Malai Kofta - Food Indian

Malai Kofta is a popular North Indian vegetarian dish. With this dish, it is always a time of celebration. Malai means cream and koftas are fried dumplings or balls. In this recipe, soft paneer koftas are dipped in the rich onion and cream based gravy. This dish tastes delicious and preferably made in special occasions.

Image : Malai Kofta

Important :

Preparation Time : 30 minutes
Cooking Time : 1 hr
Total Time : 1 hr 30 minutes
Serve For : 4-5

Ingredients :

To make Kofta –

Paneer or Cottage Cheese (200 gm) [You can read the entire recipe of How to Make Paneer here]
Corn Flour (1 tbsp)
Black Pepper Powder (1/2 tsp)
Green Cardamom Powder (1/2 tsp)
Salt (to taste)
Oil (for frying)
Extra Corn Flour (2-3 tbsp) /for rolling the kofta balls

For the Kofta Filling –

Cashew Nuts (10-12) /roughly chopped
Raisins (1 tbsp)
Ghee (1/2 tsp)
Salt (a pinch)

To make the Gravy –

Onion (2 medium size) /sliced and boiled
Cashew Paste (1 cup)
Ghee (1 tsp)
Green Cardamom (2-3)
Cinnamon Stick (2 inches)
Cloves (4)
Garlic Paste (1 tbsp)
Milk (1 cup)
Green Chilli (2) /chopped
Fresh Cream (1/2 cup)
Sugar (1 tsp)
Salt (to taste)
Kasuri Methi or Dried Fenugreek Leaves (1 tbsp)

Direction :

To Make the filling –

Heat ghee in a pan. Add chopped cashew nuts and raisins into the pan. Saute them for about 4-5 minutes on medium flame with a pinch of salt.
When done, set them aside.

To make the Kofta –

Grate Paneer on a plate. Add 1 tbsp corn flour powder, salt, cardamom powder and black pepper powder. Mix all the ingredients and knead until you get a soft and smooth dough. It will take around 15 minutes to form the dough.
Divide the dough into 9-10 equal size balls. Take one portion and make round ball. Flatten it and fill with 1/2 tsp of the cashew nut filling. Seal it from all sides nicely so that they do not splatter while frying. Give it a round shape.
Coat the ball with corn flour nicely and place on the plate. Like wise prepare all balls.
To fry the koftas, heat oil in a deep bottomed pan. Make sure the oil is not too much heated, it should be warm.
In medium hot oil, place 3-4 balls at a time and fry until they get nice light brown colour. Keep rolling the ball while frying.
Drain oil and keep them aside. Paneer Koftas are ready.

To make the Gravy –

Boil sliced onion and cashew nuts separately for 10 minutes. Make smooth puree of both of them. Keep them aside.
In the same oil, add 1 tsp of ghee.
Grind the whole garam masala (cardamom, cinnamon and cloves) and put it on the pan. It will release a beautiful aroma.
Now add onion puree into the pan and cook it on medium flame for 3-4 minutes.
Then add garlic paste and keep cooking the mixture until the gravy starts leaving oil from sides.
At this point, add cashew nuts paste and cook it on medium to high flame until the gravy ooze out oil and does not stick on the pan. Do not forget to stir the mixture continuously while braising. It will take around 15 minutes to cook the gravy mixture.
When the onion-cashew mixture is ready, add 1 cup of milk and stir well.
Add chopped green chilli and keep boiling the mixture on low flame for another 5-10 minutes.
After the gravy becomes thick, add fresh cream and mix it well.
Add salt and sugar and give it a good stir. Cook for 5 minutes more.
Lastly add crushed kasuri methi, give a final stir and switch off the flame.
Add the kofta balls only before serving.