VEGETABLE KOFTA

INGREDIENTS

Beetroot- 200 grams
Carrots - 100 grams
Beans- 100 grams
Peanuts - 50 grams
Raisins - 50 grams
Potatoes - 300 grams
Gram flour (besan) - 1 cup
Ginger - 1 inch cube piece
Ginger paste - 1 tsp
Garlic paste - 1 tsp
Onion paste - half cup
Green chillies - 4-5
Tomato puree - 1 cup
Bay leafs - 2
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Dry red chillies - 2-3
Mustard or sunflower oil - 2 cups
Garam masala powder (equal portions of powdered green and black cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon, white cumin seeds, white pepper corns, mace and jayatri) - 1 tsp

PROCEDURE

Make the garam masala powder. Roast the cumin seeds and dry red chillies together. Grind them to a powder. Peel the potatoes and put them in a pressure cooker (do not cut or dice them). Pour water to just cover the potatoes. Close the pressure cooker lid tightly. Put on high flame. When the pressure cooker whistles loud (comes to full pressure) ,lower the flame and keep for 5 minutes. Do not open the cooker by artificial cooling. When the lid opens automatically insert a skewer in a large potato to see if it is cooked fully. If cooked drain the potatoes in a colander. After a minute shift the potatoes on a large tray\ dish and immediately mash with a ladle. You must not keep the potatoes in the cooker once the lid opens up. You must mash the boiled potatoes as quickly as possible. Now cool the mashed potatoes under a fan. Keep it aside. Dice the vegetables (carrots, beet, beans) into the size of peas. In a wok boil the vegetables and peas into bite like consistency. They should be just cooked and not very soft. Drain them on a colander. Let it cool. Soak the raisins for 5 minutes in water. Fry the peanuts in 1 tsp of oil. Grate the ginger cube.

Now take a large bowl and mix together the mashed potatoes, boiled vegetables, fried peanuts, raisins, grated ginger, roasted and powdered cumin seeds and dry red chillies and 2 tsp of salt. Mix well. Shape into table tennis size balls. Make a batter with gram flour and water. First make a paste and then add more water little by little to make a batter thick enough to coat the balls. Heat 2 cups of oil in a wok on high flame. When oil smokes lower the flame. Using your hand dip a ball in the batter to cover it completely. Lift it and let excess batter drain from ball and hand. In this way cover the balls in batter and slowly shift in the balls in hot oil. In this way shift in as many balls the oil can comfortably hold. Fry on high flame till golden brown. Shift hem on a plate covered with tissue. Fry all the balls in batches.

Now shift the oil from the wok but keep 3-4 tsps of oil in the wok. Heat the oil. Shift in the bay leafs and slit green chillies (add the chillies NOW only if you want the curry HOT otherwise add chillies last of all without slitting). Now shift the garlic paste. After 30 seconds add the onion paste and fry for 3-4 minutes. Add the tomato puree. After 2 minutes add the ginger paste. After sometime of stirring when oil shows in the fried mixture add water little by little to make gravy (the water should be enough to cover the koftas). When the water starts boiling observe if the gravy is too thin. If the gravy is thin add a little of the remaining gramflour batter to thicken the grsvy. Add 1 tsp of salt. You can add the green chillies now. Add the koftas and the garammasala powder and shut off the heat immediately. Your vegetable kofta is ready. You can also add a dollop of cream.

Posted by Keya