Lauki ke kabab / Bottle gourd kabab / Bottle gourd patties

Hi friends ! I am back with some amazing recipes after very busy days. Last few months , I have been so busy to post a recipe . Today I cooked such an amazing dish and I couldn't resist myself to post this recipe. This amazing dish is Lauki ke kabab or Bottle gourd kababs.

Kabab is a middle eastern and eastern Mediterranean dish . In India , Kababs come from mughalayi cuisine . Kabab is supposed to be made up of meat but this lauki ke kabab is purely veg kabab recipe. 

Actually this recipe belongs to my grand mother . My father have been grown up eating this kabab and same with me. My mother learned this recipe from my grand mom. I have been grown up watching my mom and my grand mom cooking these kebabs . This is very simple recipe because it requires very ordinary spices which you can get in every kitchen .



I love these kababs with hot parathas and I can have these anytime in a day.  My husband and kid both like these kababs. I separate a small portion of kabab mixture before adding chilli  for my kid so that he can also enjoy the kababs. 

Let's start the recipe....

Ingredients

• Bottle gourd 1 1/2 cup  grated
• Chana dal or split chickpeas or Bengal gram 1/2 cup
• Oil 4-5 tbsp
• Cumin seeds 1 tsp
• Bay leaves 2-3
• Big cardamom 2 
• Small cardamom 3
• Black pepper
• Cinnamon about 1/2 inch
• Dry coconut  1 tbsp
• Poppy seeds 1 tsp
• Green chillies 2 
• Onion 1 medium and 1 small
• Ginger-garlic paste 1 tbsp
• Cilantro 1/4 cup chopped
• Salt to taste

Method

• Soak the chana dal or split chickpeas for 4-6 hours or overnight . Friends I couldn't post  some pics of soaking and cooking dal mixture.
• Rinse the soaked dal.
• Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pressure cooker , add cumin seeds and all the whole spices .
• After few seconds , add ginger-garlic paste and add 1 small onion chopped. We don't want to fry onion .
• Add soaked split chickpeas . Mix it well with spices.
• Add poppy seeds, dry coconut powder and little salt . Mix it well.Add around 1/4 cup of water only required for cooking chana dal. We are not making curry kind of  here . We only want fully cooked and dry dal. We will wait for 4-5 whistle and let the pressure cool down on its own. When you open the pressure cooker, there should be no moisture in dal. If you see some moisture or extra water in this . Again put the pressure cooker on heat and cook dal for another 5-10 mins.
  
  
  
• Remove all the whole spices like bay leaves , cardamom , cinnamon , cloves from cooked dal.
• Leave black pepper as it is , it will add little heat to this kabab.
• Add cooked dal to the grinder or food processor and pulse it until  you get coarse mixture. We don't want fine paste.
• Keep this coarsely ground chana dal mixture aside.
  
  
  
  
  
• Now boil grated bottle gourd in 4 cups of water till very soft and cooked . Transfer boiled grated bottle gourd into a colander and let it cool down. When it is cooled down , squeez out all the water from grated bottle gourd with the help of your palm and keep it aside.
  
  
  

• Take a big bowl , mix the chana dal and boiled bottle gourd together .Add finely chopped onion and cilantro to the mixture.
  
• Add salt to this mixture according to your taste but remember we have already added little salt to the split chickpeas before.
• Add finely chopped green chillies to the kabab mixture and mix it very well.
  
  
  
  
  
• If you are making kababs for kids too , separate small portion of kabab mixture before adding green chillies.
• Apply little oil on your palm and take a lemon size kabab mixture and make a round patty shape. Make all the kababs like small patty .
  
  
  
  
  
• Now , heat a griddle or a pan or a tava . Add little oil on this and spread the oil all over .
• Arrange 5-6 kababs on the heated griddle. Brush the kababs with oil or drop the oil on the sides of kababs. Let it cook on low to medium heat.
  
  
  
  
  
• After 5 min , flip these kababs over very gently with the help of wide spatulas . I use two spatula one for flipping and one for support because these kababs are very delicate .

•  Cook the other side of kababs for another 5 mins till nice golden brown color. You can flip the kababs a couple of times till kababs are golden evenly.
  
  
  
  
  
• Once done , fry the other batch of kababs.
• Place all the kababs on paper towel to remove excess oil.
• Kababs are ready to serve with hot parathas.

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