Effervescence: Zucchini balls/Lauki kofta

Tea time snacks are really important for so many households and so is mine; and there are only so many times you can eat dhokla and chaat for snacks and you need something else. This snack item I discovered a month and a half ago and have been making this regularly since then. You can use the normal lauki (bottle gourd) or zucchini to prepare these.

These melt-in-the-mouth koftas are so light and lovely you can eat many at a single time. I get two or three zucchini every week and I grate all of them at once and make koftas to serve as evening snack for the evening, make a curry for koftas for dinner and store the rest to be used in a week or freeze for later. This has made my life really easy in multiple ways.

The recipe is really simple and easy so let's begin to see how to prepare this:

Ingredients:

Zucchini: 2 (large size)
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder: 2 tsp.
Coriander powder: 1 tsp.
Cumin powder: 1 tsp.
Garam masala: 1 tsp.
Mango powder: 1/2 tsp.
Gram flour: 3 tbsp. (for binding)
Oil for deep frying

Grate all the zucchini and keep aside.
Now, as you need to squeeze out the water from the zucchini to make koftas, squeeze as much water as you can with your hand and keep in a bowl. Don't throw away the water which you can use in the curry.
Now put the grated and water-squeezed out zucchini in a muslin cloth and bind it and hang it for about 15 minutes and all the excess water that is remaining will be collected to the bottom.
Squeeze hard and try and remove all the water from the zucchini while it is in the muslin cloth. I personally find this method easier than doing it directly by hand.
Open the muslin cloth and you will find almost all the water is removed from the grated zucchini. Now it is ready to make koftas so transfer to a wide bowl.
Add the dry spices and the gram flour and mix well.
Now make small balls from the mix really quickly because the added salt in the batter will make the zucchini release water. Keep the balls aside.
Heat the oil on medium-high flame and gently add a few koftas at a time and fry them until golden from all sides. They will not turn crispy but will remain soft and melt in the mouth, that's the beauty of these koftas.
Fry all the koftas in the same way and drain on a kitchen paper.
Serve a few as evening snack with steaming hot tea and store the rest for using in curries.
They stay good in refrigerator for 2-3 days and can be frozen for long time about a month and half. I will share all my curry recipes, stay tuned !!