Lau Chingri or Lau Chingrir Ghonto is a traditional Bengali dish that we often cook at home. As it’s a popular dish,the recipe varies a little bit from home to home. I learned to cook this from my mother. The recipe is easy to follow, and beginner-friendly. So, if you’ve never cooked this before, you will be able to cook it this time by following the way I make it. A humble vegetable Bottle gourd/Lau turns out delicious when cooked with prawns. Made without onion-garlic, flavours from simple, basic spices and prawns shine through the dish. Loved by many, it’s always a delight to have Lau Chingri with steamed rice any day.
Lau Chingri/Bottle gourd with Prawns
A traditional Bengali delicacy, Lau Chingri or Lau Chingrir Ghonto is loved by many. Make this easy-to-cook dish by following my easy recipe.
Ingredients
- 2- Lau/Bottle gourd (medium-sized)
- 150g- Prawn/Chingri (small or medium-sized prawns)
- Turmeric powder
- Salt to taste
- 1- Dry red chilli (halved)
- Cumin seeds
- 2- Green chillies (halved)
- 1 tbsp- Sugar
- Mustard oil
- 1 tbsp- Fresh coriander leaves (chopped)
Instructions
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Dry roast ½ tbsp cumin seeds in a frying pan until fragrant and one shade darker in colour. Transfer to a mortar pestle, let it be cooled a little bit. Now make a powder of it, keep aside for later use.
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Peel the bottle gourds, wash them well, and cut them into 1” matchstick pieces, but keep the pieces somewhat thick.
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Pressure cook the bottle gourd with some water for 1 whistle. After the pressure release, drain them through a colander, keep aside. This step is optional, if you’re using tender bottle gourds you don’t need to pressure cook it. Pressure cooking helps in faster cooking of the dish afterward, otherwise, it takes quite some time to get the lau cooked through.
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Rub salt and a ½ tsp of turmeric powder on the freshly washed pieces of prawns.
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Heat ½ cup oil in a deep frying pan/kadai and shallow fry the prawns over medium heat for 1-2 minutes. Take them out in a bowl and keep them aside.
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In the rest of the oil (we need 2 tbsp oil to make this sabji, if not much oil is left in the kadai, add some more at this stage) temper with dry red chilli and ½ tsp cumin seeds.
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Once they start to sputter, add the lau/bottle gourd, green chilli, ¼ tsp turmeric powder and salt. Mix well. Cover and cook over low heat until the bottle gourd becomes tender. Keep stirring in between.
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Next, add the prawns, sugar, and roasted cumin seeds powder, mix well and cook uncovered for 3-4 minutes. The dish shall look moist and dryish towards the end, don’t make it watery, otherwise, the overall taste of it will be compromised. So, during the cooking, the juices from the bottle gourds need to be dried up. Keep this in mind, and give this dish proper cooking time to experience a delicious end result.
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Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Transfer the Lau Chingri to a bowl.
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Serve hot with steamed rice, enjoy!
