by Huma

Kofta

Overview

Today we are going to make Beef Koftas

You can watch this recipe on YouTube. Please Like, Subscribe, and hit the bell.

 

Kofta raw meatballs

Koftas are a family of meatball dishes which are basically balls of minced or ground meat.  Any type of meat can be used, but in our cooking, beef is more typical but in my home we generally make chicken kotfas.  It is meatballs served in gravy or curry sauce, generally eaten with a naan, chapati or rice.  There are many variations of koftas, the most famous but distant cousin is the Nargisi kofta which actually does not resemble a kofta (except for the fact that it is still a meatball) because it is not made from ground meat.  Most closely related is the Shahi Kofta which is our kofta recipe but the meatball is stuff with a hard boiled egg.  And in the last variation of the dish some people like to add hard boiled eggs to the gravy.

Today I am going to have my mom help me with making koftas, this is her signature dish and no one in our family can replicate it exactly, her koftas are smooth meatballs with no cracks and are soft to eat, so for the video I figured I would go to the source and have her show us how to do it right.  I have been making koftas for a long time but even mine don’t come like hers.

Here are the individual steps.

  1. Ground spices for koftas
  2. Make the gravy
  3. Make the meatballs
  4. Cook it all together

Ingredients

Step 1 – Ground Spices for Koftas

16 black pepper

2 tsp cumin

1.5 tbsp poppy seeds

1/3 cup roasted chickpeas (roasted peeled chana)

2 black cardamon (bari elachi)

Grind black pepper, cumin, poppy seeds, chana, black cardamon.  You will only need 2 tbsp of these ground spices for this recipe, keep the rest for next time.  I just store mine in a jar in the cabinet.

Step 2 – Make the Gravy

1 medium onion sliced finely and fried in oil

1 medium onion (2/3 lb or 1/2 cup) chopped and ground in couple of tbsp of water

2 tsp ground garlic

2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp coriander powder

2/3 tsp red pepper powder

1 tsp salt

Pinch turmeric

1 cup yogurt

1 tsp of lemon juice

2 tomato (ground)

Remove the fried onions from oil      

Add ground onions, garlic, ginger, coriander, red pepper, salt and turmeric to the oil and cook until gravy is cooked down. Add yogurt and cook until gravy is cooked down again

Step 3 – Make the Koftas

2 lb ground meat

1/2 medium onion (1/3 lb or 1/4 cup) chopped and ground in couple of tbsp of water

1/2 cup yogurt

2 slices of bread (ground into crumbs, increase to 3 slices if using chicken which tends to be less firm)

1 tsp salt

1/3 tsp red pepper powder

1/2 green pepper (such as jalapeño or serrano)

Handful Cilantro

Add ground meat, ground onion, yogurt, bread, salt, red pepper, jalapeño, cilantro, 2 tbsp of the ground spices, mix well together and shape into meatballs.

Raw meatballs

Step 4 – Cook it All Together

Add the meatballs to the gravy, touch any kofta with the lemon juice that look like they have cracks.  Grind the tomatoes.  Either grind the fried onions in the blender or grind them by hand.  Add tomatoes and onion to the gravy.  Cook for about 30 minutes until done.

Kofta

ALL DONE! Happy cooking, let us know in the comments if you have any feedback or suggestions, we would love to hear from you.