Food Talk
Gourd going

Sufiyani lauki, which is prepared with onions, garlic and green chillies, effortlessly blends the simple with the sublime

Lauki aka bottle gourd is a vegetable that is as Plain Jane as they come. It is considered suitable for consumption by those ailing, aged or with weak digestion. It is seldom cooked with loving care or with exotic ingredients or served with fancy garnishes. It is praised as satvik food and recommended for celibates and monks. Rich in water content and low in calories, it is beginning to find favour with weight watchers but continues to be passed over regularly.

The only exception we can recall is the Awadhi musallam lauki laziz that came draped in silver leaf, redolent of kewra and packed with a stuffing of khoya and paneer studded with chopped dried fruits and assorted nuts. But then, in this avatar, it was almost impossible to recognise the lauki that was treated as a receptacle for the goodies. (The same can be said of lauki ke kofte that were not so long ago a vegetarian staple specialty). Dum ki Kashmiri lauki is our favourite that retains a bite and is elegantly spiced with saunf and saunth. The only trouble is that this recipe leans heavily on deep-frying and lavishly uses oil in gravy resulting in guilty conscience.

We have long searched for a quick fix where lauki/doodhiya doesn’t lose its identity, and yet, goes beyond the jeera-tempered offering. Recently, we encountered a group of daily workers from UP employed in a juice shop in Gurgaon preparing their lunch. They were cooking lauki with finely sliced pyaaz, a few cloves of lehsun and hari mirch with minimalist measure of mustard oil that would have done a Japanese designer proud. It looked great and tasted even better.

We couldn’t resist gate-crashing and have great pleasure in sharing this recipe with our readers. We call it Sufiyani lauki as it seems to blend simple with sublime almost effortlessly and casts a powerful spell.

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