Malai Kofta Recipe

Hal

Does anyone have a tried-and-true malai kofta recipe?

I tried making it yesterday and it was a disaster. I don't have a deep fryer and prefer not to deep-fry things so I pan-fried the koftas, but they went all soft and gooey. Also, the recipe I had for the sauce did not require the garlic and ginger to be cooked before they were ground up with the tomatoes and onions and even after cooking the sauce it had a very raw garlic/ginger taste. Plus the sacue was not as sweet as I remembered it in India.

Thanks,

Hal

capt_mahajan

Here's an old thread

Sahi Malai Kofta

__________________
.
Outside the machine

Hal

Thanks. That recipe has no vegetables in the kofta - just paneer. Is that usual?

machadinha

Kofta as such can consist of a variety of ingredients I think; can be meat (with or without veg.) as well. So just paneer sounds plausible yes.

I've never made them; wasn't aware they need to be deep-fried (they well may be), I often found them a little too fluffy to my taste anyway. Can be tasty though, and often a safe not-so-spicy bet.

Check the web also for kofte (köfte, kufteh, etc.), as they're known throughout much of the Mid-East; the Indian ones probably get their own twist, the basic idea should be the same though.

__________________
Reading tips, all picked up at IndiaMike : INDAX's A Comprehensive Guide To India / Dinoj Surendran's Desi Humor / ITHVC on Culture Shock & Travel Health / JetLag Travel Guides For the Undiscerning Traveller / India Travel Links

capt_mahajan

Yes, it is.

Not an expert, so don't know if the real kofta has paneer or veg or a mix of both.


err, will the real kofta please stand up?

Hal

I've looked around and there are two common recipes for the koftas in Malai Kofta. One is paneer bound with gram flour, the other is potatoes, paneer and other cooked vegetables.

And as Mach says kofta seems to mean "dumpling". They come in all sorts including a lamb version that I remember now from Morocco.

machadinha

I know the veg. variety yes, the paneer one rang a bell as well, now that you brought it up.

Malai kofta would be just one specific recipe to prepare them I think btw, or possibly with its own varieties then. So sahi malai kofta would already be a variation no doubt, I forget what "sahi" stands for btw (I noticed besides paneer that recipe features some fruit and stuff btw? Sounds tasty really.)

I think in India they were usually veg., but you could get them as a meat variety alright. Conversely, the Turkish/North African köfte I know is meat more often than not yes, although it must exist in vegetarian versions, just not so easy to get in restaurants here.

Wish I could be of more help, sorry Just keep experimenting away I guess; I was thinking if you found that garlic & ginger concoction a little heavy for instance, there should be nothing to stop you from frying/cooking/simmering it first. The way I know my Indian (and not just those) cookbooks or websites they may have just forgotten to tell you to cook it first anyway (And help me out here people, malai kofta [or its sauce rather] is the rich creamy variety no, as noted should be rather subtle and not very pungent at all I think?)

Good luck with it, hopefully others wil be in As for the kofta themselves then, maybe deep-fry a next time after all and see how it works out? Most foodstuffs like that take some experience just to really come to grips with it, don't be put off by your first not-so-splendid attempts. I mean stuff like batter and dumplings and such often takes some repeated attempts to get a feel for the right texture and method of binding and such. Just resist the temptation to invite all your friends over on your first tries

kalyani68

The malai kofta that I like is made with paneer and potatoes and has a pistachio sauce instead of the more usual tomato sauce. Its not a low-fat recipe but it is delicious!

__________________
My Travel Blog- South India Dec. 2007
www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/wildcat007

machadinha

Look-a-here: This wonderful thread by TimMakins just floated back up: Indian Cookery Book - 1900 . The book features several (meat and fish) kofta recipes (here called "forcemeat ball curries," or cofta).

Note they basically seem to form the balls, then fry them in whatever sauce/spice mixture you were preparing.

gvdv

Hal,
I know I am answering this thread a bit late, having just started posting here in the last few weeks.

I love the malai kofta at Moti Mahal on Gerard Street. Next time you're down there, why don't you ask them for some advice about how they do it. Now, the other places I've eaten it here in Toronto all tend to do it differently, so I think that there is a lot of variation (maybe regional) in how it is prepared.

I know that most restaurants here don't even have the dish, although I did once persuade the people at the Prince Arthur branch of The Host to adapt whatever kofta they had on the menu and make Malai Kofta instead. That was much more creamy tomato based than the one at Moti Mahal. One of my Pakistani friends - a superb cook - had never heard of koftas containing anything other than meat, and hers were the first I had had containing meat. Variety is the spice of life.

All the best,

Hal

Thanks gvdv. I have an office a bit farther east along Gerrard so I pop down to Moti Mahal and Udupi Palace far too often! Moti Mahal is so reasonable that it's almost cheaper than making your own.

gvdv

Hey Hal,
Yes, I agree with you - they're very generous with the price at Moti Mahal, and with the portions, too. In fact, I can barely finish a tali (unless I haven't eaten at all).

Love the malai kofta there.

Haven't tried Udupi Palace, but will do so.

namaste_cat

Hal, a couple of things in your recipe/technique that could be causing the koftas to break.
1. Be sure to use some sort of binder e.g. bread crumbs and/or corn flour.
2. Add in koftas just before serving b/c if added too soon, they start to fall apart.

I like you also pan fry b/c I don't like to deep dry things, just not my taste.

As for the koftas themselves, it's my understand they came to India from Persia and were originally made from meat. In India they can be meat only or meat mixed w/ veg or various veg, not just paneer. My family's and my fav is aloo (potato), gobhi (cauliflower) & mattar (peas) tho we like paneer too so I mix and match among all those a lot.

I have an Iranian friend who makes meatballs which she calls "kofteh", and they are just like the ones my Punjabi mom makes w/ minced/ground mutton, lamb etc. In fact, she's never had veg balls, and after eating them at my house, she says she now makes them quite often as she rather likes they're less heavy than meatballs.

As for the sauce, malai means cream & the creaminess in India at least comes from adding in fresh home-made yogurt. In the West, heavy cream is subbed for it but I still like the yogurt option. The difference in N. America is our commercial yogurt is more tart, so maybe that's what you're missing in your malai part of your malai kofta recipe?