No fry Kofta Curry

This is a slight Mangalorean twist to a regular curry. In addition to the onions and tomatoes, this one also has coconut in it
It adds a lot of texture and body to the gravy and personally, I think it uses lesser oil too
The recipe for this curry is from the cook we had at Ma's place when I was there with my new-born baby. In Ma's daily cooking, there is at least one coconut used per day, so using coconut in a kofta curry was not surprising !



The koftas are made using bottle gourd, which is alkaline and very good for our stomach - it helps neutralize all the acid.
Deep frying these koftas then, didn't make sense - we would lose out on the 'good for health' tag that the bottle gourd brought. Inspired by Nags' kadhi pakodi, I decided to 'cook' these koftas in a paniyaram chatti / appe kadai / aebleskiver pan

Worked out great and you don't really miss out on the deep frying at all

So here's some healthy kofta curry, if you, like me, believe that coconut cannot be bad for health !!

No fry Kofta Curry

What you need -

For the kofta
1 medium sized bottle gourd / dudhi
1/2 cup chickpea flour / besan
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp carom seeds / ajwain
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 salt

For the gravy
2 onions
4 tomatoes
1 tbsp poppy seeds / khus khus (soaked it water for a couple of hours)
1 tsp cumin seed / jeera powder
1/2 cup fresh grated coconut
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp coriander seed / dhania powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 salt

What you do with it -

For the curry
Blanch, peel and grind the tomatoes to a puree
Grind the grated coconut, onions and khus khus to a smooth paste, adding upto 1/2 cup water
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a deep pan and add the onion-coconut paste and fry for 2-3 mins
Then add the tomato puree and fry for another minute or so
Add the dhania powder, jeera powder, salt and chilli powder
Stir well
Add upto 1/2 cup water, as required
Sprinkle with garam masala and bring to a slow boil

For the koftas
Peel and grate the bottle gourd
Add turmeric powder, chilli powder, carom seeds and salt
The gourd release a lot of water, so just add enough besan, a spoon at a time, to make the batter thick enough
I got about a cup of grated bottle gourd and added little less that 5 tbsp of besan
Some people add cooking soda to make it fluff up more, but I prefer to avoid it
You could add a tsp of cooking soda if you really want to
Mix well
Heat the paniyaram chatti on a medium flame
Put in a drop of oil in each depression and swirl the pan around so the oil coats the entire area
Drop into the batter with a tbsp into each depression
Cover with a lid and keep on a low-medium flame
It should be done in about 2-3 mins, turn it over carefully
Keep on heat uncovered for another minute
Remove and keep aside. I cover it in aluminium foil and keep it a closed container

Add the koftas to the curry just before serving
Garnish with coriander leaves