Kofta is a family of meatball dishes found in the Indian subcontinent, South Caucasian, Middle Eastern, Balkan, and Central Asian cuisines.
Koftas in India are usually served cooked in a spicy curry and are eaten
with boiled rice or a variety of Indian breads. In India, vegetarian varieties may use potato, calabash, paneer, or banana. In the simplest form, koftas consist of balls of ground meat - usually beef, chicken, lamb or mutton, pork, or a mixture - mixed with spices or onions. In Greece and Cyprus, vegetarian versions are known as hortokeftedes, and often eaten during fasting periods such as Lent. The Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus), also known as jack tree, is a species of tree in the fig, mulberry, and breadfruit family Its origin is in the region between the Western Ghats of southern India and the rain forests of of Malaysia. Although when we visited Brazil last year we saw many trees on the train ride to statue of Christ.
The jack tree is well-suited to tropical lowlands and is widely cultivated throughout tropical region
of the world. It bears the largest fruit of all trees, reaching as much
as 55 kg (120 pounds) in weight, 90 cm (35 inches) in length, and 50 cm
(20 inches) in diameter. A mature jack tree produces some 200 fruits per year, with older trees bearing up to 500 fruits in a year. The jack fruit is a multiple fruit composed of hundreds to thousands of individual flowers, and the fleshy petals of the unripe fruit are eaten ] The ripe fruit is sweet (depending on variety) and is more often used for desserts. Canned Jack fruit has a mild taste and meat-like texture that lends itself to being called a "vegetable meat". When I was growing up in Agra we used to make
Jack fruit curry quite often. It is made out of unripened fresh fruit, which is not easy to cut as it is very sticky and you have to put lot of oil on your hand so the sticky substance does not stick to your hand. When I first came here I could not find fresh jack fruit but in Asian and Indian grocery store I found the canned young jack fruit in brine, which is pretty good . I just wash it thoroughly under water to get rid of brine and all he preservatives. For curry I usually grill the pieces on griddle and for the Kofta I just used the drained and washed pieces of Jack fruit.
- Pieces of of Jack fruits from 2 cans** If you use fresh jack fruit for this make sure you take the seeds out and pressure cook the pieces to make them soft for the Koftas.
- 2 medium potatoes boiled and peeled .
- 8 ozs of Paneer
- 1" piece of ginger
- 1 small bunch of cilantro
- 1-2 Serrano chili pepper
- 3/4 cup of gram flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon of roasted cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon of Garam masala
- 3/4 cup of Panko crumbs
- Oil for frying
- 1 teaspoon of turmeric
- 1 tablespoon of coriander powder
- 1 tablespoon of cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper powder
- 1 teaspoon of garam masala
- 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper
- Salt to taste
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
- 1/2 cup of roasted unsalted cashews
- 1 can of crushed tomatoes
- 1 same can of water + 1 cup of water
- 1/2 cup of heavy cream or sour cream (I used sour cream this time)
- Boil and peel potatoes and keep aside.
- Wash and drain the pieces of Jack fruits from can set aside.
- If you have big slab of paneer, cut in to half as you will only need 8 oz of paneer for this.
- Open the jar of crush tomatoes and set aside.
- Start with the dry food processor grind the roasted unsalted cashes to fine powder set aside.
- In same food processor jar coarsely grind the jack fruit pieces.
- Transfer the ground jack fruit in a bowl.
- In same food processor jar, grind mash potatoes and paneer together and transfer in the bowl of ground jack fruit.
- Then in the food processor coarsely grind the Serrano peppers and 1" peeled ginger and then add cilantro and chop coarsely.
- Add these to the bowl with jack fruit, paneer and potatoes.
- Mix all the ingredients and add gram flour, baking soda, salt, garam masala and cumin powder.
- Mix to a dough consistency.
- Set aside.
- In food processor jar grind onions, ginger and garlic.
- Heat 1/4 cup of oil in a frying pan.
- When oil is hot, add cumin seeds, when these crackle, add bay leaves, cinnamon stick, cardamom and then add asafoetida.
- Add onion, garlic ginger paste and turn the heat down to medium and saute for 6-7 min, until golden brown.
- You can add roasted cashew powder.
- Mix and then add crushed tomatoes and same can of water.
- Bring it to boil and add cream or sour cream.
- Mix well.
- Add one cup of water and then all the dry ground spices mentioned above.
- Simmer at low heat while you make the kofta balls.
- Add panko crumbs in a flat plate.
- Mix the dough prepared ahead.
- Make small golf size ball and roll them in to oval shape.
- Roll each ball on the panko crumbs generously coating each ball.
- Set them all in tray, while you heat the oil for deep frying in fryer.
- Deep fry the kofta ball and set them on paper towel to drain excess oil.
- When ready to serve you can drop the Kofta balls in the simmering curry.
- Make sure you simmer the curry with the Kofta balls enough for required servings as they will become soft and mushy.
- This recipe yields 34 Koftas. (it is an effort and work to make these, so you can make more of these and freeze the rest of balls and curry separately. Can thaw and simmer with Kofta ball when ready to serve again.
- You can make additional curry when ready to serve frozen kofta.
- Garnish the Kofta Curry with cilantro and drizzle of cream and serve hot with Naan, or chapati or rice.
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