Lauki Gosht: Meat Curry With Bottle Gourd
Lauki Gosht is meat curry with bottle gourd. This mouth-watering combination of rich red meat with soft vegetables creates a unique taste and texture.
Lauki Gosht
This time, the recipe I’m sharing has a very exotic name, Lauki Gosht, a meat curry dish with vegetables called Lauki (read: low-key).
This hearty dish is a dry curry type best enjoyed with chapati/ roti, naan bread, or pitta bread. And it’s quite a rich dish that I personally prefer to have on my dinner menu on a cold evening. But hey, you can enjoy it anytime you want. It doesn’t matter, does it?
When I first had this dish, I didn’t realize what kind of vegetable Lauki was. According to my extended family, the veg has quite a few names. It’s called Lauki or Dudhi.
And when I looked it up on Google, it is called Bottle Gourd/ Calabash. It’s a fruit of a grown vine with light green skin and white flesh when ripe. So yeah, it is a fruit.
This fruit has a high water content and a very mild flavor. Therefore, it usually pairs with other ingredients that enhance the dish’s flavor.
Gosht, which refers to red meat such as goat, lamb, or beef, is a popular choice for lauki.
So the curry dish where pieces of meat are cooked with chunks of bottle gourd in a spicy masala.
This rich, tender meat combination with mild flavored lauki creates a delicious and mouthwatering dish. It also has a lovely mix of textures, meat, and soft lauki.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Easy and Straightforward: All the ingredients for Lauki Gosht are relatively easy to get from any Asian shop. And the cooking method is pretty simple, and it doesn’t take much time to cook.
- Flavorful Combination: Lauki Gosht combines the mild and slightly sweet taste of bottle gourd with the rich and savory flavors of mutton. The blend of spices adds depth and complexity to the dish, making it a flavorful and satisfying meal.
- Comfort Food: It’s a delicious, comforting dish that brings a sense of warmth and satisfaction, making it a favorite in many households.
- Customizable: The spice levels and additional ingredients can adjusted according to personal taste preferences, making it adaptable to different palates.
Ingredients You Need
- Lamb: Shoulder or leg of lamb are ideal. If you prefer, you can also use beef.
- Lauki/ Dudhi: You can use a long or a round dudhi/ lauki.
- Brown Onion: This is essential to create delicious flavor in the dish.
- Ginger: You can use the ready-made ginger paste or make it from fresh ginger.
- Garlic: Crush this with ginger in a food processor or chopper to make ginger-garlic paste.
- Cumin Powder: Store-bought cumin powder is okay to use, though I recommend you roast whole cumin seeds on a frying pan and grind them in a spice grinder.
- Coriander Powder: You can do the same as cumin powder.
- Kashmiri Red Chili Powder: It gives the dish a flavorsome heat with a vibrant color.
- Turmeric powder: This golden spice gives an earthy taste to the dish.
- Tinned Tomatoes: This is the secret to giving a juicy gravy with a sweet-sour taste.
- Salt: One important element of this dish.
- Ground Black Pepper: Its aroma and taste are essential for the rich flavor of the meat.
- Cooking Oil: You can use any neutral oil, such as canola or sunflower.
Equipment
- Chopping Board: Use a different board for cutting vegetables and meat to prevent cross-contamination.
- Kitchen Knife: Investing in good quality knives is highly recommended to make cooking easier.
- Cooking Pot: A heavy-bottomed pot with a lid is a worthwhile investment if you like cooking curries.
- Wooden Spoon: It is essential to any busy kitchen.
How To Make Lauki Gosht
- Peel the lauki and cut it into chunks. Place them in a mixing bowl and sprinkle salt over the lauki pieces. Stir with a spoon to make sure all pieces are covered with salt. This trick helps to prevent the fruit from going brown.
- Prepare the lamb and cut it into chunks.
- Make the ginger and garlic paste using a food processor or food chopper.
- Place the lamb, chopped onions, ginger garlic paste, all the spices, salt, pepper, and tomatoes in a large heavy-bottomed pan with a lid. Using a wooden spoon, stir until all the meat pieces are covered with spices and herbs.
- Put the lid on, turn the heat to medium, and cook for 5- 10 minutes. Stir again and continue to cook at low heat with the lid on.
- Slowly cook the meat at low heat for about 40 minutes or until the meat is tender. Check and stir occasionally to ensure it doesn’t get burned at the bottom. Simultaneously mash the tomato pieces so you will get a smooth gravy.
- Add the lauki pieces and the oil when the meat becomes tender, and the gravy is thickened. Stir carefully and put the lid back on to cook for about 15 minutes or until the lauki softened.
- Your lauki gosht is ready when the gravy looks thick with the oil separated from the spices.
Pro Tips For Making Delicious Lauki Gosht
- Blend the chopped tinned tomatoes before adding. This will save effort to mash them and guarantee your smooth gravy.
- Add one tablespoon or two of Ghee towards the end of cooking. This will enhance the flavor of your curry tremendously. It will taste divine.
Substitutions and Variations
- You can use chicken instead of red meat if you prefer. Use chicken with bones, as the bones can give more flavor to the dish.
What To Serve The Lauki Gosht With
As a general rule of enjoying curry dishes, you eat the curry with rice if it has Shorba – a soupy gravy from the curry. And you have your curry with roti/ chapati, naan bread, or pitta bread if the dish is dry and only has thick gravy.
However, that’s not to say you can not enjoy your curry with any staple you like.
Because I sometimes enjoy my curry with spaghetti. And it tastes yummy.
So, just explore your taste buds.
More Meat Curry Recipes
If you need more ideas for meat curry recipes, you can try Dal Gosht, Aloo Gosht, Lamb Karahi, Nehari, Pakistani Lamb Keema Matar, Pakistani Aloo Keema, or Lamb Kofta curry.
FAQs
What is Gosht curry made of?
Gosht curry is a dry curry made with red meat such as goat, lamb, or beef. However, some curries will be mixed with other ingredients, such as vegetables or lentils. Dal gosht and lauki gosht are a few examples of them.
Do you have to peel dudhi?
You don’t need to peel dudhi. But when you leave its skin on, you must cook longer as the skin is quite thick and hard.
How to eat Lauki?
We should cook the lauki to eat it. Although it is a fruit, it is not recommended to consume it raw.
Lauki Gosht – Pakistani style meat and bottle gourd curry
Equipment
- Chopping board
- Kitchen knife
- Mixing bowls.
- Pestle and mortar or
- Food processor
- Cooking pan with lid.
Ingredients
- 1.3 lbs lamb Cut in small pieces.
- 1 lauki/ dudhi
- 2 brown onions chopped.
- ½ inch ginger.
- 3 cloves of garlic.
- 2 teaspoons cumin powder.
- 2 teaspoons coriander powder.
- 2 teaspoons paprika powder.
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder.
- ½ cup tinned tomatoes see the note.
- 1 teaspoon salt.
- 1 ½ teaspoons coarse/ ground black pepper.
- ⅓ cup cooking oil I use either rapeseed oil or sunflower oil.
Instructions
- Peel the lauki and cut in chunks. Sprinkle a little salt to prevent it from going brown. Set aside.
- Clean and cut the lamb in chunks. Set aside.
- Peel the ginger and garlic. Using a pestle and a mortar, grind them into a paste. You can also use a food processor or a hand-held blender to make them into a paste. If you don’t have any of them, you can chop them as finely as possible.
- Get your cooking pot ready. Put the lamb, chopped onions, ginger garlic paste, all the spices, salt, pepper, and tomatoes in it. Stir until all the meat pieces are covered with spices and herbs. Put the lid on and cook at medium heat for about 5- 10 minutes. Then give it another stir and continue to cook at low heat with the lid on.
- Slow cook the meat for about 40 minutes but keep checking and stirring every now and again. Whenever you give it a toss, try to mash the tomato pieces so that you’ll get a smooth curry juice.
- When the meat becomes tender, and the gravy is thickened, put the lauki pieces and the oil in. Stir carefully and put the lid back on to cook further for about 15 minutes or until the lauki softened.
- Your lauki gosht is ready when you see the gravy looks thick with the oil separated from the spices.
- Enjoy your curry with chapati/ roti, naan bread, or pitta bread.
Notes
- I use either lamb shoulder or leg of lamb.
- You can use fresh ripe tomatoes at the same amount, 200 gr/ 7.05 oz.
Nutrition
Disclaimer
Nutritional info in this recipe is only estimate using online calculator. You should refer to it as a guide only. Please verify with your own data if you seek an accurate info.
I didn’t want to make a trip to the store so I substituted the lamb for grass fed beef, brown onion for green onions, used sesame oil, and a can of roasted tomatoes, but it came out soooo good even the kids couldn’t get enough! I will definitely try this again with the substitutes.