From BongMom with Lau’er Malaikari

This malaikari is inspired by everyone’s favourite – the BongMom! Though I’d admit, I did not follow her, sorry her Mum’s recipe to the T. I did minor hera-pheri here and there. Somewhere at the back of my mind, I had my Mum’s Chingri Malaikari too. I am hoping I will be pardoned for the culinary license I took.

The Lau’er Malaikari or Lauki (Bottle gourd) cooked in coconut milk is a very new recipe for me. Probably that’s what makes it all the more interesting.

Ingredients for BongMom-inspired Lau’er Malaikari are:

1 small lau/lauki, peeled and diced
1 medium size red onion made into paste
1 can of coconut milk (I use the Thai variety)
1 tablespoon ginger paste
3-4 whole green chillies
1 tablespoon mixed whole garam masala spices (cloves, green and black cardamoms, cinnamon)
2-3 bay
Half teaspoon red chilli powder
Half teaspoon turmeric
4-5 tablespoons desi ghee
Sugar
Salt

Heat the ghee in a thick pan. Add a pinch of sugar and let it caramelize. Now add the onion paste and the whole garam masala spices and bay. Very soon the onion paste will start turning a darker shade of pink. Keep moving the onion in the ghee and the spices, till you have a line of ghee on the sides. This will also indicate that the onion paste is cooked and does not have its conspicuous raw smell. Add a couple of green chillies if you want to at this stage. Do this cooking on low-medium heat. We don’t want the onions burnt.

Now add the cubed/ diced lau pieces. Mix with the onion paste. After about 2-3 minutes, add the ginger paste and salt. Add the red chilli and turmeric powder. Cover and cook for 5-7 minutes.

Open the lid to see that a lot of juices and moisture from the lau has been released. Cook on high for a minute or two and pour the coconut milk.

Let the coconut milk come to a rumbling boil, then reduce the heat. Let the lau cook in the coconut milk for about 8-10 minutes. You will see a thin layer of the ghee surface on top. Add sugar and more salt if necessary.

Move around the thickened coconut milk and lau pieces. Pray that you have done a good job and turn the heat off.

Your Lau’er Malaikari is now ready to be eaten with plain, white rice.

Thank you, BongMom for being an inspiration and a friend I can run to with my cribs and complains.

Dudh Diye Lau

Literally translated as Lauki/ Bottle Gourd/ Dudhi/ Ghiya cooked with milk, a Bengali specialty for summers.

Bengalis have a knack of combining the strangest of ingredients and coming up with something very exotic. If you are craving for something extremely natural in taste, try making the Dudh Diye Lau.

One person who couldn't be happier about the fact that I am eating my vegetables is my Mum. My Mother used to make this dish at least once a week all through the summers of our our growing up years in India. How I hated it then!

She’d say, “pet thanda thakbe”, your tummy will remain cool. Bottle gourd or lauki/lau has many health benefits including a cooling effect due to its high water content.

And that’s how the lau in this recipe is cooked, in its own water!

Ingredients for Dudh Diye Lau are:

1 good looking Bottle Gourd/ Lauki/ Lau about 500 grams
Half teaspoon yellow mustard powder/ ground to a paste
Half teaspoon whole yellow mustard seeds
2-3 green chilies, broken from the center
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour/ maida
Half cup milk
2 tablespoons desi ghee
Sugar
Salt

Wash the whole bottle gourd and peel the skin. Cut small sections of the gourd and then chop each very finely.

In a wok or sauté pan, heat ghee and toss in the yellow mustard seeds, green chilies and the bay leaves. Let the mustard seeds splutter and change color to a darker hue.

Now add the finely chopped gourd. Add the powdered mustard seeds, salt and sugar. Cover and cook till the gourd is done by not mushy.
The salt will do its trick on the bottle gourd and it will release a lot of water. Let the gourd/ lauki cook in its own juices.

Mix all-purpose flour/maida and milk and sieve. Add this mixture to the cooked lauki/lau.

Mix well and lower the heat. Let the maida and milk mixture get absorbed by the vegetable. The consistency at the end should be thick and not runny. The Dudh Diye Lau should also have a balance of salt and sweet, so check the seasoning at the end. You may add a wee little ghee to finish it off.

Traditionally, bhaja bori (fried lentil bari) is added as a garnish to this dish, but I haven’t done that since I did not have any at home.

The Dudh Diye Lau is usually made for lunch and served with rice as a first course, sometimes second only to some uchche bhaja (fried bitter gourd).