Lau chingri and The weekend trip

Hello everyone!!! Before I jump on to my recipe and talk about the food , I want to share my weekend trip experience with you all.
This weekend we went to a beautiful place called Columbia Gorge...this place as the name suggest is situated on the banks of Columbia river. There was nothing much to do but the sole idea was to go have fun and a relaxing weekend. Truly speaking the wooden cabin along the river bank, surrounded with fall colours, was enough for me to get super happy but in addition to these the place also has a hot tub in the patio... these two days all of us , me , my husband, and our friends ..cooked food , had prolong adda sessions sitting in the hot tub outside and enjoying the landcape, playing poker in the evening and again adda sessions which continued past midnight....
So overall this trip was a great stress relief for me..a nice break from the routine life :)

Coming back to the routine life , today's post is about a vegetable that I hated the most "LAU" or Lauki or Bottle gourd. Since my childhood I use to wonder who invented this vegetable....I mean  every time I use to have it I found it tasteless no matter how good my mom cooks. After my marriage, one day my Father in law prepared this recipe "Lau chingri".
Obviously I could not refuse it ...reluctantly I sat on the dining table..and stared on my plate and thought do I really have to eat that Lau....but surprisingly it was not that bad..infact not bad at all,
actually for the first time I ate Lau properly...not that I fell in love with Lauki after that, but ya ..now its bearable ...I occasionally make "Lau er dalna" also but Lau chingri is the best way for me to have Lau... and also because my husband loves this dish.

Ingredients:
Lau or Bottle gourd- 1 medium size
Shrimp or chingri- 250gms (clean it properly)
Tomato- 1/2 finely chopped
Cumin seeds- 1/2 table spoon
Bay leaf - 1 or 2
Cumin powder- 1/2 table spoon
Turmeric powder- 1/2 table spoon
Red chilli powder- 1/4th table spoon (optional)
Ginger paste- 1/2 table spoon
Green chilli- 3-4
Salt- according to taste
Sugar- 1/4th tablespoon
Procedure:
Peel and cut the Lauki or Lau into small pieces.
Marinade the shrimp or chingri with salt and turmeric and fry them a little, and keep aside.
Heat oil in a pan , add cumin seeds and bay leaf.
As the cumin seed and bay leaf start to splutter add tomatoes and green chillies
Fry them properly for 1 -2 minutes and add ginger paste, fry it for another 1 minute.
Add turmeric, cumin and red chilli powder, cook the masala for 3 minutes
Add the chopped Lauki and saute for 3-4 minutes
Cover the pan and let it cook for 4-5 minutes...if needed add some water and cook for another 4 minutes till the Lauki is properly cooked
As the Lauki is cooked well add the fried shrimp or chingri
Add salt and sugar
Give them a mix, add a little ghee if you want (purely optional)
turn off the ready, serve with steaming rice.