The Opo Challenge

Bottle gourd was my enemy vegetable number one. The only time I ever used it in a dish was while making raita which turned out pretty well.But lets face it, anything (just about anything) slathered with mildly spiced yogurt sprinkled liberally with freshly ground cumin tastes good on a hot summer afternoon. I have heard about lauki ka halwa though I had never been ambitious enough to try my hand at that.

I just can not tolerate it in a curry. The bland translucent pieces of this ubiquitous summer vegetable floating in a gravy really turns me off. But now that summer is here, it is inevitable that I have to face this dreaded veggie sooner or later. And to add to my woes, I have a room mate who simply adores this gourd. So I know that very soon my fridge would be well stocked with Opos.
Opo squash. That is just another name for bottle gourd (or lauki, or dhudhi or long melon). The name "Opo" sort of has a cutesy element to it, and that somehow makes it sound less icky to me.
Anyway, this year I have pledged to make opo a regular part of my diet, there are just so many arguments in its favour. It is available in abundance during summer, is cheap, and healthy. If only I could brainwash myself into cooking it!
A couple of days ago, when I returned home to a smiling room mate and two smooth pale green opos, I knew it was time to get going and face the ultimate bottle gourd challenge.

I wanted something quick, simple and--edible. Since I cannot tolerate lauki pieces, I decided not to let any remain in the final dish. What if I pressure cooked it and mashed it up? Then I could make some sort of a bharta with it, the unappetizing smell of the gourd overpowered by the strong flavours of onion, garlic and coriander. And that is what i did.
The resultant dish was not very appetizing to look at, but it was edible nonetheless.
Ah! What a relief! I had successfully disposed off one OPO!! Just one more left to kill off.

Now I have become more confident. We will have opo kheer this weekend.