Thursday, April 12, 2007

Lauki-Chana Dal(Bottle gourd- bengal gram) Curry

This authentic Gujarati vegetable main course is a regular dish prepared at my home. As I am at mom’s place right now , I rarely think to enter kitchen even . Though when “L” of Nupur ‘s A-Z of vegetables event came to my mind, I couldn’t resist myself making this beloved Gujarati dish or mine. We call it Dudhi chana nu Shaak in Gujarati.
This is a good option for those who don’t love bottle gourd directly. At my place too hubby likes it though he don’t like Luaki much. According to him this makes a good combination and the taste of final dish is totally different than lauki curry : ) .oh…., I miss Deepak’s compliments the most when I make something here these days.

Ingredients :
1 bottle gourd(lauki) , medium sized,
1 ½ cup of Bengal gram (chana Dal)
1 tsp garlic chopped width wise,
½ tsp mustard seeds,
1 tsp cumin seeds,
½ tsp turmeric powder,
1 tsp red chili powder,
1 tsp cumin-coriander seeds powder,
2-3 tsp oil,
Salt to taste,
Coriander leaves to garnish .

Method:
Soak chana dal(Bengal gram) into water 1 hour prior to cooking.
Peel, wash and chop lauki (bottle gourd) into medium sized cubes.
In a separate vessel boil the chana dal until it is soft.
Remove the excess water from it and keep aside.
Peel the garlic cloves and cut it width wise. (you can use the garlic paste too ) .
In a frying pan heat the oil, when bit hot add mustard seeds and cumin seeds to it, as it start to pop up add turmeric powder and immediately add the Lauki cubes to it.
Mix it well and let it cook , stirring occasionally ,until lauki is cooked fully.
If bottle gourd (lauki) you are using is not much soft then it takes little water added to this to cook it well, in such case cook it until bottle gourd cubes are soft and all water part is evaporated from it.
Next add boiled chana dal(Bengal gram) , red chilli powder and salt to it. Mix it well and finally add cumin –coriander powder to it. mix well, garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with chapati.


This is my entry for A-Z of vegetables of Nupur.
Thanks Nupur :D , for giving me a chance to present this dish.

9 comments:

FH said...

Hi Pooja,great to see you back!:))

I love this dish,looks so good.

Aw..!!I understand how you must be missing your h!Hope you join him here soon.Hugs.Hang in there sweetheart.

Prema Sundar said...

Hi Pooja,
Welcome back... I too make lauki somewhat similar but I add a bit of coconut.Good one for the event with the letter'L'. I was thinking of something with L and could n't get anything.

Nupur said...

One of my favorite preparations! Thanks so much for your entry, Pooja!

Pooja said...

Asha,
you are always there dear , to encourage me ! mmmuuaahhhhhhh..... thanks :) .
Prema,
thanks for your visit here too ! :) . nupur's series is still on ,start finding something with M now :D .
thanks for appreaciating this dish. :) . tc.
Nupur,
though i am still much irregular with blogging , i loved preparing and sending you this.
thanks, stay tuned.

musical said...

Pooja,this is an all time favorite. I usually make Lauki-chana daal in typical Punjabi way (like a daal). But this dry one would go so well with parathas.

Thanks for this wonderful recipe.

Swapna said...

That's a lovely recipe, Pooja..Thanks for sharing

Sharmi said...

Hi Pooja,
Nice recipe. I make it as gravy which is called as Koothu and currently posted in my blog. same combi.
nice one for roti!!

Pooja said...

Musical,
sometime i will try it yourway and make it like daal.
this one is good combo forthose who dont like lauki directly. :) thanks fro sharing your ideas.
Swapna,
thanks,nice to see you here. stay tuned :)
Sharmi,
sure, i will have look at our version soon. thanks fro dropping by here. :)
Stay in touch and keep blogging.

KK said...

Wow Pooja I loved ur blog. Yummy Guju dishes, I am surely gonna try ur Lauki-Chana Dal, I donot like lauki but rem eating it at one of my gujrati friend's house n loved it..