I
remember when I was in Rajasthan, our cook would make Koftas quite often and I
would happily wolf them down until I learnt they were made of Bottlegourd!
When
I go out to eat, I don’t order Koftas that often as the gravy is mildly sweet
and not everyone in my circle likes their savoury dishes to be sweet.
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(Skip spotted this baby white dragon and wanted me to post its pic on the blog)
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I
love Koftas, especially Malai Kofta. The soft, melt-in-your-mouth
paneer-potato balls with dry fruits in it, soaked in a rich, creamy gravy with
a tinge of sweetness are perfect for those lazy Sunday afternoons when all you
want to cook is one gravy dish and then heat up some ready-made chapathis. I can
assure you that this will keep you satiated till evening.
If
you don’t like your gravy sweet, you can skip adding the cashews and the
raisins and spike up the spice level of the gravy.
Things
started off well in the kitchen and I had these pretty dumplings, ready to be plonked
into scalding oil. But then tragedy struck. I forgot to dust them with flour
and worse still used a deep bottomed pan that wasn’t non-stick. As a result of
which, the dumplings came together and decided to cling on to each other for
their dear lives and what came out of the pan was ONE gigantic smushed Kofta.
Luckily
I had an extra batch of dumplings which I then lovingly dusted with flour and
gently laid onto a non-stick, flat bottomed pan and tadaa .... they browned
nicely.
In
case you’re wondering what I did with the smushed Kofta, I squashed it even
more and after clicking pictures for the blog, I mixed it with the gravy.
Yummy!
MALAI KOFTA
Ingredients:
For the Kofta (makes around 10 balls)
Paneer (cottage
cheese) grated – 150 gms
Medium sized
potatoes (boiled and grated)- 2
Salt-1 ½ tsp
Garam masala –
1/3 tsp
Chilli powder –
1 tsp
Maida (Refined
Flour) – 2 tbsp
Cashews, raisins
– handful (optional)
For the Gravy
Kasuri Methi
(Dried Fenugreek Leaves) crushed – 1 tsp
Butter – 1tbsp
Almonds
(sliced)- 6-7
Cashews
(chopped) – 6-7
Garlic cloves –
8-10
Ginger (chopped)
– 1 tbsp
Green chillies
(chopped) – 1 tbsp
Onion (chopped)
– 1 cup
Tomato (chopped)
– 1 cup
Turmeric – 1/3
tsp
Chilli powder –
½ tsp
Coriander powder
– ½ tsp
Cumin powder – ½
tsp
Garam masala –
1/3 tsp
Oil – 2 tbsp
Cream – 2 tbsp
Salt – to taste
Method:
1.
For the Kofta: Combine the Paneer and the Potato. Add salt, spice
powders and flour to it. Knead mixture into dough.
2. Take a small part of the dough and flatten it. Add a
cashew and a raisin in the center and roll it into a ball. Skip this step if
not using cashew or raisin.
3.
Dust the ball well with flour.
4.
Deep fry in a flat bottomed pan until golden. Set
aside.
5.
To make the gravy: Dry roast 1 tsp Kasuri Methi.
6. In a pan, add butter, almonds, cashews, whole garlic
cloves, ginger, chillies and onion and sauté for a few seconds.
7. Add the tomato and fry until tomatoes turn soft.
8. Once the mixture cools, grind it into a smooth paste
(masala paste).
9. To the same pan, add oil and spices (other than garam
masala) and fr for a minute.
10. Add the ground
masala paste to it and sauté for a minute.
11. Add one cup
water and salt to taste. Add the fresh cream and stir it.
12. Add garam masala
and sprinkle the kasoori methi.
13. Place the dumplings
in the serving dish and pour the gravy on it.
14. Done.
Recipe
notes
·
I didn’t have green chillies, kasuri methi and cream
so didn’t add those.
·
Feel free to add an extra tbsp of flour to the Kofta
dough if it turns out to be too soft to roll into balls.
·
Use a flat bottomed non-stick pan to fry the Kofta
balls.
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