MALAI KOFTA
Serves: 6 as part of an Indian meal.
Prep Time: 20 minutes Cooking Time: 2 hours
Dietary Style: Veg. GF.
Malai kofta is a three step dish, and it does take time. Set aside a few hours on a day when you don’t need to be anywhere else the first time you make it. Of course you could buy paneer and eliminate one of the steps, but homemade paneer really does influence the end flavour of this dish in the most beautiful way. I feel like you would be missing its key character to skip out on that element. When it comes time to serve, I add the kofta to the malai sauce at the last minute, so they don’t get too soggy.
INGREDIENTS
To make the paneer
- 2 litres milk
- juice 3 lemons
- 1 tbsp yoghurt
To make the koftas
- 500 gm chat potato
- 1 tsp fine pink salt
- 1/3 tsp ground fenugreek
- 3/4 tsp garam masala
- 1/3 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp coriander powder
- 1/3 tsp ground clove
- 1 tbsp dried fenugreek leaf
To fry the koftas
- 2 cups vegetable oil
- 1 cup mustard oil
To make the malai sauce
- 4 tomatoes
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1/2 white onion
- 1 tsp fresh ginger
- 2 tbsp mustard oil
- 2 bay leaf
- 1 cassia bark
- 2 star anise
- 3 black cardamom
- 1/3 cup raw cashew pieces
- 1 cup passata
- 1/3 tsp fine pink salt
- 1/2 tsp caster sugar
- 1/4 tsp fine black pepper
- 1/2 tsp cumin seed
- 1/2 cup cold water
To Finish
- 2 tbsp thickened cream
In a large pot, tip the 2 litres of milk and boil on high until it begins to expand and bubble and climb up the pot. Quickly turn off the heat. Add 1 tsp yoghurt and stir through, then tip in the lemon juice to split the milk. You will see the milk protein coagulate into curds, and the whey should be a very pale lemon yellow colour.
Strain through a muslin cloth and hand the whey from a kitchen tap while preparing the parboiled potatoes and spice.
Put the 500 gm chat potatoes on to boil, with the skins on. Boil until soft. When very soft, remove from the heat and strain the water. Once the potatoes are cooled, skin them and put them aside.
To begin preparing the malai sauce, boil a kettle of water. Core four tomatoes, and place a cross in their base with a small knife. Put the cored tomatoes in with the boiled water and leave them to soak. This makes it easy to remove the skins.
While the tomatoes are soaking, chop the garlic and onion. Mince the ginger.
In a large heavy based pot, put the mustard oil, bay leaf, cassia sticks, black cardamom, and star anise on a medium high heat. Once aromatic, add the onion, garlic and ginger and stir through until aromatic, around five minutes. Add the raw cashew pieces and stir through.
While this is cooking, strain the tomatoes from their hot water and skin them. Give them a quick chop before adding to the pot whole spice, mustard oil and cashews.
Once the tomatoes have cooked down a little, add the passata and complement 1/3 tsp fine pink salt, the caster sugar, fine black pepper, and 1/2 tsp cumin seed. Add the 1/2 cup of cold water. Stir through.
Put the lid on the pot and cook the malai sauce for around 10 to 12 minutes. Once it’s ready, fragrant, and the flavours beautifully combined, remove from the heat and allow to cool before blitzing to a smooth sauce. Set aside.
In a bowl, mash together the cooked, skinned potatoes with the paneer and all of the kofta spicing. Mix with your hands and divide the mix into balls around 40 gm per kofta.
Heat the vegetable and mustard oils in a heavy based wok, pot or kadai until quite hot and fry the kofta balls in small batches until evenly browned. Strain on kitchen paper or newspaper. The oil has to be hot enough so the kofta don’t break apart as they fry, but not too hot that they burn.
As a finishing touch, stir thickened cream through the malai sauce.
Plate your kofta on a communal plate and then top with the malai sauce. Serve.