Lau Ghonto: Creamy Bottlegourd Curry!

Bottle gourd/dudhi/lauki/lau is a mild tasting vegetable. Its usually heavily flavored with spices or other ingredients to make it more enjoyable. Lau Ghonto is a gem in the Bengali cuisine repertoire which not only celebrates the mild flavor of bottle gourd but further enhances it by lending a creamy texture with milk and mildly sweetening it with sugar.

Bottle gourd contains high water content and is considered to have cooling properties on the body. This vegetable is ideal to cook during the hot summer months. It really cooks in a jiffy so you can be out of your kitchen and enjoy your summer outdoors.

This recipe is a must try for even bottle gourd haters and easy to appease kids.

Ingredients:

• 1 bottle gourd, de-skinned and chopped into small pieces
• 1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas
• 1 tsp kalonji (black onion seeds)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1-2 tablespoons rice flour
• salt to taste
• 1-2 tablespoons sugar
• oil

Directions:

1. In a large saucepan, heat a tablespoon of oil to medium heat.
2. Temper with kalonji and let the seeds sizzle.
3. Add the bottle gourd pieces and mix them up. Cover and cook till half done. The bottle gourd will release its own water.
4. Now add the peas and salt and cook till almost done.
5. Mix the rice flour and the milk to form a sauce. Add this to the vegetables. The milk gives a nice creamy texture while the rice flour thickens the sauce.
6. Add the sugar and mix .
7. Taste to balance the spices. 

Lau Ghonto is a creamy mildly sweet bottle gourd curry. You can enjoy it best with rice and dal.


Other Bottlegourd recipes:

Bottle gourd with Shrimps/ Lau Chingri