Malai Koftas

Aaaannddd...I have been trying to get back to my cooking. Now that I am spending more time at home and have a little extra time at my hands. As a guideline I am using the menu of a near by restaurant and making stuff off it.
So I tried - for the nth time in my life - making Malai Kofta (dumplings in mild sauce).

It came out extremely nice for a change. And the cheats I employed are shared below.

For now here is a delicious looking picture of the aforementioned Koftas.

So, for anybody who is interested, here is how I made it.

For Koftas -                                                        For the Gravy - 

3 Medium potatoes, boiled, peeled, mashed              3 medium Onions,

1/2 Cup carrots & peas, half boiled, mashed              1 Cup Tomato puree

1/2 Cup paneer, grated                                            1/4 Cup Paneer, grated

2 medium green chillies, chopped                           1 Tbsp, Ginger paste

2 tbsp cornflour                                                    1 Tbsp, Garlic Paste

Salt to taste.                                                         2 Green Chillies, finely chopped

                                                                           1 tsp Coriander powder

                                                                           1 tsp Cumin powder

                                                                           1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

                                                                           1/2 tsp Red chilli powder

                                                                           1 tsp Shah Jeera

                                                                           1 tsp Garam Masala

                                                                           1/2 C Fresh Cream / Half & Half

                                                                            2 % Milk, as needed

                                                                            Salt to taste

                                                                            Oil 3 tablespoons

How I made it - 

1.   Mix all ingredients required for kofta. Refrigerate the mixture.

2.   Peel onions, cut them into halves and boil with a cup of water for ten minutes. 

      Drain excess water, cool onions and grind them into a smooth paste. Set Aside.

3.   While the onions cool, divide the Kofta mixture in golf ball size portions. Flatten a little.

      Deep fry in hot oil.

4.   On the other side heat oil in a kadai, add shahjeera, boiled onion paste and cook for five 
      minutes. Add ginger & garlic, few chopped green chillies, all the masala powders, and salt.
      Cook for a minute.

8.   Add tomato puree and red chilli powder and cook on medium flame until oil 
      separates from gravy. 

9.   Add cream along with some water & bring it to a boil and simmer for ten minutes on a 
      slow flame. Stir occasionally. 

10.  Stir in fresh cream and garam masala powder. 

11.  Float in all the koftas in the gravy when ready to serve. Simmer for another 
       2 mins and enjoy.

Cheats - 
Cheated majorly. In the following ways.

1. Koftas are ideally made of boiled potatoes, mashed, rolled in small balls, flattened, stuffed with paneer etc. and the selead closed. And then these deep fried in hot oil. I have had past - quite traumatic - experiences of the koftas breaking up while frying, or not being sealed properly and stuffing coming out in oil.
 So here, I just mashed everything together and rolled them. So no danger of of stuffing coming out. saves time. same taste.

2. It is quiet difficult for me to find potatoes that don't go all gooey and sticky after boiling and mashed. So, I resorted to baking them here. Same effect.Lesser hassle.

3. Cornflour is your friend in this recipe. But not best friend. Go easy on it or the koftas would just be too airy.

So anybody who is planning to try this recipe, I hope these tips are useful. Good luck. And happy cooking.