Malai Kofta (Deep fried paneer & potato dumplings in rich creamy sauce) - Step-by-Step recipe

Malai Kofta is a rich dish popular in North India, originally from Punjabi cuisine. It's very delicious, loved by everyone and best suited for lunch/dinner parties. Who wouldn't like something that has paneer, cream and potatoes in it? ;)

My hubby loves Malai Kofta :)  Sadly, the only Indian restaurant closest to our place doesn't list Malai Kofta on its menu.  Hence, I have been wanting to try and make this at home for a long long time. Inspired by Geetha chithi's mouth-watering pictures and simple recipe, I was much tempted and finally made this today for lunch.  I modified the recipe slightly and was immensely happy that it came out very well and we both enjoyed our meal. I served it with chapathis but Malai Kofta goes equally well with rice varieties.

Malai Kofta

What You Need -

For the Koftas -

Paneer - 150 g
Potatoes - 3 small/medium
Green chillies - 3 (finely chopped)
Jeera/ Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Black pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Raisins - as required

Maida/All-purpose flour - 4 tbsp (Can substitute with corn flour)
Oil - for frying

For the gravy -

Onions- 2
Tomatoes - 2
Ginger-Garlic paste - 1 tsp
Cashewnuts - 12  nos.
Raisins - 20 nos.

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder - 3/4 tsp
Salt - to taste

Cream - 4 to 5 tbsp
Cilantro - to garnish

How To -

• Boil potatoes. Peel the skin and mash them.
• Mash paneer and mix it with mashed potatoes, along with chopped green chillies, jeera, pepper and salt.

• Mix maida in some water. This makes our batter. 
• Divide the dough into small ping-pong sized balls. 
• Stud each ball with 3-4 raisins.
• Dip and roll the balls into maida batter and deep fry in hot oil.

• Make sure the oil is hot enough else the balls might disintegrate!

• A batch of 4 koftas would take about 5-7 minutes to get cooked and fried enough on all sides. You can remove and drain the koftas on kitchen tissues when you see them turning golden in color.

Golden Koftas - yummy as such :)

• These are just yummy as such and you can eat them right away with tomato-ketchup or any chutney :) But, save them if you want to eat them with the rich creamy gravy!

• To make the gravy, you need 4 kinds of pastes/juices. 

(1) Soak chopped onions in hot water for 15 minutes and grind them to a paste

(2) Blend ripe tomatoes in a juicer
(3) Ginger-garlic paste (you can go with the store-bought version too)
(4) Soak cashews and raisins in hot water for 15 minutes and grind to a paste

• Take a kadai, heat 2 tsp of oil and fry the onion paste and let it cook for 5 minutes.
• Next goes the ginger-garlic paste.
• Now, add tomato puree and add salt.
• Follow with all the masala powders - turmeric, garam masala, coriander and red chilli powder. Let boil.
• Once all these are well incorporated, mix in the cashew+ raisins paste and boil for another 2-3 minutes. 
• Finally, add in cream and garnish with coriander leaves/cilantro.

To Serve : Pour the gravy over the koftas just a few minutes before eating, to prevent them going soggy. I like soaked koftas in my gravy, so I soaked just 2 koftas right from the beginning and then crumbled them in the gravy. This also gives some thickness and texture to the gravy.

Happy to send this to Sinful Delights! Very apt description, indeed for Malai Kofta :)