Hello friends
I am so excited to bring you one of my family favorites. This dish is called Kofta Aloo, kofta means meatballs and aloo means potato. This is a Pakistani/North Indian style meatball curry. Moist meatballs and potatoes are cooked in a thick smooth curry sauce with some basic spices.
I grew up eating delicious home made Pakistani food by my mom. Since I have learned from her I have the same approach to cooking. I like to show that cooking can be easy and with simple ingredients you can make delicious meals. If you are new to cooking in general or are excited to learn south Asian food, I recommend starting with simple recipes. This is definitely a great recipe to start off with and will quickly become your favorite.
There are different variations of this dish. I think everyone will make it a little different. But they all have two parts, ingredients for the meatballs and the gravy curry sauce. I always say more than the recipe focus on the techniques of cooking. Because when you know techniques and why certain things are done with a particular type of cuisine or ingredient you can apply that to any recipe. You can leave out the potatoes and add peas or make it plain. This can also be paired with hardboiled eggs.
RECIPE NOTES
*I used 85% lean ground beef. Some amount of fat will bring flavor to meatballs and keep them moist. You can also use ground chicken or ground turkey if you don’t use ground beef. I always let my ground beef come to room temp. before I cook it. Room temp. beef will mix well with other ingredients and when cooked won’t get shocked and toughen up.
*I have said to puree the tomatoes/onions/garlic/ginger for the gravy. To make a nice thick gravy for this dish you need a good amount of onions and tomatoes. But if you just roughly chop these ingredients the gravy will be chunky and not smooth especially if you don’t give it enough time to cook. I have finely chopped the onions/garlic/ginger for the meatballs before but usually for this dish you want the meatballs to be not chunky but smooth. I have also finely chopped onions for the gravy to before. Whenever I use more than 2 tomatoes I usually always puree them. But I want to show you this is a great way to give any curry gravy a smooth texture.
*South Asian food does not always have to be very spicy. I always say you can leave out the chili powder. Because the other spices/ingredients give so much flavor. You can always add some fresh green/red chilies as well for freshness or even cayenne pepper. My kids don’t like food very spicy and don’t like to bite into chilies so that’s usually why I omit it but they make a great garnish as well.
*For south Asian food I always prefer to use a neutral oil. If I use olive oil it’s the light one not the olive oil used for marinades. Avacado, canola, rapeseed, light olive oil and ghee are great options. Another important tip to remember for south Asian food is that mostly the base of dishes are always started off with onions, tomatoes and spices. So if you don’t have enough oil these ingredients will not be able to sauté well and won’t build the intended flavor for the dish. So you can always add a little bit more oil.
*This curry is great served with rice, naan, chapati/roti, brown rice, pita bread. Side of salad would be nice. If you make it a little spicy you can always serve a side of whipped regular yogurt that has salt/pepper.
- MEATBALLS
- 1lb. ground beef 85% lean
- sm. onion roughly chopped
- 4 med. garlic cloves, peeled
- ½" piece of ginger
- sm. bunch cilantro, washed
- 1½ tsp. coriander powder
- 1½ tsp. cumin powder
- 1 tsp. garam masala
- ½ tsp. chili powder
- ¼ tsp. tumeric powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- GRAVY SAUCE INGREDIENTS
- 1 lg. onion, roughly chopped
- 3 med. tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 4-5 med. garlic cloves, peeled
- ½ inch ginger, peeled
- few pieces of cinnamon sticks
- 3-4 cloves
- 2 bay leaf
- 1 tsp. cumin seeds
- 2 tsp. cumin powder
- 2 tsp. coriander powder
- 1½ tsp. garam masala powder
- ½ tsp. chili powder
- ¼ tsp. tumeric powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- ½-3/4 cup cooking oil of choice (see recipe notes)
- 1 lg. potato or 2 regular size potatoes, cubed
- extra water 1½ cups
- cilantro for garnish
- MAKE MEATBALLS
- Add ground beef to med. mixing bowl.
- In food processor finely blend onion, garlic, ginger & cilantro.
- Add powder spices & onion mixture to ground beef. Mix well. Don't compress meat between hands, gently mix.
- Lightly wet hands and shape into meat balls. I usually yield 14-17 meatballs. set aside.
- GRAVY/SAUCE INSTRUCTIONS
- In food processor blend onion/garlic/ginger, set aside.
- Blend tomatoes in food processor as well, set aside.
- In heavy bottomed pan. On med-high heat add oil to pan.
- Add onion mixture, cinnamon/cloves/bay leaf and cumin seeds. Saute till light golden. water will evaporate.
- Add tomatoes/powder spices. Cook till water as evaporated. Oil will rise to top. This ensures that you powder spices have cooked. This can take up to 10min.
- Add meatballs, don't overlap. Let cook for 5min. Turn heat to med.
- Add potatoes and water. You can add a little bit more or less water depending on how thick or thin you want the gravy.
- Cook for 10-15min more minutes. Towards end of cooking time turn heat to med-low. Some oil should rise to top. You can check potatoes for doneness.
- Garnish with fresh chopped cilantro
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