Doodh Lau

Doodh Lau is a famous dessert delicacy from Bengal Cuisine. It is prepared with bottle gourd, milk, sugar as the basic important ingredients in the recipe. 'Doodh Lau' is a popular dish all over West Bengal and also in Bangladesh. There are different methods of preparing this sweet dish, however, the three main ingredients are kept intact in all the recipe variants. 'Doodh Lau' is healthy and low-calorie content. This sweet dish is preferably consumed during the summers as bottle gourd contains its own water, it helps in the cooling effect in hot weather.

Doodh Lau is always in high demand in Kolkata, as it's a place with a hot and humid weather. This simple recipe really helps to energize the appetite in balancing the spicy and oily dishes or after a wholesome heavy meal. 'Doodh Lau' is usually served hot alongside steamed plain rice, however, some people prefer to eat it at the end of the meal. I personally love 'Doodh Lau' during the summers or whenever it is cooked at home, and I love to have it in a separate bowl at the end of finishing up my meal plate completely. Some people also prefer to have this sweet dish as the first course in the meal.

Doodh Lau

This 'Doodh Lau' is prepared with homegrown bottle gourd grown from our own home garden. One noticeable thing to observe here is Bottle gourds are usually bottled shape, however, there is a number of species of this extraordinarily underrated vegetable I assume, because I find a lot of other shapes available in the markets and also a few shapes that I happen to witness in my own little vegetable garden. Well, that will be quite confusing to my 30 odd toddlers to identify bottlegourd in different shapes, as I taught them 'Why bottlegourd is actually called a BOTTLE-GOURD?', and guess what my explanation was to little ones, 'it belongs to the gourd family and looks like a bottle' holding a water bottle in my hand. But I know children in this generation have a high level of understanding things from their perspective and I just love to teach them.

Bottle gourd / Ash Gourd (Lau in Bengali, Lauki in Hindi)

Coming to the recipe of bottle gourd today, 'Doodh Lau' has a very simple method of cooking, it does not require much oil and also no ground spices. It is good for a weak appetite and, unlike tastebuds. Head on to the full procedure below that I've shared a quick follow up to the easy 'Doodh Lau' recipe!!

Doodh Lau

Tips: Do not overcook the bottle gourd. Use tender ones for this recipe.

[Veg]

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Course: Side

Cuisine: Indian/ Bengali

Serves: 2

Measuring Items: 1 cup= 150 ml; Teaspoon

Ingredients:

1. Bottle gourd (Lau)- approx 500 grams
2. Oil- 1/4 cup
3. Rice Flour- 2 Tsp
4. Sugar- 1 cup
5. Salt- 1 Tsp
6. Milk- 2 cups

Spices:

1. Cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp
2. Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
3. Dry whole Red Mirchi - 3
4. Bay leaf- 1

Method:

How to prepare ‘Doodh Lau’ with step by step pictures and instructions-

1. Peel the skin of bottle gourd, remove the seeded part from its center and cut into fine thin slices using a knife.
   
2. Heat a pan with oil, add all the whole spices for seasoning.
   
3. Add the sliced bottle gourd, stir for 2 minutes.
   
4. Take a small bowl, mix 2 tsp rice flour with a little amount of water.
   
5. Put the rice flour and water mixture into the pan.
   
6. Add sugar and salt, stir for 2 minutes.
   
7. Now pour in 2 cups of milk into the pan.
   
8. Boil the milk and cook until milk thickens (say about 10 to 15 minutes).
   

'Doodh Lau' is ready, prepare this easy recipe for a hot summer afternoon after meal treat to the tummy or serve hot with steamed rice, dal, and some potol or aloo bhaja. Simply tastes yummy, sweet, light and healthy meal for a heavy afternoon after meal nap, which we often refer to as 'Bhaat Ghoom' in Bengali. There are many other bottle gourd recipes which I'll share in my upcoming posts. Till then enjoy cooking, serving and eating!!

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