Malai kofta no onion no garlic recipe, step by step pictures for easy understanding. Perfect side dish during Navratri with pulao, roti and parathas.
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I have had malai kofta only once in my life time. Could you believe? Yeah. This is the second time but I made it myself. First time I had in a restaurant, it was a stuffed version, with cheese or dry fruits I do not remember. I had no idea trying this at home as well.
But I saw a cute serving dish at Mustafa the one you see below in which I have kept the koftas. I everytime look at it as its really cute and I wanted to buy it. And finally once got it too and thought I should post this. Silly right, but somehow I tried as well.
This is a no onion no garlic version. But comes out really tasty. Its similar to the cauliflower kofta curry I had posted before. You can eat the koftas as such too or float it in this rich gravy.
Recipe card
Malai kofta – no onion no garlic
Ingredients
Ingredients For Kofta
- 1 cup Paneer grated
- 4 Potatoes
- 3 tablespoon Bread crumbs
- ¼ teaspoon Garam masala
- ¼ teaspoon Chat masala
- ¼ teaspoon Pepper powder
- Salt – As needed
- 2 tablespoon Chopped coriander leaves
- Oil – For deep frying
Ingredients For Gravy
- 1 cup Tomato puree from 3-4 tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon Oil/ Ghee
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seed
- 1 Cinnamon small piece
- 1 Cardamom
- 1 Clove
- 2 teaspoon Ginger chopped
- ½ teaspoon Garam masala Powder
- 1 teaspoon Red chilli powder Kashmiri
- 1 & ½ teaspoon Coriander powder
- ⅛ teaspoon Turmeric powder
- Salt – As needed
- 2 tablespoon Coriander leaves chopped
- ½ cup Milk
- ½ cup Cooking cream
Instructions
- Pressure cook potato for 3 whistle with little water. Drain, cool, peel and mash it.
- Boil water and immerse paneer cubes in it until its soft. Drain, cool and crumble it.
- I did it in my mixer by running it once. You can do with your hands as well. If using block paneer, thaw it and grate it in a fine grater. Mix all the ingredients needed for kofta in the ingredients table.
- Form it to a dough. Make small equal sized balls out of it.
- Arrange everything in a plate and heat oil meanwhile. Deep fry in oil in medium flame in batches.
- Cook until golden in colour. Turn occasionally in between to ensure even browning and cooking. Drain in a paper towel.
- For gravy, I ground 3 large tomatoes to get 1 cup puree. Depending on the size of the tomatoes adjust the number of tomatoes using.
- Heat a pan with oil and temper with the whole garam masala followed by jeera. Add chopped ginger and just give it a fry. Add the pureed tomato.
- Add the garam masala powder, red chilli powder, turmeric, salt and coriander powder. Mix and cook covered in medium flame with a lid as it will splutter a lot.
- Mix in between to avoid burning. Once water evaporates, you can continue cooking without lid. Add more oil if need and fry.Once oil oozes out and masala becomes thick, add milk little by little and mix in low flame.
- Do not add all at once, keep stirring and add little by little. Lastly add cream also same way little by little. Never let the gravy boil on high flame at any point as it would lead to curdling.
- Lastly add coriander leaves and koftas. Do not mix. Let it be as such.
Notes
- Do not over cook potatoes as it will retain water and koftas will be too soft to handle.
- If you do not have bread crumbs, you can use fresh bread slices crumbled in a mixer too.
- If no bread crumbs or bread is available, add 1 tblsp maida or corn flour as binding agent.
- Add koftas a little while before serving.
- Do not let the gravy boil in high flame after adding milk and cream as it will lead to curdling of the gravy.Also do not add all at once, add little by little stirring.
- You can add kasuri methi while frying the puree for extra flavor.
Stepwise photos
Prepare kofta:
1. Pressure cook potato for 3 whistle with little water. Drain, cool, peel and mash it.
2. Boil water and immerse paneer cubes in it until its soft. Drain, cool and crumble it.
3. I did it in my mixer by running it once. You can do with your hands as well. If using block paneer, thaw it and grate it in a fine grater. Mix all the ingredients needed for kofta in the ingredients table.
4. Form it to a dough. Make small equal sized balls out of it.
5. Arrange everything in a plate and heat oil meanwhile. Deep fry in oil in medium flame in batches.
6. Cook until golden in color. Turn occasionally in between to ensure even browning and cooking. Drain in a paper towel.
For gravy
1. I ground 3 large tomatoes to get 1 cup puree. Depending on the size of the tomatoes adjust the number of tomatoes using.
2. Heat a pan with oil and temper with the whole garam masala followed by jeera. Add chopped ginger and just give it a fry. In goes the pureed tomato.
3. Add the garam masala powder, red chilli powder, turmeric, salt and coriander powder. Mix and cook covered in medium flame with a lid as it will splutter a lot.
4. Mix in between to avoid burning. Once water evaporates, you can continue cooking without lid. Add more oil if need and fry. Once oil oozes out and masala becomes thick, add milk little by little and mix in low flame.
5. Do not add all at once, keep stirring and add little by little. Lastly add cream also same way little by little. Never let the gravy boil on high flame at any point as it would lead to curdling.
6. Lastly add coriander leaves and koftas. Do not mix. Let it be as such.
Serve with hot phulkas, best! Goes well with any mild pulaos too like jeera pualo.
Super tempting Malai koftas. I too saw the cute paniyaram serving bowls in mustafa every time. Nicely presented
Wow.i too have tasted it rarely and think have made once only using instant gulaab jamoon flour.i appreciate your work of preparing in small quantities .It is best for health and saves time too.
Looks yummy!
yummy yummy malai kofta and i made first time too raji
Mouthwatering recipe…
Nice preparation
Looks very tempting!!!
Mmm…just delicious…Malai koftas are one of my favorite and I order them almost always when in restaruants
By looking at such delicious looking malai koftas I surely belive that you would have many more malai koftas in months to come
Deepa
Hi,
Great recipe!
Malaikofta is my son's favourite dish thanks for posting this recipe raks
Yummy Kofta gravy:-)
Super duper presentation. Floating koftas in creamy gravy makes me drool.
Since it is a 'No onion, No garlic' version, you could've added cashew nut paste to make it even more richer & tastier.
Can i make the koftas at previous day evening for the next day breakfast? shall i store it in fridge? reply pl…
It can be rolled and kept ready, next day, you can just fry and add to the gravy.
Thaks 4 the reply dear…
I tried your version of malai kofta today and it came out good better than vahchefs malai kofta. Best part is no onion. Only the quantity was little. I was able to serve only 2. Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
Hi,
I m a big follower of all ur recipes . . and they always turn out a super hit. Unfortunately this kofta just melted in oil. Not sure what went wrong in my proportions . . can u help please ?
You can try adding corn flour or maida one or 2 tsp to bind it. Bread and potato by itself binds well. Problem could be potato retained more water or paneer was more or paneer too coarse.
Thank u very much for your response! Let me correct and try this again. Thank u 🙂
I grinded rusk n added it.. Come out well… Thank you
Malai kofta is my favourite
If i want to add onion garlic…
Is there recepie with onion garlic?
Just fry a large onion and 3 flakes garlic for this recipe and grind with tomato
Please let me know the best replacement for cream for this dish.
Thanks in advance.