flesh and keep aside. Boil the pototo with little water and cook thoroughly. Let cool and mash it with your hands or grate and keep aside.

Heat 1 tsp of oil in a small pan, add the ingredients from table-1 chopped shallots, green chilies and ginger. Saute for few minutes, add the drained bottle gourd flesh, chilli powder, ajwain powder and salt. Fry for few seconds and switch off. Let cool completely, add baking soda, garam flour, mashed potato and chopped corainder and mix well to form a thick dough. Shape them into small golf size balls and keep aside . (This recipe makes 10 to 12 golf ball size koftas)

At this stage you can either choose to deep fry or bake the koftas. If deep frying heat oil in a kadai and fry till golden and keep aside. I've choosen to bake mine and here's how you proceed..

Preheat oven to 400 F, lightly grease a baking sheet, line the koftas leaving little space between each and bake for 35 minutes placing them in the middle rack. Turn them a couple of times inbetween to brown them evenly.

When done try to remove carefully, as quickly lifting out of the sheet could break the koftas. This is how they look after baking. Only problem with baking is its doesn't look evenly browned but will be perfectly cooked through. I'm though !!

For gravy: Heat 3 tsp oil in a sauce pan, splutter cumin seeds, fry roughly chopped onion, ginger, galic and green chili till lightly brown and add chopped tomatoes. Cook till tender and soft (avoid tomato skin if possible). Swtich off and let cool completely. Grind this along with cashew and poppy seeds to make a thick paste adding little water. Again heat up the pan, add the remaining oil, cook the gravy adding turmeric powder, red chili powder, corainder powder, garam masala and salt. This should take about few minutes. Now add the milk and simmer until it thickens to desired consistency. Add the baked koftas, garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with paratha or roti.

Notes

I've included low fat milk and did the entire prepartion with light olive oil to make it low fat. You may go for the other version by adding cream, garnish with dry fruits and nuts toasted in ghee, increase the cashew count and saute in butter to make it rich and creamy.

Potato is mainly added to act as a glue to hold the veggie, you may also substitute with little white corn flour. You can also substitute baking soda with 1/4 tsp baking powder.

Yield: Serves 4 approx.