Malai Kofta
Malai Kofta is a North Indian style curry made from deep fried Paneer and Potatoes balls served in a silky smooth tomato and cream based gravy.
Ingredients
For Kofta
- 200 grams Paneer
- 3 Potatoes medium to large sized
- 1 inch Ginger grated
- 1 Green Chilli finely chopped
- 2 tbsp Plain Flour or Maida
- 2 tbsp Corn Starch
- ¼ tsp Pepper Powder
- 1 tsp Roasted Jeera or Cumin Powder
- 2 tbsp Coriander Leaves finely chopped
- 1.5 tsp Salt
- 5-6 Cashews
- 10 Pistachio nuts
- 10 Raisins optional
- ¼ tsp Green Cardamom Powder
- Oil for frying
For Gravy
- 20 nos. Almonds
- 2 Onions large sized
- 3 Tomatoes large sized
- ½ cup Fresh Cream
- 2 tbsp Butter
- 1 tbsp Ginger Garlic Paste
- 2 tsp Kashmiri Chilli Powder
- ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1 tsp Kasuri Methi
- 2 tsp Honey
- ½ tsp Garam Masala
- 2 Bay Leaves
- 2 tbsp Oil
- ¼ tsp Cardamom Powder
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Pressure cook whole potatoes with salt for 2 whistles. Drain the water and cool them completely, peel the skin and grate the potatoes in the largest setting of the grater. This should yield around 2 cups of grated potatoes.
- Grate 200 grams of paneer. This should yield slightly less than 2 cups of paneer.
- In a bowl, add the grated potatoes, grated paneer, pepper powder, grated ginger, finely chopped green chillies, chopped coriander leaves, salt, jeera powder, plain flour and corn starch.
- Mix all the ingredients well and make a dough. The dough should not be too sticky and must come together like a chapati dough.
- In a small bowl add some broken cashews, pistachio nuts, raisins and cardamom powder and mix. This would be the filling for the Kofta balls.
- Grease your hands with oil, and take a small portion of the dough and roll and make a depression in the center. Fill a small amount of the nuts mixture inside and cover and roll them to firm balls. It is important to roll the balls smooth and firm.
- Continue the above step for all the remaining dough. This recipe should yield around 25 kofta balls.
- Heat oil in kadai. Once the oil is hot enough, drop the kofta balls in small batches and turn the flame to medium. Wait to get a slight golden colour before trying to flip the koftas, else they could break. Continue to cook on the medium flame while flipping the koftas in between.
- Fry all the remaining kofta balls and keep them aside. Koftas are ready.
- For the gravy, soak 20 almonds in hot water for 15 minutes. Peel the skin.
- In a kadai, heat 2 tablespoons oil and add roughly chopped onion and ginger garlic paste. Cook till they turn pink in colour.
- Add the chopped tomatoes and blanched and peeled almonds, some salt. Mix well and cover and cook till the tomatoes are mushy. Stir occasionally.
- Cool the mixture completely and then blend to a fine puree in the mixer.
- Strain this mixture using a sieve by adding little water as required.
- The gravy base should look smooth like this.
- Heat a kadai and on low flame, add 2 tablespoons butter and add bay leaves, turmeric powder, Kashmiri red chilli powder and mix well. Be careful not to burn the masala.
- Add the tomato onion gravy to the kadai and add salt and little water and mix well. Let this mixture cook for some 6-7 minutes on medium flame till it becomes slightly porous.
- Add 1 teaspoon of crushed Kasuri methi and cook further for couple of minutes.
- To this, now add half cup fresh cream
- Add around 1 cup of water and mix well with a whisk continuously to incorporate the cream into the gravy. It is important to stir continuously, else the cream could split. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Now add half teaspoon garam masala, 2 teaspoon honey and pinch of cardamom powder and turn of the flame. Mix well. The gravy is ready.
- For serving, take some hot gravy in the serving ball and place the kofta balls on top. You could garnish with some more cream and fresh coriander leaves. Do not mix all the koftas into gravy at once and serve in this way as required.
Notes
- It is important not to overcook the potatoes and must also not contain any excess water.
- Grate the potatoes and paneer as against mashing them for getting the best results. This would yield a smooth and homogeneous kofta.
- The ratio of the grated potatoes and paneer is almost 1:1 (by volume). You could keep the ratio of paneer slightly less if you are skeptical of koftas breaking while frying.
- Nut based Filling in the kofta adds a crunch to them. You could skip if you do not like nuts.
- The kofta balls must be rolled firmly and must be smooth. Grease your hands with oil to get the perfect smooth shape.
- The koftas must be dropped in hot oil and then cooked on medium flame. The koftas could break if the oil is not hot enough, and at the same time it must be then turned to medium flame to ensure that it is cooked through inside.
- If you do not have fresh cream, you could make use of full cream milk, however using fresh cream is highly recommended for this dish.
- Honey and a pinch of cardamom powder, which are added right at the end of cooking the gravy are the secret ingredients for this dish. It enhances the flavour.
- Do not add all the koftas to the gravy at once and serve individually as required.