Something like that.
Malai Kofta has been a favorite food of mine for many many years now! This was a dish I often ordered in restaurant while eating out. I always thought it was a cumbersome process to make these - but when I made them, I realized that was true - LOL! Actually, its not very cumbersome - just a little.
You could make the koftas with mixed veggies like carrot, peas, beans and panneer or you could do it like this below. This time I just used potato and paneer. This has a very smooth texture typcial of a malai kofta!
To begin with, boil and peel a few potatoes.
Have your panneer ready - I made fresh panneer from low fat milk and this time I did not tie it up - just get all the water out and separate into pieces.
In a small bowl, soak about 1 tsp of poppy seeds along with 1 tbsp of cashew nuts for about 15- 20 mins. Grind this into a smooth paste.
Dry roast about 2 tsp each of coriander seeds and cumin seeds and grind to a fine powder.
In a wide pan, add 1 tsp of oil. Add ggg (ginger, garlic and green chilli). Fry for a min and then add roughly chopped onions in here. Cook for a few mins till the onions are translucent.
Add chopped tomatoes to this and fry together with the onions until completely cooked. You do not have to add any masala at this point.
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, mix the panneer with potatos. Add chopped ginger and green chillies to this.
Add 1 tsp each of garam masala, and pav bhaji masala to this.Add salt to taste.
Get your sous chef's assistant (translation - Husband) to mash up the potatoes and panneer well. BTW - don't talk to me about how thin my husband is - I do feed him good - you've probably seen by now how I cook. No matter what he eats, he stays likes this! Lucky him! And me..I can put on a few pounds if I drink water...that's right - we are total opposite - made for each other!
Make small balls out of the potato panneer mix.
Now, deep fry these babies.
Going back to the other side of town again, blend the cooked onion and tomatoes into a smooth gravy.
Pour it all back to the pan and start cooking in low heat. Add the coriander and cumin powder and let it cook. After a few mins, add the cashew and poppy seed paste and let the gravy cook for some time after that.
When the sauce has cooked for a while, add about 1/2 cup of heavy cream to this. And stand back and stare at the beauty!
Can you see how smooth this gravy is? Yumm..
Here are my fried koftas!
Add some fried cashews on top of the gravy.
I was making this for our potluck party and hence did not mix the koftas with the gravy at home. Mix just before serving and they remain crisp and flavorful. If you add all of them way before you eat, they might just become soggy and start to disintegrate - so its up to you how you want to serve them! LOL.
Did I tell you deep fried balls of delicacy soaking in a tub of awesomeness - this is what I'm talking about!
Here's our plate at the potluck - Shahi Panneer; Malai Kofta, Tava vegetables and Roti! There were a few hundred more things - we were stuffed! Like Koftas! LOL!
Enjoy. Peace Out!
hi Mriganayani. The malai kofta looks great and love the colour of the curry.
ReplyDeleteJust a bit of info,traditionally in an authentic malai kofta they use a mix of khoa and paneer and is filled with cream and nuts inside and hence called Malai kofta where malai means the cream.Do drop by whenever time permits dear.
Different try of malai kofta which suits our tastes and nice click and step by step procedures as usual. Good husband who assists you and my wishes to you both for a prosperous life.
ReplyDeleteYou really got me drooling here!, Seriously Awesome!
ReplyDeleteLovely snaps and nice side dish.
ReplyDeleteThank you everyone for your wonderful comments.
ReplyDelete@ Pari - you are right. That is definitely the traditional and rich version. I don't make Khoa often and take this easy route. And since I already ground cashews along and had fried cashews in the gravy, I skipped the nuts in the kofta. I'll try to make the rich version and post that sometime. Thanks for stopping by and please do keep coming!
@Bindiya - that's how I drool too looking at many of the blogs! Doesn't that just wanna make you lick the screen off sometime - guilty!
What a kofta....Yummy....Delicious...
ReplyDeleteoh wow...one of my fav! looks awesome, so does the rest of the thali. :)
ReplyDeletetrupti
Yes! An absolute favorite of mine! This was one of the only Indian dishes my dad would ever eat... He use to get so frustrated that I would cook Indian food so often, unless I made these. I wish I would have made them more often for him, but yes, they are a bit of work! I liked your recipe so I will have to try... and too funny making hubby do all the mashing :)
ReplyDeleteDelicious kofta curry dear! am drooling here..
ReplyDeleteI love this, looks delicious and tempting.
ReplyDeleteOh Anu! Your koftas are so lovely, crisp and neat. It has been some time since I prepared Malai kofta. I should try it out some time.
ReplyDeletewow! that gravy is killer! btw, i just realise that you may not be living in india as i initially thought you were. sorry for comment-spamming you and thanks for listening :D
ReplyDeleteHello, I come across your blog through Nag's. :) Loved the step=by-step Malai Kofta recipe. Keep it up gal. :)
ReplyDeleteHai!! Mriga,, i like kofta curry very much with peas pulao. Mriga,, You don't know how much you encouraged me in my blogging world,, really. You are the first one gave me an award to my blog, that's the time heat up the blog.I actually started my blog in 2008 but, i came to know the real blogging world in 2010 and you are the first person encouraged me from bloggers. Thank you very much for ur caring n friendly words to me.Mriga,, m trying ur kofta curry for my this week's "recipes from blogger frenz" and will pass it to u.i m running out of paneer so m trying veggie kofta curry.
ReplyDeleteI see that you have used whipping cream,does that make the dish sweet? I plan on making this for a potluck and most of them don't like very sweet malai kofta,just curious! I know it's a problem getting fresh cream here unlike in India,please let me know.
ReplyDeleteHi, i tried most of your recipes thanks for sharing. btw i tried this dish twice and both the times frying the koftas are hard for me. Its not coming perfectly as you have shown in the pics. Its kind of soggy and the panner seems to come off while frying.
ReplyDeleteI m not sure its because of panner i use or the amount of panner i add.
Any thoughts or tips on this?
-Deepa
Deepa, thanks for trying many recipes! Its comments like yours that encourage me to keep going.
DeleteAre you pressure cooking the potatoes? If so, try to skip that and maybe just boil them in water or microwave them to cook. Make sure there's not too much water in the potatoes - maybe dry them on a towel before mashing. You can also try adding some bread crumbs to the mix before makign round balls. Or make the koftas, dip them in a little corn/rice flour watery paste and roll immediately in bread crumbs - this will give you a nice crispy texture outside but will hold the shape.
Try and let me know what works best! Enjoy making them!