Original Kitchen | Ep 02 | Topic Doodhi or Calabash Squash by Katie R Irani | Avatar Meher Baba |

Episode 2 of a series of cooking lessons from Meher Baba's Mandali, Katie Irani.
Recorded in 2003 in Baba's kitchen in Meherazad.

Dudhi, also known as Bottle Gourd, Lauki, or Calabash, is a long, cylindrical vegetable with smooth, pale green skin. The flesh inside is spongy, white, and mildly sweet.

Consuming lauki juice twice or thrice in a week will support in maintaining a healthy heart and will also regulate blood pressure. Helps in weight loss: Lauki is considered one of the best weight loss foods since it is 96% water and provides just 12 calories per 100g of saving.

Doodhi or Lauki is actually a very versatile vegetable and a staple across India. Watch to the end to find Katie's personal recipe pages.

Featuring: Katie R Irani
Direction Larry Thrasher
Filmed by Amber Mahler & Larry Thrasher
Music by Larry Thrasher
Analogue Tape to Digital conversion, Post Production and captions by Sachin Singh
HDV Recorder courtesy of Flamingo Films (New Delhi)

Presented by Original Kitchen and Meherabad Studios with Balancing Act Films
Music Published by Beyond The Beyond Music/ BMI 2024
c p 2024
Jai Meher Baba!

Katie Rusi Irani~
According to Katie Irani, the first thing you must put into every dish is “Jai Baba!” and then Baba takes over.

Kate Irani was born in 1920 in Ahmednagar, India. She met Avatar Meher Baba during His visit to her family's home in 1923. Katie began seeing Avatar Meher Baba more frequently after her family moved to Ahmednagar when she was eleven. It was at this time that Baba had Katie take singing lessons and learn to play the harmonium.

In 1938, at age 18, she joined Baba's Ashram and lived with the other women Mandali on Meherabad Hill. In 1939, she accompanied Baba on the Blue Bus tour. Katie Irani was from a wealthy family and she had never really cooked anything before Baba suddenly asked for her to cook for 30 odd people on the Blue Bus tour in 1939! From having made a mess of her meals several times, she eventually learned and started enjoying cooking for Baba and His Mandali.

During Baba's New Life period she went to work for the Japanese Consulate in Bombay and remained there until moving to Meherazad in the 1970s.

Katie's also shares many recipes she used while cooking for Baba in her lovely book "Cooking with Katie" with many other unique Parsi and Continental recipes.

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