Easy & Delicious Indian Curry – Malai Koftas to Celebrate A Journey of Friendship

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Easy & Delicious Indian Curry – Malai Koftas to Celebrate A Journey of Friendship

7 January 2012

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~’Friends are the most important ingredient in this recipe of life’ ~Anonymous. Some of them add spices to make it more entertaining while the others enhance, give body and add value to the recipe of life.

Opposites attract…Hmm..yes they do in real life too. I am not a movie person and she hates on-line world, so when we meet we talk everything under the Sun except the above mentioned topics. Celebrity in South India and winner of many national awards Saranya has been a dear friend for past eight years. A passionate dress designer, wonderful cook, cleanliness freak and a dedicated mother of two, she has been one of the most treasured friends of mine. We have seen our children grow together, shared some of our most precious moments, celebrated numerous functions and still continue to guide each other through our thick and thin.

Mom's who cook together

Every year we wait anxiously to co ordinate the New Year celebrations with a few other friends of her. I don’t know to which category should I add these friends of a friend, but I certainly enjoy and look forward to such occasions to celebrate with all of them.

We just need to drop the children to her house, from where she takes on and make sure that the children are comfortable and are sincere in their practice session. They practice their dance moves and drama lines for about 10 whole days.

Fusion dance..

Her love for perfection in anything she does shows up in all the parties we organize. For every year she takes the pains of selecting songs for the children, choreographing and meticulously deciding upon the dress code for the same. And if that is not all she indulges the children with fresh juices and freshly baked cakes. Here are some snippets of the children performing for us.

Shakira' Waka..Waka..

Will share more about this journey of friendship, our cooking sessions and some scrumptious recipes from the party menu in the next post. But for now this is one of the dishes that I cooked and took to the party, for 25 persons. The recipe here is for a smaller portion to make it easy for you to follow, and is a slightly lighter version of the authentic Malai Koftas recipe.

Creamy Malai Koftas

Ingredients;

(serve 4)

For Koftas;

• 2 large potatoes
• ½ cup grated cottage cheese
• 1 carrot grated
• 3 slices of fresh bread
• 1 tbsp. shredded fresh coriander leaves
• 1 tsp. red chilly powder
• Salt as desired
• Oil to shallow fry
• A few raisins or cashew to stuff the Koftas
• For Gravy;
• 3 medium tomatoes
• 1 large onion
• 2 tsp. ginger-garlic paste
• 1 green chilly
• 5-6 soaked cashew nuts
• 1/4 cup fresh low-fat cream or 1 cup whole milk
• ½ tbsp dried Kasuri methi (optional)
• 1 tbsp. oil
• Whole Spices
• 1 inch cinnamon stick
• 2 cloves
• 2 green cardamoms
• 2 tsp. coriander powder
• 1 tsp. red chilly powder
• 1 tsp. garam masala
• ½ tsp. cumin seeds
• ½ tsp. Turmeric powder

Method;

Koftas; Wash, boil and mash the potatoes. Take out the sides from the bread slices and crumble it into small pieces. Add salt, chilly powder, fresh coriander leaves, crumbled bread and knead it into soft and smooth dough.

Take another vessel and add grated cottage cheese in it. Add a pinch of salt if you wish.

Pinch small lemon size dough from the potato mix and roll it into a ball, flatten it slightly and make a small circle.

Add a little of cottage cheese (1/2 tp.) and a cashew or a raisin in the centre. Bring all the sides together to close the circle and roll it again into a ball Make all the Koftas in similar way and keep them aside.

Heat a pan and add a few teaspoos of oil in it. Add a few koftas gently into the hot oil and fry it till all the sides become golden brown in color.

Gravy; Soak cashew nuts for an hour. Grind sliced onion, tomatoes, and soaked cashew nuts into fine paste.

Heat oil in a wok and crackle cumin seeds, add the above ground paste, diced green chilly, ginger-garlic paste, Kasuri methi and cook for a few minutes.

Add all the spice mix, cover the wok and sauté for 7-10 minutes till the raw smell from the ground paste disappears.

Pour water to the paste if you require slightly runny gravy. Add fresh cream and immediately take off from the flame. If you are using whole milk, cook the gravy for another 5-10 minutes till the milk is absorbed and the gravy becomes creamy in texture.

Sprinkle chopped coriander leaves over it.

Assemble; Arrange the cooked cottage cheese balls or Koftas in a serving dish, and pour the gravy just before serving the dish.

Tried adding extra lights to the picture..

Notes;

As you are adding fresh bread slices in making the cottage cheese balls or Koftas, you don’t need any other binding agent to hold the Koftas in shape when shallow frying it.

Deep fried koftas taste yum, do the same if you are not worried about the calories, you could also brush the Koftas with oil and bake them for healthier version of the recipe.

Milk powder is added to make the Koftas which gives a rich taste to the curry, but you can avoid it and will not find a much difference (I did not find so).

Make sure to shallow fry a few koftas at a time, to avoid breaking the koftas.

Add grated cottage cheese to make koftas, I avoided it to make the recipe a little lighter.

Reserve a few teaspoons of fresh cream to garnish the dish before serving.

Do not let the koftas sit in the gravy for more than a few minutes, as they will absorb all the liquid and will make the dish look dry and unappealing.