Bottle Gourd Milk Pudding
Lauki Ki Kheer
Abha Gupta
Note from Mamta: This is a delicious, old fashioned recipe from my elder sister Abha, needs resurrection in my view. Our father loved it so our mother had it cooked often. Serves 6
Edited February 2023
Ingredients
300-400 gm. bottle gourd or lauki
1/2 tbsp. ghee
1 litre milk at room temperature
4 tablespoons sugar, adjusted to taste
1/2 tsp. crushed or powdered green cardamoms/a few strands of saffron
8 almonds, blanched and shredded
1 tbsp. ground rice/rice powder, optional
1 tbsp. raisins, optional
Instructions
Peel and grate the bottle gourd, removing any seeds.
Heat ghee in a pan and fry 1 tea-cup full of grated lauki, for 5 minutes.
Add milk to it and allow it to simmer briskly, stirring from time to time, until lauki is soft and the milk gets to a custard like consistency. You can add 1 tablespoon of rice powder or ground rice, dissolved in cold milk, at this stage. This will get you the right consistency quickly.
Add sugar and saffron/cardamom powder. Mix well
Turn heat off and add raisins, half the almonds and mix.
Transfer to a serving bowl, garnish with rest of the almonds and serve warm or chilled.
Notes
To get a creamier texture, you can add some double cream after you finish cooking.
You can also add a few shredded pistachios, along with almonds.
You can use sugar free sweetener instead of sugar, but add this after turning the heat off.
