Receipe 6: Malai Kofta

One more north Indian dish! Malai Kofta is typically a sweet dish.
Malai means cream. But if you would prefer it the non-sweet way, just don't add cream to the gravy, don't add paneer to the kofta and finally do not add dry grapes,cashews. This will reduce the sweetness and still will taste good.

This dish will take a considerable cooking time since deep frying is involved. But with some enthusiasm mixed with hunger, will make you conjuring up this dish pretty quick.

What You Need?

For the Kofta:

The sweet way:

Paneer
Potatoes
salt
cashews
dry grapes
corn flour
oil

and a Frying pan.

The not so sweet way:

Potatoes
Carrots
salt
Corn flour
oil

And you still need a frying pan.

For the Gravy:

The sweet way:

Tomatoes
Onion
Lots of cashews
paneer
salt
malai(fresh cream) [You can get this readymade in most of the super markets]

The not so sweet way:

Tomatoes
Onion
Garam Masala
Kitchen King
salt


Phew! That was quite a list!.. now the

Le Method:

Kofta Prep:

Sweet way:

Grate the paneer. Boil the potatoes nicely and mash it. It should almost be like a paste. Take a vessel and mix the paneer and potatoes together.Add a little salt. Use corn flour to knead all the contents. Most of the time you need not add water since the water in the boiled potatoes is more than enough for kneading it. If needed, you can sprinkle some water. But!! never add more water by mistake, since we are going to make balls out of this mixture and deep fry it.

Start making balls. There is no hard and fast rule it should be made in shape of a ball. I would go for a ball shape since its more easy to make for lazy people like me. You can let your creativity play here. For example, you can make it in the shape of a roll or flat cutlets. It is upto you! When you are making the balls/rolls, embed a cashew, few dry grapes in each kofta. Heat oil in a pan to deep fry it and well.. deep fry it!! Once you are done, keep it aside.


The not-so-sweet way:

The procedure is same as the "sweet way". Instead of paneer, add the carrots. Boil the carrots along with potatoes and mash both together with cornflour. cornflour acts like a tightening agent. You don't add any cashews or dry fruits in koftas here. Just make the balls/rolls and deep fry them.

Note: Boiled carrot will carry lot of water with it. Never add extra water to knead the mixture. You will be in a mess!

Let us move to the making of the gravy.

Gravy Prep:

Sweet way:

The trick is to minimize the amount of tomatoes here. Say if you add 2 onions, add half a tomato. So remember the 2:1/2 onion to tomato ratio if you are going to prepare the sweet gravy.

Like we make the other north Indian gravy, cut the onions, fry them a bit. Once it is cooled, blend it along with the tomatoes in a mixie. Keep this mixture aside. Next grind the grated paneer and cashews. Before grinding the cashews, fry it grind it. Blend the cashews and paneer separately. When grinding paneer, use milk instead of water to enhance the taste.

Finally, add everything (tomato-onion paste, grinded milky paneer, powdered cashews) into a frying pan with 2 spoons of heated oil. Let it boil for 3 minutes. Add some salt to taste. Last but not the least, pour the fresh cream to the gravy.

After you take the gravy aside, add the koftas. You can also garnish it with fried cashews and dry grapes. It is a very rich dish!

Voila. I know it is a pretty big process. But with some interest and patience coupled, you will do it easy enough.


The not-so-sweet way:

Use onions and tomatoes in the same ratio here. Fry the onions, grind it with tomatoes and keep it aside.

Heat some oil in a pan (2 spoons) and add this onion-tomato paste to it. Let it boil. Add salt, garam masala and kitchen king. Finally add the koftas.

This is a lot more easier to make and also consumes less time and your body also consumes less fat! :p

That is it! Now you know malai koftas are not rocket science!