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A delicious dish and an interesting recipe for bottle gourd. Traditionally Kofta's are fried and loose it nutritive value. But this recipes requires you to bake the kofta's and then put them in the spiced tomato gravy. The gravy itself is so delicately spiced with tomato and yogurt as its base. These kofta’s are big favorite in my family, and considering they are baked and healthy, I have offer them to my children as well. Serve these kofta's with a soft Indian Bread like Phulka's or a Vegetable Pulav.
Serves: 4 persons
Cooking time: about 40 minutes
Preparation Time: 1 hour
Ingredients
For Koftas
- 1 big bottle gourd finely grated (2 cups)
- ¼ cup of gram flour
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- Salt to taste
- Vegetable/Sunflower oil for deep frying
Method
Preheat oven to 200 C.
Squeeze out the excess water from the grated bottle gourd and keep it aside. Mix all the ingredients and divide into 12 portions.
Place the balls in a baking tray and into the oven. Bake for about 30 minutes or until you see the kofta balls have begun to brown. Prick the kofta with a toothpick to check if it comes out cooked and not raw. Turn the oven off and let the kofta's sit aside until the gravy is ready.
For the Gravy
- 1 cup sliced onion
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon chopped ginger
- 2 cups of freshly pureed tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder
- 1 teaspoon garam masala powder
- ½ cup yogurt
- 1 tablespoon sugar/honey
- 2 tablespoons chopped coriander
- 2 tablespoons vegetable/sunflower oil
- Salt to taste
Method
Heat oil in a pan; add the sliced onions, ginger and garlic and saute them on low heat until the onions become tender and light golden.
Add the tomato puree, turmeric powder, garam masala powder, chilli powder, coriander powder and simmer forabout 5 minutes.
Add yogurt, sugar, 1 and 1/2 cups of water and salt to taste and simmer for another 5 minutes.
Since these are baked kofta's they tend to absorb more gravy.Add the baked kofta's to the gravy before serving and simmer them for about 5 minutes on medium heat. Add more water if you feel they gravy is too thick for you.
Enjoy the kofta’s with hot phulka’s or any Indian bread of your choice.
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Indian Recipes 
I would say, the next time you try to bake dhoodi kofta (especially, because besan is added), prick it with a toothpick or a skewer to check if baked. The reason is, each oven is different and works differently with different temperature settings. The simmering it in the kofta gravy for a atleast 5 minutes also helps.
I hope this helps.