Malai Kofta

I have been waited to make this dish for such a long time and finally attempted last week. My husband liked this so much. I picked this dish from Sanjay Tumma the Vah-Chef.

Ingredients For Kofta Balls:

• 2 big carrots or 6 baby carrots
• ½ cup of frozen peas or ½ cup of soaked fresh peas (soak around ¼ cup of fresh peas in water for about 3 hrs.)
• ¾ cup of grated paneer
• ½ cup of boiled and grated potato
• 1 tblsn of finely chopped green chilies
• 1 ½ tsp of coriander powder
• 1 tsp of cumin powder
• 1 tsp of red chilly powder (adjust it)
• Salt to taste
• ¼ cup of white corn flour or all purpose flour (maida)

Ingredients For Gravy:

• 1 cup of chopped onions
• 1 cup of chopped tomatoes
• 2 Tblsn of fried cashew-nut powder (Dry roast 20-25 whole cashews till done. Let them cool. Grind them to a powder.)
• ½ - ¾ cup of heavy whipping cream
• 1 Tblsn of coriander powder
• 1 ½ tsp of cumin powder
• 1 tsp of red chilly powder (adjust)
• Black Jeera or Shahjeera
• 1 Tblsn of ginger-garlic paste
• ¼ tsp of turmeric powder
• A handful of finely chopped coriander leaves
• Salt to taste
• 2 Tblsn of oil

Process:

Making Kofta Balls:

• Peel the skin of 2 big carrots and cut them into big chunks. Put them in a pressure cooker. Add ½ cup of soaked peas or frozen peas. Add water to the bottom of the pressure cooker. Keep carrots and peas in a bowl.


• Cover it with a lid and pressure cook them for 3 whistles. Wait till the pressure goes off. Strain the water and wait till it comes to room temperature or till you can hold them. Take the cooked carrot chunks and cut them to small pieces. Take all the cooked and chopped carrot and cooked peas to a muslin cloth and squeeze out all the water from it. It is the important step do it perfectly. Keep the squeezed water aside.

• Take a big bowl and add in ¾ cup of grated paneer, ½ cup of boiled and grated potatoes and this cooked and squeezed carrots and peas.

• Add 1 Tblsn of finely chopped or ground green chilies. Add in 1 ½ tsp of coriander powder, 1 tsp of cumin powder, 1 tsp of red chilly powder (adjust) and enough salt.

• Mix the mixture well. The mixture should be almost dry. If not add some bread crumbs if you have or corn flour into the mixture which evaporates all the moisture in your mixture and mix well.

• Now make around 10-12 small dumplings out of the mixture and roll them on corn flour / maida (to remove extra moisture) and keep them aside.

• Now heat oil for deep frying the kofta balls. Fry the dumplings into the heated oil on medium heat till light golden brown colour. (When you fry them on less heat the inside of the kofta balls will be cooked nicely.)


• Transfer the fried dumplings into a colander or to paper towel. (Till now one big job is done.)



Making Gravy:

• Heat 2 Tblsn of oil in a wide pan.
• Add chopped onions and fry for 2 minutes.
• Add 1 Tblsn of ginger-garlic paste and fry till the rawness goes off.


• Add chopped tomatoes.


• Add a pinch of turmeric powder, a pinch of salt, 1 tsp of red chilly powder, 1 Tblsn of coriander powder, 1 ½ tsp of cumin powder fry for a while. Add the squeezed out water from the cooked carrots. Cover it and cook till tomatoes become mushy.


• Let them cool and grind them to a smooth paste add water if required at the time of grinding. Keep the ground paste aside.



Combining:

• Heat 1 Tblsn of oil in the same pan. Add in 1 tsp of black jeera to it and fry till they crackle.

• Add the ground paste to the pan. Add around ½ - 1 cup of water to it. Bring the paste to a boil and cook till all the froth disappears.


• Now add ¾ - 1 cup of heavy whipping cream to it. Again bring that to a boil.


• Then add 2 Tblsn of fried cashew nut powder to it and mix well which adds-up the taste and thickens your gravy too.

• Now gently drop your fried koftas to the pan and turn-off your flame. No need of cooking koftas in the gravy. It will absorb the juices from the gravy from that remaining heat.


• Now sprinkle a pinch of garam masala on the top of it. And add a handful of chopped coriander leaves.


• Mix well and cover it and set aside for 5-10 minutes.


• You can have these koftas with pulkas/chapathi/naan/roti/fried rice/biryani etc.,