Bottle Gourd Cutlets (Doodhi na Cutlets)

Bottle Gourd Cutlets (Doodhi na Cutlets)

This is a typical bawa (Parsee) recipe. As I've always mentioned, I'm a hard-core carnivore hence the only time i post a vegetarian recipe is when I’m extremely sure it turns out well. I saw photographs of these cutlets posted by a friend at Facebook. The photographs looked so good; I just had to try the recipe. I wasn't disappointed. These babies turned out soft and amazingly delicious. They were totally melt-in-the-mouth. Sigh!! 

Ingredients:

650-700 grams tender bottle gourd
1 potato, boiled and mashed
2 onions, sliced and fried to golden brown
1 teaspoon green chili/garlic/cumin paste
2 green chilies, chopped
A small bunch coriander, chopped
Juice of half a lemon
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon red chili powder
Salt, to taste.
3 tablespoons oil
1 slice bread
½ cup rawa / suji / semolina (can be replace with breadcrumbs)
2 eggs, well beaten

Method:

1. Peel and grate the bottle gourd on a medium or fine grater. Squeeze out all extra water from the grated bottle gourd. 
2. Soak the slice of bread in water, squeeze out water and crumble the bread into the grated bottle gourd. 
3. Add the green chili/garlic/cumin paste, turmeric powder, chili powder, salt, chilies, onions, coriander, mashed potato and lemon juice to the bread-bottle gourd mixture. 
4. Mix well using your hands. Shape into cutlets. 
5. Coat each cutlet in semolina. Put the semolina coated cutlets in the fridge for an hour or two. 
6. Heat oil in a non-stick pan. 
7. Bring out the cutlets from the fridge, dip them in beaten eggs, shallow fry on a slow fire, flipping the cutlets on both sides until cooked from with and golden brown. 
8. Remove on a kitchen towel for a minute to drain excess oil, if any. Serve piping hot, with ketchup. 

Chef Notes:

1. This recipe belongs to my friend Zarina Cama Clowsley. 
2. Please do not use a large-hole grater to grate the bottle gourd. A medium or fine grater works better as the cutlets them cook quicker from within. The cutlets will take longer to cook from within if you don’t grate the bottle gourd with a medium or fine grater. 
3. Those who don’t eat eggs may remove the semolina coated cutlets from the fridge and directly shallow fry them on a very slow flame in a non-stick pan. I’m a carnivore hence went the ‘Bawa’ way and used an egg wash to fry the cutlets. 
4. The cutlets are very delicate, so please be gentle when you fry them. 
5. You may share the direct blog-link of the recipe/s but do NOT publish my recipes and my photographs on any blog-site or website without my explicit consent or attempt to pass off my recipe/s as your own. You will be held accountable for plagiarism.