Bhaswati Das: The word KOFTA comes from Persian KUFTA
Kofta is a family of meatball or meatloaf.
But in India, vegetarian varieties may use instead of meat. potato with paneer or raw banana is used to make kofta.
Malai kofta is a cottage cheese ball filled with potato.
Ingredients
(For curry) :
1. Oil: 1 tbsp.
2. Butter: 2 tbsp
3. Cinnamon: 1 stick
4. Bay leaf: 1 no
5. Cloves:3 nos
6. Black cardamom: 1 no
7. Green cardamom: 3 nos
8. Shahi jeera/ jeera: 1/2 tsp
9. Onion: 1 cup(chopped)
10. Green chilly: 1 no
11. Garlic: 1 tbsp (chopped)
12. Ginger: 1 tbsp (chopped)
13. Turmeric powder: 1/3 tsp
14. Kashmiri chilly powder: 1 tbsp
15. Corriander powder:1 tbsp
16. Cumin powder: 1/tsp
17. Tomato: 2 cups(chopped)
18. Salt: to taste
19. Cashunut: a handful
20. Water: 2 1/2 cups
(For Kofta) :
1. Cottage cheese: 1 cup
2. Potato: 1 cup(boil)
3. Corriander leaves: 1 tbsp(chopped)
4. Ginger: 1/2 tbsp(chopped)
5. Green chilly: 1 no
6. Salt: to taste
7. Cornflour: a little (for binding)
8. Dry fruits: 1 tbsp (optional)
9. Cream: for garnish
10. Fenugreek powder: 1 tbsp for flavour
How to cook :
(For curry)
Heat the kadhai with oil, now add butter. Now put a cinnamon stick, bay leaf, cloves, black & green cardamoms and shahi jeera, mix all and saute lightly. Now add onion, saute lightly, while cooking of onion now put green chilly, garlic-ginger, again lightly saute it. Now add turmeric powder, kashmiri chilly powder, coriander powder & cumin powder, lightly saute it. Add tomato now, the tomato should be double of onion. Add salt and handful of cashews, mix it all & just have to lightly saute till getting a good boil in it. And then add water to it. Now cover the lid, cook till the tomatoes get mashy and the cashews soft. At this stage turn off the gas and let it cool off a little. Then blend it in a mixer to make a puree.
(For kofta) :
In a bowl put paneer with potato boiled & mashed. Now add coriander leaves, ginger and green chilly, salt & cornflour (for binding), mix it all and mashed it well. Now make koftas from it by giving shape in round or any other shape which you like. After giving the shapes now fry the koftas in a deep frying kadhai till its golden brown.
Now in a new pan, put a little bit of butter, now add the puree which was made earlier. As it was boiling, add fenugreek powder, a little bit of sugar & salt, now cook nicely for 5mins. After 5mins add the cream and koftas, mix it all & it’s done. Turn off the gas and plate the dish. Garnished with cream & coriander leaves.
Serve hot with roti/ veg pulao or jeera rice.