Lauer Ghonto Bori O Mungdal Diye/Bottle Gourd Curry with Mung Beans and Sun Dried Lentil Dumpling

Bottle gourd or opo squash is a very popular vegetable in Indian cuisine and prepared in different ways in different region, from light curry to very rich gravy based curry. Ghonto is one of the simple curries Bengali serves as everyday meal in lunch or dinner with steamed rice. Ghonto literary means thoroughly mixed together or sticking together but doesn't become too mushy. In Bengali's kitchen bottle gourd is used for simple curry or ghonto and sometimes it is prepared with fish head and shrimp.

Bottle gourd has lots of health benefits. It has cooling effect on our body. It's super low in calorie, high in vitamins and fiber. Young bottle gourd has very tender skin, flesh and seeds, so the skin is peeled then thinly sliced(like shoestring potatoes) all of it. If it matures too much fiber in the middle and seeds becomes too tough. Then it must be scooped out before chopping. This vegetable is easily available in any Asian and Indian market through out the year.

This lightly spiced ghonto is cooked with dry roasted yellow mung beans,grated coconut and fried broken Bori/Sun Dried White Lentil Dumplings , added at the of the cooking. This is how my ma prepared "Lauer Ghonto" in summer months. She never used sugar in any curries. In fact Bangaals(immigrants from Bangladesh, now settled in India)  never used sugar before. Most Ghoti(West Bengali) people use sugar in vegetarian dishes. We adapted from there. Now our palate is so conditioned I also use little sugar(not too much though to make it a sweet dish) in my most vegetarian dishes but never use sugar in non-veg items. It really enhance the the taste. 

Recently I made quite a few pounds of Bori and some always break after drying. So broken Bori is a wonderful way to use in many vegetarian dishes. Fried Bori adds a unique deliciousness and wonderful crunchy texture in any vegetarian dishes. If you don't have bori that's fine, it will taste great anyway with or without Bori. You can leave out sugar since bottle gourd is kind of sweet taste and coconut is also naturally sweet. It's vegan, grain free and gluten free.

 
Ingredients~
2 lb. bottle gourd, skin removed and thinly chopped
1/8 cup dry roasted yellow mung beans
1/3 tsp. ginger paste
1/8 cup grated coconut
2 hot green chilies 
A handful of Bori/Sun dried Lentil Dumplings
2 tbsp. oil
1/4 tsp. nigella seeds
1 bay leaf 
1 tsp. salt or as per taste
1/2 tsp. raw sugar or as per taste(optional)
1/2 tsp. turmeric powder
A few sprigs of cilantro/coriander leaves

Method~ 
Dry roast yellow mung bean till lightly brown, wash and set aside. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed medium pan, fry broken lentil dumplings till medium brown and take them out. Temper  nigella seeds and bay leaf in the same hot oil. Add in some chopped bottle gourd and ginger paste. Saute until raw smell of ginger paste goes away. Add in grated coconut, rest of the chopped bottle gourd, green chili, turmeric powder, salt and sugar. Stir well on high heat and bottle gourd will release lot of water. Cover and cook until bottle gourd is semi cooked on medium low heat approximately 13-15 minutes then add roasted mung beans. Cook for a while again for mung beans to become just tender without losing its shape and let all water dry out. Taste and adjust salt and sugar as needed. Crush fried lentil dumplings into smaller pieces. Mix well chopped cilantro and crushed lentil dumplings with ghonto. Serve with steamed brown or white rice.

Happy cooking!