Malai Kofta

Vegetarian, Main dish  · 

It’s an indian dish that consists of potato + fresh cheese (paneer) deep fried balls, eaten with a delicious tomato sauce with tons of spices. It’s a bit time consuming, as you need to prepare the balls and deep fried them, but worth it if you have time.

Malai Kofta

Ingredients (4 servings)

Kofta (potatoe paneer balls)

  • 150 g of paneer (or ricotta if you can’t find paneer)
  • 2 large potatoes
  • 2 1/2 tbsp of corn starch
  • 1 tsp ginger
  • 2 tbsp coriander (fresh)
  • 3/4 tsp garam masala
  • 1 tbsp cashews
  • Oil (for deep frying)

Tomato sauce

  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 1 large onion
  • 250mL tomato puree
  • 2 tbsp cashew nuts
  • 2 cardamom pods
  • Half a cinamon stick
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 1/2 tsp garlic
  • 1 1/2 tsp ginger
  • 1 tsp chili powder (only if you can eat spicy)
  • 1 1/4 tsp garam masala
  • 1/2 tsp sugar
  • 125mL water
  • 3-4 tbsp cream

Steps

Making the sauce:

  • Chop onion, gralic and ginger (don’t make it super fine, it will be blended later)
  • In a pan, heat 1 tsp of oil and saute the bay leaf, cinamon,stick, cardamom, garam masala and chili powder
  • Add ginger, garlic and onions, cook on medium heat until the onions are translusant
  • Add tomatoes, cashew and saute for 3 min
  • Add 1/2 cup of water and let simmer for 10min
  • Turn off the heat and blend with an immersion blender until smooth
  • Put back on the heat (add water if too thick) and add the cream (keep the flame low to not burn the cream). Turn off the heat once cream is stirred in

Making the kofta:

  • Boil the potatoes until soft
  • Mush them together with the crumbled paneer, ginger, corn flour, salt, garam masala, coriander and copped cashews
  • Heat oil for deep frying
  • Test the mixture and the oil temperature by dumping a small ball in the oil. The oil should fizz. If the ball does not disintegrate, proceed, otherwise add more cornstarch to the mixture
  • Form balls of 4cm in diameter, either per hand or with spoons and dump them in the frying oil one after the other. Make sure not to overcrowd your pot
  • Remove the balls once they are golden brown and place them on a paper towel to drain off the excess oil

Serving

  • In a plate, place the tomato sauce and add the kofta on top
  • you can additionally garnish by adding coriander leaves

original recipe

This recipe is slightly adpted from: https://www.indianhealthyrecipes.com/malai-kofta-recipe/#wprm-recipe-container-37350