A not so Indian Kofta Curry- Cheese Kofta Curry

"Paneer Kofta Curry - I am Loving It:)" She said. I tried to avert this post by Kitchen Tantra. I looked away from the blogger reading list trying to concentrate on my unpublished comments.Yet, it succeeded in enticing me to click on it.

"Darn, no paneer at home!", I expressed my frustration. So I took all the inspiration I needed from her post and counted on my imagination with some left over shredded Mozzarella. I changed the gravy too according to my taste.

when you pick up a Kitchen Tantra recipe, you get a dish that tastes good and looks very similar to what she has posted and looks authentic. She means food with honesty. No additional make up done! Gives one such a "feel at home" feeling. I have changed the paneer koftas to cheese koftas. I have added a few more ingredients to the curry recipe as my Mughlai malai kofta recipe is very similar to what she has posted and I thought some change would do good.

Ingredients:-
For the kofta:-
1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup of APF/maida (or enough to bind the ingredients)
1 tbl spn of finely chopped green chillies
1 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
1 small onion finely chopped
2 tbl spns of finely chopped coriander leaves
salt to taste
*****
For the Gravy:-
1 medium sized onion+2 green chillies pureed
1 large tomato pureed
1 tsp roasted jeera powder
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp kasuri Methi/dried fenugreek leaves
1 tbl spn of low fat cream
3 tbl spns of butter
1 tbl spn of raisens and broken cashews for garnishing

I hate deep frying so I had to make the kofta balls in an appam pan (Puff pancake pan).
Example for the appam pan. I am making manchurian balls in them.

Method:-
Make a thick paste of all the ingredients and fry them in the appam pan until crisp with 1 tsp of oil for each cheese kofta. Keep them aside.
Heat a pan with 2 tbl spns of butter/oil.
Fry the ginger-garlic paste.
Add the onion-green chillies puree, red chilli powder,garam masala, coriander powder and jeera powder.
cook till the raw smell of the onion goes away.
Add the tomato puree and cook until the oil separates.
Add the fresh cream and kasuri methi and cook in low flame for a min.
Heat a smaller pan with the rest of the butter and fry the cashews and raisins until the raisins swell up and cashews turn golden brown.
Use the above as garnishing the curry once the cheese balls are put inside the curry.
Serve hot and relish with naan, roti or pilaf.

This goes to Nupur's Blog Bites 3- Adaptation.