As much as I love making quick, effortless and direct recipes, there are times, like a quiet Sunday afternoon, when I really want to spend two to three hours in the kitchen by myself, listen to my Spotify playlist and make a dish that is heavily involved, complicated, and yet so gratifying, delectable and beautiful and that it leaves all my senses content. Cooking really is therapeutic, and it's a shame that I realized it so late in my life, but then again, school, college and job never really gave me a chance to explore the kitchen either.
This recipe has two parts, the kofta and the curry. The good news is, you can very easily stop at the first part ~ the koftas, and that would be a dish in itself, or just make the curry, and eat it with the vegetables of your choice. However if you want a rich, flavorful curry to accompany your koftas then you can proceed to the next part.
So then, what is a kofta curry. I'm pretty sure you all know what a curry. Now for the uninitiated, koftas are essentially spiced meatballs that you usually find in Indian, central Asian and other middle eastern cuisines. Think about falafel, if you will. Now koftas, just like everything else that has meat, are not restricted to just meat. You can make vegetarian koftas, and they taste as flavorsome as the non-veg ones. You just need to find a vegetable which has a texture that's as close to the meaty texture as possible.
Which leads me to my next topic of discussion, which is, why am I using Green Plantains? Well because I want to! But really because I love the starchy, meaty and the brothy texture of them. The other types of plantains like the yellow or black plantain, are usually used for dessert recipes, as they have a softer texture and are also sweet. The green plantain or the raw green bananas are very bland in taste, very much like potatoes, but they can be easily intensified with some lovely spices. The use of Chana Dal or Split Chickpea has a huge, huge role in this recipe too. The nuttiness of this dal along with the aroma of the whole spices can really caste a spell on you.
The curry was an experiment and it turned out so divine, and it surprisingly accompanied the koftas so well. It didn't overpower them at all! When thinking about the curry, I really wanted to make it coconut based, you know, to give justice to these green plantains. Raw Bananas/Green Plantains are abundantly found in the southern India, where you would also find a huge number of coconut trees and thus a lot of coconut based curries. However a spicy coconut curry was not something that I wanted to make, as I was going to spice the hell out of the koftas already. So I came up with a fusion of southern Indian and Thai flavors, and tried to make an Indian-Yellow Curry, if you will! I made a Thai curry paste with some Indian twist and added a bit of soy sauce in the end, to give a nice umami and sweet flavor.
This recipe requires a bit of commitment, because there are two things that you are handling at once. However as I said, feel free to do either one, and you would still end up with a great dish.
Since there is a lot to do in this recipe, Imma stop talking!
PART 1 : The Koftas!!
Ingredients for the kofta base
Chana Dal - 100 gm ( These are called split brown chickpea. Feel free to replace it with kidney beans or chickpeas or any other kind of boiled beans or dal/lentils) I personally love chana dal, because of the earthiness and the nuttiness.
Green Plantain/Raw green bananas - 4
Onion - 1 - sliced
Garlic cloves - 7 to 8, peeled
Ginger - 2 inch piece, grated
Green chilies - 4, chopped
Whole spices
Black Cardamom - 1
Red Chili - 3
Cinnamon stick - 1 inch
Pepper corns - 12 to 13
Cloves - 2
Bay Leaves - 2
Ingredients for the kofta mix
Onion - 1, chopped
Cilantro - half bunch, very very finely chopped
Green chili - 1, chopped finely
Lime - half
Bread Crumbs - 1/4 cup
Chickpea flour - 2 heaping tbsp.
Powdered spices
Red chili powder - 1/2 tsp
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 2 tsp
Chat Masala (very staple spice, can easily grab one at an Indian store) - 2 tsp
Dry Mango powder - 1 tsp
You need oil for frying these koftas, or can make these into kebabs, which I'll talk about in a minute!
Now you can read the ingredients of Part 2-The Curry here if you want to:-
- Gather the ingredients for it as well.
- Or if you're in a mood for just a good southern Indian-Thai curry and want to skip the koftas!
- Or you can completely skip it.
Step 1 (optional) : Soak the 100 gm Chana Dal in water, for a minimum of 2 hours. Although this step really helps in boiling the dal quickly, if you don't have that kind of time, you can skip it. Just make sure you add more water at the time of boiling at Step 4 and let it boil for longer.
Step 3 : Peel and and chop the plantains.
Step 4 : Now add everything to a pressure cooker or an instant pot or to the appliance you use for boiling stuff. Add only 1 cup of water if the dal is soaked, if not add 2 cups, and add 1 tsp salt, and set it to boil. Three whistles if the dal is soaked, otherwise five.
While that's boiling, quick! make a decision, do you want to make the curry? Do you? Do you??!! Ok I'm sorry, if you want to! then hop and skip to Part 2, complete it and then come back here, since it takes only 5 pretty steps to make the curry.
Step 5 : Once the stuff is boiled, check for it's doneness. The plantains and the dal should be easily mash-able. Transfer this onto a plate for it to cool down, and again an optional step, but if you want to, take out the bay leaves, black cardamom and the cinnamon stick. Just their aroma is enough.
Step 6 : Now gather the ingredients for the kofta mix, while the base cools down a bit. Here I give you another chance to jump to Part 2. (wink wink*).
Step 7 : Mash the kofta base mixture on the plate slightly. Now grind it in a food processor or a grinder to a fine paste.
Step 8 : Now take all the kofta mix ingredients gathered in Step 6 and add it to this grinded paste.
Step 9 : Now once this mix is ready, taste to see how much salt is needed, and add more or not, accordingly. Here you have to make a decision; if you want to end the cooking session here, then you can make small flat patties of this mix and make some delectable kebabs out of these. See my Hara-Bhara Kebab blog post and see Step 14 and 15, on how to make the patty shape and sear them.
Else make falafel-sized balls out of these, and in a wok with oil in it, that's hot on medium - high flame, fry these until golden brown.
PART 2 : The Curry!! Erm so it's a fusion of southern Indian and Thai flavors and it's amazing!!!
Ingredients
Coconut milk - 13 fl oz / 400 ml
Avocado Oil - 1 tbsp
Onion - 1 - finely chopped
Dried Red Chili - 4
Tomato - 1/2
Curry Leaves - 6 to 7
Parsley - 7 to 10 stems, chopped
Soy Sauce - 2 tbsp
Salt - 2 tsp
Sugar - 1 tsp
Powdered Spices
Red Chili Powder - 1 tsp
Coriander Powder - 2 tsp
Step 1 : In a pot, add avocado oil and once it's hot, add in the onions and sauté them.
Step 2 : Now grind the red chili and half of the tomato. Our blender died, so we had to do this in a mortar. However the consistency that came out if this, was actually better. So a happy accident! Add in the powdered spices too.
Step 3 : Sauté everything for a minute, and then tip over a can of coconut milk. Also in your mortar, there should be some tomato-chili mix left, add some water in it and pour that (no wastage!). Add in the curry leaves too, and let this broth simmer for 7 - 10 minutes.
Step 4 : After 10 minutes, add salt and a little bit of sugar to kill the sourness from the tomatoes. Add soy sauce, and let it boil again for 5 - 7 minutes.
Step 5 : It's ready!! Garnish with chopped parsley and plop in the koftas!! or if you've decided to only make this, then serve this curry with some boiled veggies and rice and enjoy!!
We ate this curry and the koftas with some beautiful rotis!
Now I know it's a looo...ooot of work! But as I said, this cooking session is for a soothing and solitary Sunday afternoon or a Saturday morning. Also it's not at all necessary to make these together, you can make them on separate occasions. Make the curry with some vegetables of your choice or make the koftas in the form of kebabs, and eat with some green chutney! And at the expense of sounding like Bob Ross!
Just don't forget to have fun!
Comentários