Malai Kofta

On a crazy winter afternoon, sitting on the couch and browsing through food channels encouraged us to try the delicacy which both of us are extremely fond of : Malai Kofta. We even broke the rule of no deep frying in the house. But it was totally worth it! J

Ingredients:

For Kofta

Cottage cheese – finely mashed

Boiled potatoes- finely mashed (Cottage cheese and boiled potatoes in a 2:1 ratio)
French Beans – finely chopped
Carrots – finely chopped
Coriander - finely chopped
Salt and Black Pepper

For Gravy

Chopped Onions

Chopped Tomatoes
Garlic + Ginger – very little
Tez Patta, Badi Elaichi, Jeera
Garam Masala Powder
Sugar
Cashews – roasted and finely grounded into paste
Milk/cream
Coriander for garnishing

Method:

Kofta:

1. Mix all the ingredients to create a firm dough. Add salt and pepper as per taste and make equal sized elongated balls from the dough. You can choose the shape you like! 

2. Keep them in the fridge for at least a couple of hours to give them a firm shape. 

3. Coat them in a thin flour paste and deep fry. Set aside and prepare the gravy. 

4. Don't forget to eat a couple of Koftas without the gravy J

Koftas after refrigerating for a couple of hours

Gravy:

The key element in a malai kofta preparation is the texture of the gravy. We were considering a variety of options while cooking - the whitish malai like gravy, or the tomato-ey butter chicken like gravy were the top of the mind recall. However, we went with a fusion of the two, and were extremely satisfied with our experiment. Here goes our take on this.

1.  Heat Desi Ghee (Aha!) in a pan, and add Badi elaichi, tez patta, finely chopped and mashed ginger + garlic, and Jeera. After the ginger and garlic have turned brown, add onions and sauté further till they are golden brown. Then add the tomatoes to it along with some garam masala powder. At this point, after fair bit of cooking the added ingredients, you may want to taste the gravy to make sure it hasn't become too acidic because of the tomatoes. In case it has, add a hint of sugar. (Our Nanaji's master stroke while cooking. Works like a charm!)

We talked about the importance of texture so the next few steps are what makes it spot on. 

2. Take the gravy off the heat for about 15 minutes. 

3. Now, along with the cashew paste, grind the gravy coarsely in a food processor. Don't make it too fine, just enough to have a smooth finish. 

4. And now, you will need to sift the gravy through a coarse sieve. This is what will give it a nice consistency. 

5. Then cook it again and add milk/cream (look at your bellies to decide, we had to choose milk :-| ) for it to attain the final desired texture and colour. 

Phew - this is some effort, but as we said, totally worth it!

Drop koftas in the gravy just before serving otherwise koftas have the tendency to swell up and start disintegrating. 

Hoila - Garnish with coriander and enjoy the mouth watering dish with crisp paranthas !!