Tuesday 19 July 2011

LAUKI BAJKA (BOTTLEGOURD FRITTERS)

In an effort to give another delicious avatar to our otherwise plain vegetable lauki or the bottlegourd, I could not wait to share this quick yet tasty recipe that has always been a part of my lunch and my daughter’s too. I insist on mentioning my daughter’s choice because it is sometimes very tough to impress the toddlers especially when it comes to including any vegetable, that too a lauki. Usually eaten as a side dish, this fritter will surely capture anyone’s attention and in no time.

Ingredients:
1 medium long lauki
½ cup besan (chickpea flour)
½ cup rice (preferably fragnant arwa chawal or non parboiled rice used for payasam)
½ tsp red chilli powde (optional for kids)
½ tsp chaat masala
3 green chillies
½ turmeric powder
1 inch ginger
5 cloves of garlic
Salt
Oil for frying
Method: Peel and wash the lauki. Cut 5mm thin round slices. Soak the rice for 45 min. Drain and grind the soaked rice along with green chillies, ginger and garlic using enough water. Now pour the paste in a bowl and add the besan, salt and turmeric powder. Add water slowly and mix well so that no lumps form. Consistency should not be very thick but enough to coat the lauki slices.  
Heat oil in a pan. Take once slice at a time, dip into the batter so that it coats both the sides and slowly place in the pan. Turn when it gets a brown colour. Now you can also deep fry the slices in a kadai. Sprinkle with red chilli powder and chaat masala and serve with rice and daal.

Tips: Use tender lauki for best results as it takes less time. You can change the consistency of the batter as per your choice for the crust. Thin batter will give thin, crispy crust compared to the thick batters that will give dense and thick crust.

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