Malai Kofta Curry
Gluten-free, Egg-free, Fish-free, Soya-free, Meat-free. If you are cooking this for kids you may wish to reduce the spices by half although it is not a hot curry.
Ingredients
- For the Kofta's:
- 110 g mature cheddar cheese - grated (I tried paneer being more Indian, but it didn't add any flavour!)
- 100 g gram flour
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 - 1 tsp chilli powder
- 2 tbsp homemade cashew nut cream* - or bought cashew nut butter
- 1 tbsp poppy seeds
- A little water if required to bring the mixture together
- For the sauce:
- 1 red onion - finely chopped
- 1 clove of garlic - finely chopped
- Thumbnail sized piece of ginger - finely chopped
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp tumeric
- 2 cardamon pods
- 300 ml passata
- 100 ml water
- 3 tbsp single cream
- 4 tbsp homemade cashew nut cream* or bought cashew nut butter
- Fresh coriander - to serve
- Chopped cashew nuts - to serve
- Salt to taste
- *For the cashew nut cream:
- 1 cup roasted - salted cashew nuts
- 100 ml water
Instructions
- To make the kofta's, place all the ingredients in a medium-sized bowl and bring together with your hands until firm.
- Roll into 8 balls of equal size.
- Place on a baking tray and bake in a pre-heated oven at 190 degrees (170 degrees fan oven) for 25 minutes, turning once.
- In the meantime make the sauce by placing the onion in a large pan with a little oil and water. Cook over a low heat with the lid on until translucent but not brown. Add more water if it becomes dry and starts to brown.
- Allow the water to evaporate, then add the garlic and ginger and continue to cook for a further minute.
- In a separate pan, dry fry the cumin seeds, chilli powder, coriander and tumeric over a medium heat for a minute or so until you hear the cumin seeds pop.
- Add the passata, water, dry fried spices, cardamon pods, cashew nut cream or butter and salt to taste and simmer over a low heat for a further 10-15 minutes. Add more water if the sauce becomes too dry.
- At the end of the cooking time add the single cream and stir until heated through.
- To serve, place the sauce in a bowl and add the cooked koftas. Scatter over some chopped coriander and cashew nuts and serve with rice and papadums (checking that they are gluten-free!).