This Malai Kofta Curry and creamy gravy make the dinner a mesmerizing moment. The kofta balls are made of cottage cheese(paneer) and potato.
This restaurant style Malai kofta curry is bright, flavorful side dish that pleases everyone with its color and the taste. Great to serve with Naan bread, or roti.
Can you just tell me an Indian restaurant, which does not have Malai Kofta curry on its menu card? I did not come across, one such restaurant in India or elsewhere.
All most all Indian restaurants have few menus in common curry, and 'Malai Kofta' can be listed in the top ten. I think restaurateurs include this in their menu card for its richness, taste which makes everyone like it.
The delicious aspect of this tasty Indian malai kofta curry recipe is very easy and simple to prepare at home. This recipe requires to add fresh cream, we can substitute with light cream to suit our diet.
Searching for more side dish recipes for Roti, Paratha? Do check Paneer Butter Masala, Moong Vadi Subji, Vegetable kurma, Rajma masala
I love to serve Malai kofta curry with the garden-fresh green salad like Cantaloupe Salad along with this gravy.
What is malai kofta made of?
The malai kofta means 'cream cheese balls', and these are made with Indian cottage cheese(paneer), boiled potatoes, cilantro, and rice flour. These are usually deep-fried and added to a creamy tomato gravy.
How to make Malai kofta curry
In a mixing bowl, mash the potato and add paneer, salt, cilantro.
Combine them well and make this mixture into small balls.
In a small mixing bowl, add 2 teaspoons of rice flour and two tablespoons of water. Whisk until no lumps seen.
Dip each paneer balls in the rice flour batter and shallow fry them in vegetable oil, till kofta becomes golden brown in color. Keep aside.
In medium heat, add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, and add chopped onion, tomato, ginger, garlic, and red chili powder, coriander powder. Fry until onion becomes soft. Allow it to cool to room temperature.
And add it to the blender and grind above sauteed ingredients.
Over medium heat, in a pan add oil, shahi jeera and allow to sizzle for 20-30 seconds.
Then add the ground paste and cook them in medium to low heat till oil separates. Add two cups of water and bring it again to boil.
Cook until it reaches the desired consistency.
Now add fresh cream and the koftas and crushed Kasturi methi. Switch off the heat.
Serve Malai Kofta with rice or parathas.
Best to serve with
- Roti. The Indian flatbread is the ultimate combo with this Malai kofta curry.
- Paratha. The stuffed Indian flatbread like avocado Paratha, cauliflower Paratha.
- Rice. Simple plain white rice is one of the popular side dishes served here in the United State's restaurants.
Storing ideas
Refrigerate. Transfer the excess Malai kofta curry to an air sealed container. And refrigerate it to use within 5 days.
Freeze. You may also freeze in airtight containers or freezer-safe bags. This is you can prolong the storing period to 2 months. To thaw, leave them in the refrigerate overnight or for 8 hours.
Reheat. Transfer to a heavy-bottomed pan, add little water, and combined with the gravy. And reheat until it turns hot. We are adding while reheating is to compensate for the water that gets evaporated in the process of reheating.
You may also gently reheat it in the microwave.
Why do koftas break?
The koftas are made with paneer. Paneer alone cannot be deep-fried as balls, it needs a binding agent to hold its shape. Koftas tend to break if the binding agent is not enough for deep frying.
When the koftas are breaking when deep frying, add in mashed potato.
Other curry recipes you may like,
Malai Kofta Curry
Ingredients
For the kofta
- 1/2 cup paneer /cottage cheese-grated
- 1/2 cup mashed potato
- 4 tbsp cilantro chopped
- 1/4 tsp salt or as required
- 3 tsp rice flour
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 cup vegetable oil for frying
For grinding
- 6 tbsp onion chopped
- 6 tbsp tomato chopped
- 1 tsp ginger chopped
- 1 tsp garlic chopped
- 1 tsp red chili powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
For the curry
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/2 tsp shahi jeera /cumin seeds
- 2 cups water
- 1/2 tsp salt or as required
- 1/4 cup fresh cream
- 1 tsp Kasurimethi / dried fenugreek leaves
Instructions
For the kofta
- In a mixing bowl, add paneer, potato, salt, chopped cilantro and blend them.
- And make small lime size balls of 1.5 inch in diameter. And set aside.
- In another mixing bowl, add rice flour, and water. Combine and make a thick paste. And set aside.
- Over medium heat, place a frying pan and add vegetable oil.
- Once the oil becomes medium hot, dip each paneer ball in the flour batter and drop it in the oil. Do not crowd the pan.
- Stir them occasionally and fry them for 3 minutes or until it becomes golden brown in color.
- Repeat the frying process for the remaining paneer balls as well. And set them aside.
For grinding
- Over medium heat, place another pan, and vegetable oil and chopped onion.
- Saute until onion becomes soft, and add tomato, ginger, and garlic.
- Saute until tomato becomes soft. Now add red chili powder and coriander powder.
- Stir for a minute. Allow it to cool.
- In the blender jar, add this mixture and pulse until it turns into a smooth consistency mixture. And set aside.
For the curry
- Over medium heat, in the same pan add vegetabble oil, shahi jeera and allow it to sizzle for 30 seconds.
- Stir in the ground spice mixture and cook them for 15 minutes in low-medium heat or until the oil separates on the sides.
- Add two cups of water and salt. Cook until it becomes thicky flowy consistency.
- Bring it to low heat, then add fresh cream, kofta, and crushed Kasturi methi.
- Stir it for a minute, until all the ingredients blends well with each other.
- Transfer to a serving bowl. And serve hot with rice or parathas.
Notes
Nutrition
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Meena Selvakumaran
rich and creamy dish perfect for occassion,nice step by step clicks will be very useful.
Srimathi Mani
My family's fav side dish. Looks delicious.
Neela Manogar
Lovely koftas.
Saranya Balaji
looking very rich and creamy...
Preety
it does look like came straight from the restaurant..
Sri Love
I never had Malai Kofta in any Indian restaurant here before. Your gravy is killing me dear! Mouthwatering 🙂