Doodhi/Lauki Kofta Curry (BottleGourd Dumplings) in Almond and Cream Gravy


Kofta Curry is a very famous Indian curry, and goes through endless variations. Though paneer, cheese and vegetables seem to be the favorites, I also like the simple koftas made from lauki, called bottle-gourd in English. This elongated gourd vegetable is quite nutritious too, especially good for your eyes and skin, and due to the rich water content, it can add to the softness in the koftas. This one is a very low-fuss recipe that comes from my mom's kitchen, and unlike the restaurant-style Malai Koftas, these dudhi koftas require minimal preparation and cooking time, and yet can make any meal special. I modified my mom's recipe to pair almonds with bottle-gourd, and also make the curry more richer by using almond and cream in the gravy. The result was delicious, and I urge you to try this bottlegourd kofta curry to serve with your parthas or simple jeera rice!

Ingredients
1/2 mid-sized bottlegourd
1/2 to 3/4 cup besan (chickpea flour)
1/2 cup blanched almonds
slivered almonds - for garnish
1 medium onion
2 medium tomatoes
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup whipping cream
1-2 cups water
3-4 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp garam masala powder
3-4 tsp red chilli powder
salt - to taste
2-3 tbsp lemon juice
chopped fresh coriander - for garnish

Method
Take the onions and garlic and blend them to form a smooth paste. Take the blanched almonds, peel off the skin, then blend them with 2 tsp water or milk to form a thick paste. Blend the tomatoes separately and keep aside.

Now take a pan, put 2 tbsp oil and add the cumin seeds. When they start spluttering, add the onion-garlic paste and sate till it turns light pinkish with a glaze. Now add the garam masala, tomato paste, salt, the remaining spices and slowly add the milk, stirring it. Now add the almond paste, a little water to make a rich gravy, then cover with a lid and allow to simmer on medium flame.

Take the bottle-gourd and grate it in a bowl. Then press it through a strain or your fingers to remove all water from the bottle-gourd. It's important to do this else the koftas will break in the gravy. Now add the turmeric powder, salt, red chilli powder, half of the slivered almonds and the besan. You can also add some lemon juice to your taste. Mix well and form small round or oval dumplings from the mixture. Add more besan flour if required to give proper texture and shape to the koftas.

Now increase the flame for the gravy so it starts boiling, then gently add the koftas (dumlpings)into the gravy. Cover with the lid and reduce flame. Let them cook for 3-5 mins, then gently flip the koftas over, taking care not to break them. Add more water to the ravy if required, then add the whpping cream. Stir gently and let it cook so the spices and flavors get soaked in together.

Once its done, gently remove the koftas first and transfer them into a serving bowl, then top it with the remaining gravy. Garnish with chopped coriander and slivered almonds, and serve hot your delicious Doodhi/Lauki Koftas with Parathas or Rice!


If you liked this post, please subscribe to our feed so you'd never miss a recipe or article again!





39 comments :

Anonymous said...

Oooh!! that looks gorgeous mansi! I just need some garama-garam parathas now:) you made me so hungry!!

-Hiral

Rina said...

Looks gr8... never tried this preparation...Sure this will taste delicious... Bookmarked Mansi.

Anonymous said...

Adding that variation of almonds, brilliant!! thanks to you and your mom!:)

-Sheila

FH said...

My favorite too, drooooliiing! :)

Richa said...

these r my most fav koftas, Mansi!
can i've that bowl of kofta please :)
btw, u can add the drained lauki water to the gravy & get all the nutrients.

Dhivya said...

Looks great..want to have now...

Anonymous said...

those look so inviting Mansi! and no frying the koftas!! that's the best thing:)

-Anjali

DK said...

Do u actually eat what U make? cos if u do, i wonder how much are u piling up with such wonderful goodies going into you so often! :)

Mansi said...

Thanks for the comments! I'm glad you'll liked it!

DK - I do eat, but most of it is consumed by my foodie hubby, and also by my brother and sis-in-law who are regular food-tasters at our house:) plus, there are friends who are ever eager to do the taste-test too!!:D

amna said...

i always shy away from making koftas cuz somehow, it seems like too much work for me and i feel i might mess it up. but seeing this beautiful pic, i am so tempted!

Red Chillies said...

Wah! I never though beyond potatoes for the koftas. Lovely idea of making use of Lauki.

Anonymous said...

My husband loves Malai koftas. Thanks for sharing the recipe Mansi. I am still due to send in my entry for your event.

EC said...

It looks so creamy

The Bhandari's said...

Oh these are my fav too, I love them when ever my mom makes, but hey what do I see you haven't deep fried kofta's before adding to gravy :) so this means it is more healthy
preeti

Mike of Mike's Table said...

I don't think I've ever had kofta, but I'll definitely have to give it a try. Looks tasty

The Short (dis)Order Cook said...

That looks really tasty. Is there a substitute you can use for bottle gourd if they aren't readily available?

Anonymous said...

I always been a little intimidated by Indian food but you make me want to challenge myself. Looks great! I bet it's delicious! :-)

Mansi said...

disordercook - you could use potatoes, crumbled cheese or plain zuchhini, though I'd stick with the first two:)

zen - now's the time to give it a shot!

Johanna GGG said...

these look really delicious - I was just thinking I could maybe use zucchini because I have never ever heard of bottle gourd so you have answered my question in your comments - these koftas look like an indian meal I don't find intimidating!

But I do have one question that might seem a wee bit silly - is the garam masala powder you use quite sweet or more savoury - I have had it both ways and now never know what it means when I see garam masala in a recipe

Mansi said...

Hi Johanna- the garam msala powder by default is lalways a blend of powedred indian spices, and is savoury...if you buy it from any indian grocery store, you should get it right...maybe you confused it with milk masala, whch coulld be sweet as it has cardamom and nuts....zucchini should be good, and as I've not used it myself, I'd like to know how u life it!:)

Anonymous said...

Curry, almonds? I'm way in!!!

bigfish_chin said...

ohhh!!! This is Lovely!

Archana Doshi said...

Nice recipe of the kofta without deep frying them. I guess i will get over the stigma of non deep fried kofta's, but HAVE to try this one :). By the way, gram flour is the same as besan or chick pea flour. I will correct some of recipes to use the alternative names.

Archana
http://www.archanaskitchen.com

Kalai said...

I love koftas, Mansi! Great use of bottle gourd, girl! :)

Kribha said...

Yum... That looks so creamy and gorgeous. Awesome presentation as usual. I can't do this right now but I'll surely try to do this later.

Archana Doshi said...

just to let you know :). I have linked you in my loukhi kofta as a healthier option :). Thanks for making me aware and sharing

Minti said...

Hi Mansi,

I have to report - I tried this recipe - and I loved the gravy. The results were like a restaurant style curry. I like recipes where there is no deep frying involved - so this one was great for me.

Mansi said...

A great round of thanks for all you fantastic readers, and your appreciation!

Archana - appreciate the link; it's always a pleasure to share something useful!:)

Minti- thanks so much for trying it out and sharing your verdict! I'm sure it'll encourage others to do so too:)

Anonymous said...

Hey Mansi, this is an interesting lauki kofta too ... and ur lauki koftas are not fried ... boiled in the gravy - would taste nice with almonds and cream I am sure ... will try it your way the next time :)

Archana Doshi said...

Finally the day has come to make the non fried version- i have grated and kept the stuff. Do Look forward to the link back in a few days. Kudos to you! BTW, I am hosting a ONE DISH MEAL event - do check my site for details. I would love for to participate

Anonymous said...

surbhi said.
i tried this recipe but my koftas were hard.........
please tell me what's the cause

Mansi said...

hi surbhi - the only thing that could have made the koftas hard is extra besan(flour). I would recommend to start with very little besan, then keep adding 1 tbsp at a time as you mix the ingredients for koftas. adding more besan right from the beginning is the only explanation for hard koftas....so try with less flour next time, and add it only until the mixture is hard enough to shape into balls.

hope this helps!

-Mansi

Hello said...

hi mansi

thanks for the reply.ok when i dipped koftas they were soft but when we ate they were hard. but i will try next time as u said.
i try this recipe because the best thing is non frying.......
thanks again......

Mini said...

I tried it & it turned out yummy.. Thanks for the recipie..

Brocade Blue said...

The dudhi took time to make, not that the process itself took time, but my father was gone a while before he got back from our local market. It was hard to make balls with the dudhi because labu air being watery, my mum and I had to squeeze the thing in our hands before mixing it with besan, salt, and other spices. I especially liked the kofta, it was soft and tender and hot and well-spiced. The curry was abit watery, but that's the way my family like it, so I had to make extra curry. Not that I mind, because the curry and spices soaked into the kofta well. I wasnt happy with the cabbage rice last night so tonight I made sure the carrot was enuf in the rice (enuff to be seen in my shots as well as visible to be eaten) What I did today was to cook the carrot first with its spices, then added it in the rice and cooked the whole lot in the rice cooker. This saved me the time to cook the rice and spices together after the rice was done. Well, I loved the kofta. It tasted damn good! See for yourself!

P.S-I ommitted the whipping cream, milk did the job godo enuff!

Dee said...

How should the consistency of kofta with besan be ? Can you post a pic of the individual kofta before and after dropping in the gravy ? mine looks more green and less yellow.
It did not break but I did not get the coated style. It was more like some veggie dumplings.

Thanks for the great recipe. Hoping I get it close to the authentic way.

Mansi said...

Hi Deepa, these dudhi koftas will never have the same smooth shape as regular potato koftas, b'coz dudhi gives out more water, and plus, we don't coat them in maida and fry them like we do the Malai koftas. However, as long as they don't break and are soft from inside yet well cooked, it should be good:) Don't add too much besan as it can make the koftas harder - just the right amount so that they don't break and hold some shape of a "dumpling", like we do for Bhajiyas...hope this helps!

Anonymous said...

Manasi, Kofta & gravy really became tasty! Thanx for your receipe! My family liked it very much. I've skipped the cream and added little more chilli powder to make it more spicy(The way we like it)! Thanx Again!!!!!!!!

--Smita

Anonymous said...

Hey,
I reached here thru search engine.. I loved your recipe!
Liked the fact that u dint fry the koftas and directly put them into the gravy..
Thanks for posting it,
- Vedika.