Lau r Khosa Bhaja:

Bottle gourd or Lau is a very popular vegetable in Asian countries. This vegetable contains a large amount of water which is very helpful in Asian countries due to the climate. Bengalis are known for their fish dishes beside there are several Vegetarian dishes in our everyday dish, like this one Lau r Khosa Bhaja/Bottle gourd peel fry. Bengali's are fond of Lau, we made several dishes with it, most famous is Lau Chingri.

For this dish, we need to peel the bottle gourd thicker than usual. Then we sliced it very thin, and fry it with potato slices and spices. It is a very tasty side dish to eat with steamed rice as a vegetarian dish.

Course - Vegetarian
Dish - Bengali
Author - Usashi Mandal
Serves - 4
Cooking time - 30 minutes
Preparation time- 25 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cup sliced bottle gourd peel

1 cup sliced potato

2 tbsp mustard oil

1 tsp kalo jeera/kalonji

5 - 6 green chilies cut lengthwise.

1 tbsp poppy seeds.

2 dry red chilies

1 tsp turmeric powder

Salt for seasoning

Method:

1. For making this dish first peel on bottle gourd with a knife(peeler will not work well to cut thick peel)and sliced the peel very thin. Peel one potato and sliced it thin also.

2. Heat oil in a frying pan. Add dry red chilies and whole kalo jeera/kalonji. after it starts crackling first add potato slices and fries for a while then add slices of bottle gourd peels. Fry for five minutes and simmer the flame add turmeric powder, green chilies, salt, and sugar. cook for 10 minutes then add poppy seeds and mix well. Don't cover to cook the vegetables.

3. Cook in low flame until vegetables are cook and oil separates.

4. Lau r Khosa bhaja /Bottle gourd peel fry is ready to serve. Enjoy it with hot steamed rice.