Keeme Ja Kofta - (Mince meat balls) 20-24.

“Kheema: (mince meat) shaped in the uniform size of balls & cooked in gravy is known as ‘Kofta’ curry. You can make it dry or gravy-or grill & make into “kabas”. There are a lot of variation. The “Kheema” is made into balls by adding abinding agent like corn flour besan or eggs. Preferably the meat froms better into by ‘Koftas’ and adding eggs, rather than cornflour besan. To make any gravy rich & attractive just add a little cream before serving. For these koftas I have not used any
binding agent in the preparation.

For the koftas:

1. Heat oil in a 3-quart saucepan on medium high heat. Fry cinnamon, cloves and bay leaf for 1 minute.
2. Add onions and fry until dark brown for about 20 to 25 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent burning.
3. Also add garlic, ginger, tomatoes and cook for 10 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft.
4. Sprinkle coriander powder, cumin powder, chili powder, turmeric, salt and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Add yogurt to the above mixture and mix well. Finally add chicken pieces, cover and cook on medium heat until chicken is tender.
6. Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve with fried rice or chapaties

Ingredients:

500 gm. minced meat washed & drained thoroughly
1 med. size onion, grated
1 tsp. of each crushed ginger garlic
1 tsp. of each Chilli Powder, garam masala, Shahi Jeeri, Dhania Powder,
½ tsp. Crushed cardamom
4-5 Green chillies chopped very fine small bunch of corriander leaves & mint leaves
For the Gravy:-
Ingredients:
¼ cup ghee or oil
¼ cup curds
250 gms grated onions
1 tsp. of each crushed ginger & garlic
1 tsp. of each garam masala, Dhania powder, chilli powder
250 gms Tomatoes blanched peeled & chopped
Salt to taste (To blanch the tomatoes put tomatoes in hot water &
rinse in cold water)

Method:

Heat oil or ghee and fry the onions, ginger and garlic till golden brown and keep it aside. Now take the mince, add all the ingredients including the grated onions, you can add 1 tsp. oil to the mixture & mix well, when the mixture is quite pliable, divide into 20 equal parts, slightly wet you hands and take one portion of the mixture & smoothen it in the palm and shape into round balls very firmly, as otherwise it is liable to break during the process of cooking. Now keep the fried onions on the fire and place all the koftas over the onions, cover and cook jon medium heat, shake very gently every now and then, taking care not to break the koftas. When they become deep brown in colour, add chilli pwder, dhania powder, yogurt & reduce heat. Cook for few seconds more so as to get the deep red colour, now add chopped tomatoes, garam masala salt, cover and cook on medium heat for 10-15 minutes. Add ½ cup water if you need gravy and simmer on low heat. Koftas become tender and oil or ghee starts floating. Add garam masala chopped corriander leaves and serve hot with chappati.

Variation:

You can make Nargisi Kofta 8 hard boil the eggs. Divide mince meat inot eight eqyal parts, place one part on the palm of the left hand and using little water, flatten it out with the mince till it fully encloses the egg. Smoothen it with water-make all the eggs same way. Heat oil and deep fry till golden brown. Before serving slice into two & dot the yellow of the egg with tomato sauce.

There are lot of variation with mince meat. I shall continue sharing with you next month.