I wanted an authentic curry with salaan or tarkari, that’s what a curry, with more sauce is called where I am from. One of the classic dishes is Kofta Aloo Mutter. This is meatball, potato and peas curry. Traditionally it is a curry with a lot of sauce and eaten with roti. The potatoes are left fairly large and when broken up in the plate with a piece of roti, thicken the sauce. I have made a large variety of meatball curries, using two types of meat, stuffed with cheese or egg. I made this one as its easier to make and the meatballs are not too big, by using quails eggs. They call this curry a Nargasi Kofta. I have simplified this recipe, to make it easier to cook. Most of the work is in the preparation.
Ingredients
Meat Balls
750g beef steak. Mince 5% fat. You can use lamb mince for a softer meatball.
12 boiled quail eggs
100g grated onion
Teaspoon garlic
Teaspoon ginger
Teaspoon salt
Half Teaspoon black pepper
Teaspoon cumin
Teaspoon coriander powder
Tablespoon methi
Three green chillies finely sliced
Small handful fresh coriander finely chopped
Mix with level tablespoon of oil
Level tablespoon lemon juice1 tablespoon of butter ghee and four tablespoons of vegetable oil
Mix all the ingredients, mix well into the mince. Divide mince into 60g balls and place an egg in each ball. You will have some mince left over, use to make two spicy burgers or use for nachos, once cooked. Ensure that the mince is tightly covering the egg. Then gently brown in a little oil and keep to one side. Please see illustrations below.
750 peeked Maris piper potato’s,
cut into 24 pieces.
Onions
200g onion roughly chopped and boiled in water
for 5 mins, drained and blitzed in blender keep
some of water to assist
Assembling and cooking the Curry
In 6 tablespoons of oil
Fry two bay leaves
Two small stick of cassia bark
Four black cardamoms
Teaspoon of cumin seeds
Tablespoon Garlic and Ginger heaped teaspoons
Tablespoon Kashmiri chilli powder
Tablespoon of coriander powder
Half teaspoon of turmeric
Level tablespoon of coarse black pepper
Teaspoon of salt to taste adjust later
Add the onions and cook for about five minutes, then add 300g tomato passata. Stir in well and cover cooking on a low heat. The sauce will bubble, so keep the lid on after stirring.
Once the oil has separated, add the meatballs, be careful to not break them after five more minutes add one later of boiled water gently stir. Then gradually add the potatoes and simmer on low heat until a skewer goes into potatoes with a little resistance. Add 150g frozen peas and continue to cook for five minutes. Once the oil has separated and sauce has thickened a little, add a generous pinch of garam amass and a hand full of hope coriander. Take off heat and let sit for 15 mins
You can take the whole spices out, once you put the water in, as they will rise to the top. I count the in and count them out, or you could leave in. I hope you enjoy coking this curry.