Poila boishakh is just round the corner, 4 days away to be precise. And since there isn't much else I can do to usher in the bengali new year which also happens to be mid week on a Wednesday, I resort to cooking up a gala Bengali spread in my kitchen this Sunday. There will be our favorite combo of shona muger dal and crispy fried alu bhaja(fried potato sticks) along with fresh lime juice. We will have a fiery red, scary hot (jhal jhal) mutton er jhol and a mild rui machher jhol (light fish broth). But the star of the table will be a spectacular lau chingri or bottlegourd and shrimp curry, the recipe of which I will share with you today. Two fresh plump green lau or lauki (bottle gourd) cooked along with fried onions, ginger, garlic, tomatoes and garam masala and with succulent fried prawns has the perfect richness, glamour and oomph to help us usher in the Bengali New Year with a proper bengali bhuribhoj (read overeating).
Good food does always help to deal with the sackful of nostalgia and longing for Calcutta that Poila Boishakh brings every year. When I was under 3 feet and way more fun than now, my parents would hang out with their gang of cousins and their families on a stretch of lawn in front of the 'Fountain of Joy' which was a beautiful fountain show bang opposite of the Victoria Hall premises in Calcutta.
List of Ingredients[scroll down for recipe] 1. Lau or Lauki or botte gourd (2 med pcs) 2. Prawns or shrimps (cleaned, deveined 2 cups) 3. Potatoes cut in cubes (2 large pcs) 4. Onion finely chopped (1 cup) 5. Ginger Garlic Paste (2 tbl spn) 6. Tomato Puree or tomato paste (1/3 cup) 7. Panch Foron or bengali five spice (1 tspn) 8. Whole Dry Red Chilies (1-2 pcs) 9. Cinnamon (1 inch pc) 10. Ghee (1 tspn) 10. Garam Masala Powder (1/2 tspn) 11. Turmeric Powder (1/2 tspn) 12. Red Chili Powder (to taste) 13. Sugar (2-3 tspn) 14. Salt (to taste) 15. Bayleaves (2-3 pcs) 16. Oil
The fountains would dance to the tunes of Arabian Nights and the changing colors with tilting twirling spurts of water, the perfectly choreoghaphed colorful water fountain and the quaint happy music would never cease to amuse me year after year. The night air beneath the open sky would be crisp and chilly even in April and after a couple of hours of joyful adda (chit chat) every one will be ready to make there way to a Park Street restaurant for a gala family dinner. Park street would be chock-a-block with people all decked up in new clothes, women with white jasmine garlands in their hair and men in crisp white kurta and pajama buying colorful balloons for their munchkins and all patiently waiting for their table. It was fun watching the crowd, it was fun complaining about how long it takes to get a table at our favorite restaurants at this day of the year, being part of it all while it lasted. But these beautiful poila boishakh days were long gone by the time I even began high school, most people including me had little time for sitting under the star lit skies in front of an old forgotten set of fountains dancing away to quaint Arabian Nights tunes in our busy City of Joy. But even decades later, the warm fuzzy feeling that lives on, always will and will continue to moisten my eyes like it does right now as I tell you about those magic days over a bowl of authentic and delectable lau chingri curry.
Our beloved lau chingri is a stunning bengali recipe and I do not agree to too much deviation from the traditional recipe but I have noticed that tomato puree in place of chopped tomatoes adds a better texture and tang to the curry. Also lau chingri is a moist curry neither too dry nor too soggy so you have to take it off the flame at the right time. And lastly I love my lau chingri like my Grandmom used to make it a bit on the spicy end, but if you like yours a bit sweet and mild then go right ahead. Good luck in the kitchen!
RECIPE for Lau Chingri or Lauki with shrimp curry.
Serves:4-5 Cook Time:40 mins Prep Time:15 mins Calories (per pc): 290
STEP 1 : Here is a look at the primary ingredients we will need for making the bengali recipe of lau chingri. Scroll up to get the detailed list of all the ingredients and their amounts. You have to get your hands on two nice fresh tender lau or bottle gourds. If they are not fresh then they'l have a lot of seeds and its no fun trying to pick out all the seeds before you can cook the bottle gourd. You can use any size or variety of prawns but it is better to use smaller ones as you will anyways chop them up. So clean your prawns, devein them, shell them and chop them in half inch pieces. You can leave a few whole for garnishing the dish like me. Chop the onion, peel and cut the potatoes in cubes, make a paste of the tomatoes in a mixie if you don't have the tomato puree and make a paste of ginger garlic.
STEP 2 :Now let us heat some oil in a pan or kadhai and fry the prawns with a little bit of salt. Drain these when they turn reddish and set them aside. Next in the same oil add in the panch foron, the cinnamon stick and gently crush the whole dry red chilies and put them in . I make my own garam masala blend along with tej pata or bay leaves but when you are adding whole bayleaves then you will add them in now. 
STEP 3 :Add in the chopped onion and let it turn a bit golden yellow and add in the sugar and some salt. Next add in the ginger garlic paste and tomato puree or just tomato paste. Mix and cook well for 3 mins. 
STEP 4 :Add in the potato cubes and mix well. Stir fry for a minute and then cover and cook for 2 mins then add in the chopped lau. For those of you who don't know how cut a lauki or bottle gourd, let me help you. The skin of a bottle gourd is quiet thin so you can easily peel it off with a regular knife or peeler. Then you can easily chop it as it is a tender vegetable when nice and young. But if you see any big solid seeds then you will have to pick them out and discard.
STEP 5:Mix in and cover and cook for 10 mins. The bottle gourd will reduce in volume a little. Next add in the fried prawn pieces and cook for another 5 mins or till everything is tender. Check and fix the salt and then add in the garam masala powder and a tspn of ghee.
STEP 6:Serve the lau chingri with boiled rice as a main course or as a side dish with muger dal. If you like my recipe then don't forget to leave your comments below.
