Low Fat Lauki Kofta Curry

I am part of the Blogging Marathon#6, organised by Srivalli.  I chose to blog recipes staring a main ingredient for 7 days. My choice is Bottle Gourd/Sorakkai/Lauki. Lauki is one vegetable, which was not used in my day-to-day cooking. During my hostel days, when this veggie was served, I never tasted it. And we were not allowed to waste any food, that is served on our plate. My room-mate was more than happy to take the lauki curry from my plate. She used to tell so much about the health benefits of lauki and somehow I could not bring myself to like this vegetable.  After moving to Pune, ash gourd/elavan was rarely found with the vegetable vendors in my area. And ash gourd is one of the inevitable veggie when it comes to Palakkad Iyer cuisine. So I started buying lauki to be used in place of elavan for molagootal, avial, morkootan- to name few dishes. So with the blogging marathon, I will try some new recipes where lauki is not used as replacement. 

You need

For Kofta

• Grated lauki - 1 cup
• Besan/Kadalamavu - 2 tspn heaped
• Rice flour - 1 tspn
• Red chilli powder - 1/2 tspn
• Salt
• Cumin powder - 1/2 tspn
• Amchoor powder -  a big pinch
• Oil - 1 tblspn

For Gravy

• Onion - 2 nos, chopped
• Ginger- 1 "
• Red chilly - 2 nos
• Coriander powder - 1 tspn
• Khus Khus/Poppu seeds - 1/2 tspn
• Tomato - 1, grated
• Oil - 1 tblspn
• Cumin - 1 tspn
• Curd - 2 tblspn, whipped.
• Kitchen King Masala - 1 tspn

Method

Mix all the ingredients under kofta in a bowl except oil. I did not squeeze the grated lauki to remove some juice. Divide the lauki mix into 12 balls. If you find it difficult to shape, can add some more besan.  Take the shaped balls on a greased thali and steam cook in pressure cooker for 10 minutes. Remove and cool the koftas. Take a broad based kadai and add a tablespoon of oil. When the oil is hot, place the steamed koftas. Shallow fry till the koftas turn golden brown. Remove the fried koftas. 

In the same kadai, add chopped onion and red chilly. When the onions turn translucent, remove. Grind the onion, red chilly, khus khus, ginger to a coarse paste.  Heat oil in the kadai. Add cumin seeds and when it crackles, add the ground paste. Add coriander powder, salt and grated tomato. Add half cup of water. Let it simmer and turn chick. Stir in the whipped curd and kitchen king masala. Boil for 2 minutes. 

Add koftas just before you serve. Heat the gravy and drop the koftas and serve hot.

Do check out what my fellow marathoners are cooking at the blogging marathon page.

Remodelling With Spray Foam Insulation

Remodelling with Spray Foam Insulation in the Carolinas

With high inventory levels and a poor real estate market across the nation, many homeowners are deciding to remodel their existing home, instead of buying new.  In addition, most real estate markets are not seeing the increase in real estate value of their home from year to year, as in recent years.  This has lead to many homeowners looking for other ways to add real estate value to their home, and remodelling is the best way to add value, and curb appeal to your home.  One home improvement a lot of homeowners in North Carolina & South Carolina are making, is re-insulating their home to make it more energy efficient, and in turn lowering utility cost.  With rising utility cost and increase in gas prices, energy efficiency is a top priority among most homeowners looking to remodel.   By re-insulating, homeowners can see a return on their investment in the form of utility savings.  Current tax credits for re-insulating is also encouraging more homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their home.  In order to maximize utility savings homeowners are turning to "green" building products like spray foam insulation, wall foam insulation, and crawl space encapsulations.  Though slightly higher in installation cost, energy & utility savings are much higher as well, helping to offset installation cost.  "Green" building products not only help homeowners save money on utility bills, going green also helps to save the environment as well. 

Here is a list of some of the most popular energy saving home improvements our customers are having installed in 2011:

• Spray Foam Insulation
• Wall Foam Insulation
• Crawl Space Encapsulation
• Solar Energy Powered Hot Water Heaters
• Standing Seam Metal Roofing
• Tile Roofing Systems
• Solar Integrated Roofing Systems

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Quick Vegetable Pizza

I like this quick version because it helps me out when I do not have time to prepare home made pizza dough and sauce. As only topping is prepared at home, it is easy to limit the quantity of cheese and takes only 15 minutes of time. Pizza crust and pizza sauce is available in almost all grocery shops.



Basic Information:

Prep Time: <10 minutes
Cooking Time : 15 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients:



Pizza crust - 1 any size

Pizza sauce - 1 tablespoon or as required

Mixed vegetables - 1/2 cup (I added onion,yellow capsicum, tindora)

Grated cheese - 1/4 cup or as required

Green chillies - 2, chopped finely

Pepper powder -  1/2 teaspoon

Salt - to sprinkle

Dried herbs - to sprinkle (I added oregano,thyme) (optional)



Method:



1) Take a pizza crust and spread pizza sauce followed by grated cheese.

2) Decorate with vegetables of your choice and green chillies with even intervals.

3) Sprinkle few grated cheese on top of the vegetables followed by salt and pepper.

4) Throw dried herbs if using.

5) Preheat the oven to 150C.

6) Keep the pizza inside and bake it for 10-15 minutes or as per the instructions given in the pizza crust.

7) Cut them into slice and serve hot with any sauce.

Note:

1) Usage of vegetables are absolutely your choice. I used the vegetables which were available by the time of preparation.

2) Try to do different topping as per your wish and enjoy.