All’e Brownies. Not All’e yakhin but All’e Brownie
Note: All’e in Kashmiri means bottle gourd. It also goes by the names lauki or doodhi in desi households. But for this post, I’ll use all’e throughout.
You read it right. All’e brownie is a thing. Curated in our little kitchen, this may sound like the trifle from the TV show ‘Friends’, that Rachel made using beef, bananas and whipped cream. But trust me, it’s nothing like that.
As a quintessential Kashmiri, I live on, for and by batt’e (rice). On a bizarre day when I have something other than rice for lunch , I’ll tell everyone I meet that day, in a melodramatic tone, that I skipped a meal and had just a “chai cup” for lunch. Even if I had five tchotch’e with that cup of chai, it doesn’t count. Crazy as it may seem but everyone will feel sorry and sympathetic for me, because in Kashmir, not having rice simply means having skipped a meal. Skipping a meal is a big deal, period. And God forbid if I skip rice for dinner as well, then consider me faakaye (starving). Taking this logic (although illogical) further, me and my partner would like to believe that we didn’t have brownies if there was no flour in them. We consider these “healthy”. If no batt‘e means no meal, no flour means no cake for us!
We are all quirky at times with the food choices we make based on health considerations. Some of us will skip the frosting on a cake because it’s unhealthy and end up eating the whole cake even if it is made of 90% sugar. You can say that we’re living in denial or call us stupid but the joke’s on you because we’re just far sighted foodies. These are just tactics we use to keep away the calorie guilt. Haha!
Keto diets promote zucchini brownies. Not that we promote keto diets, but we do love zucchini brownies a lot. We stumbled upon a recipe for zucchini brownies in sheer attempts to cut down our carbs and it has been a constant at our place ever since. Our lightbulb moment was when we used all’e (bottle gourd) instead of zucchini for our brownie. Since we love zucchini brownies and we also love all’e, which are somewhat similar to zucchini and can be used in desserts like halwa, we thought- why not try to use them in a brownie? And after a few failed attempts and playing around with the other ingredients, we succeeded!
Why would you want to eat a brownie made with all’e?
Well first of all, these brownies taste nothing like all’e but everything sweet, delightful, buttery and dreamy. Think of a gooey, delectable brownie, minus the calories and carbs. Also, this could be a great way to use up that humongous produce of summer all’e, other than use it for all’e yakhni of course. Kids may not be that fanatic about this vegetable on its own but in this recipe, they’ll never even find out it is there unless they see you making it. Lastly, not to sound childish, but baking a brownie from a vegetable is way too exciting, isn’t it?
This versatile brownie can be good for breakfast, afternoon snack or post dinner dessert. Say hello to healthy eating. (Even if it is once in a blue moon!)
Stay tuned for the recipe
