Making the healthiest Lauki/bottle gourd/doodhi Raita

Lauki or doodhi is a nice, easy to grow, inexpensive and healthy vegetable. The english name of Lauki is bottle gourd and the botanical name is Lagenaria siceraria and it belongs to cucurbitaceae family(Family of gourds/pumpkins) . Here are some names in different languages:

• India: lauki
  
• Indonesia: labu
  
• Japan: hyotan, yugao
  
• Malaysia: labu ayer
  

• Philippines: upo
  
• Sri Lanka: diya labu
  
• Thailand: buap khaus, nam tao
  
• Vietnam: bau.
• Chinese:  po gua, poo gua, kwa kwa, dudhi, hu gua, hu lu gua, opo

While it has a large number of health benefits that can be found else where, this vegetable can be very delicious also. We have a garden and these vegetables just grow and mature in a weeks time and I really like to cook variety of things with Lauki since the supply is very high. Not to mention the freshness and the organic nature of the vegetable. After browing for suitable recipes, I decided to go my own way.

Ingredients: 1/2 a Lauki(Fresh is better).
3 green chillies
1/2 table spoon of Panchpuran(has a mixture of jeera, dhania, black cumin, mustard and fenugreek seed)
4-5 curry leaf(Murraya koenigii) either fresh or dry .
1/2 cup yoghurt (home made is better)
cooking time : 10 mins.

First peel the gourd and wash it in water then scrape it in a wide scrapper. Get the steamer on and start steaming the vegetable. Meanwhile heat a small pan, add 1/4 spoon oil and first add the panchpuran till the seeds burst. Then add the green chilli and the curry leaf to it, stir it for 10 seconds, then switch off the stove. Mix little bit of water in the yoghurt and add salt to your taste. Within 5-7 minutes, take out the lauki from the steamer and add it to yoghurt. Then add the saute and mix properly. If you wish, add little bit of jeera powder. A very healthy lauki raita is ready for you...