Lauki ki kheer - Bottle gourd pudding

 

Bengalis love different type of payes / kheer. Most common ones are rice based. But one of the vegetable which can be used to make kheer is lauki or bottle gourd. Here is one easy and quick recipe of that.

Preparation Time: - 10 min

Cooking Time: - 20 min

Servings: - 3~4 persons

Ingredients:- 

1. 250 gm. Bottle Gourd
2. 500 ml Milk ( Full cream preferred )
3. 3 tbsp Ghee
4. 10~15 nos. Cashew nuts and/or pistachio
5. 1 tsp Cardamom powder
6. Handful of raisin
7. ½ cup sugar
8. 1 tsp Kewra water
9. Few strands of saffron (optional)

Preparation:-

1. Peel bottle gourd, wash, remove the inside seeds if any and grate it.
2. Boil the milk in a heavy bottomed pan on medium heat. Bring the milk to boiling point, turn the heat to low and simmer the milk so that it reduced to ¾ th in quantity. Keep aside.
3. Heat Ghee in non-sticky tawa, add cashew nuts and/or pistachio. Fry till they turn light brown. Keep aside.
4. Add grated lauki / bottle gourd in the same tawa.
5. Cook for 5~7 minutes – Bottle gourd has lot of juice and you need to cook till all the juice is gone and the gourd becomes tender.
6. Pour the cooked lauki in the condensed milk in the same heavy bottomed vessel and sauté for some time. Stir continuously so that it does get stuck in the bottom.
7. Add saffron if you want.
8. Add sugar – cook till the sugar gets dissolved and kheer is thicker. Bring the milk to boiling point again and simmer for around 10 minutes.
9. Mix green cardamom powder and kewra water.
10. Switch off the burner.
11. Garnish with previously fried cashew nuts and raisins. Cover and keep it for 2 minutes.
    

Now it is ready to serve hot. If you refrigerate it for an hour it becomes more delicious in my opinion but some people may not like it. You can have this dessert item after almost every type of meal.

As always please feel free to comment, criticize and seek if any help is required. I am all ears.