Malai Kofta

A friend of mine prepared this dish once and it was super tasty. So I wanted to try myself at some point. This is the video I followed.

For making onion tomato puree
Ingredients:

  • Ghee 1 tbsp (I used a piece of butter)
  • Onions 3-4 medium size (sliced)
  • Garlic cloves 8-10
  • Ginger 1 cm
  • Green chillies 1-2
  • Tomatoes 2 medium size (roughly chopped)
  • Cashew nuts: 1/4 cup (I used a mix of nuts… mistake?)
  • Water 200 ml
    Methods
  • Set a deep pan or a wok on medium flame, add ghee and onions, cook the onions until its golden brown.
  • Add garlic cloves, ginger and green chillies, and sauté for a minute.
  • Add tomatoes, cashew nuts and cook for 2-3 minutes.
  • Add water, cover and cook for 4-5 minutes, switch off the flame and cool down to room temperature, transfer it to a grinding jar and grind to fine puree, strain and keep aside for later use.

For making kofta balls
Ingredients:

  • Boiled potatoes 4-5 medium size
  • Paneer ½ cup (grated) (I used mozarella maybe a mistake?)
  • Corn starch 2 tbsp
  • Salt to taste
  • Red chilli powder 1 tsp (I didnt have all the spices so I improvised a bit…)
  • Coriander powder 1 tsp
  • Anardana powder 1 tbsp
  • Garam masala ½ tsp
  • Flour for coating
  • Oil for frying
    Methods:
  • Grate the boiled potatoes and add them in the mixing bowl, further add paneer, corn starch, salt and powdered spices, mix and combine well.
  • Take a spoonful of mixture and shape into small roundels, coat it with dry refined flour and dust ff excess flour.
  • Set a pan filled with oil on medium heat, deep fry these balls until golden brown in colour, remove it on ab absorbent paper and keep aside for later use.

For making the final gravy
Ingredients:

  • Ghee 1 tbsp (I used butter)
  • Turmeric powder 1/4th tsp (again, didnt have all spices)
  • Coriander powder 1 tbsp
  • Red chilli powder 1 tbsp
  • Strained tomato onion puree
  • Fresh cream ½ cup
  • Kasuri methi 1 tsp
  • Garam masala ½ tsp
  • Kofta balls
  • Fresh coriander leaves 1 tbsp (chopped)
    Methods:
  • Set a pan on medium heat, add ghee, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and coriander powder, add the strained tomato onion pure, add salt, stir and cook well for 4-5 minutes.
  • Add fresh cream, kasuri methi and garam masala, stir and cook for another 2-3 minutes, add the fried kofta balls and stir gently without damaging the delicate kofta balls.
  • Continue to cook further for 2-3 minutes and add freshly chopped coriander leaves.

Mistakes:

  • My sauce was quite far from the video
  • I didnt want to deep fry the balls so I just fried with a bit of oil and they kind of melt. Then when adding to the gravy, they mixed up.

My result was quite far from the video, but it was tasty anyway!

This is part of the process just as a reminder for next time.