Elawin
Guru
Serves 4-6 as a main course (makes 24 kofta)
Ingredients:
For the courgette kofta:
1 kg courgettes
Salt
100 g breadcrumbs
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tbsp chickpea (gram) flour
For the tomato sauce:
Rapeseed oil
2 medium brown onions, finely chopped
4 cm ginger, peeled and grated
400 g tomato passata
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp garam masala
1 1/4 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp honey
3 tbsp ground almonds
1 1/4 tsp salt
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200C/180 fan/400F/Gas mark 6, and line two baking trays with lightly oiled foil.
2. Next, grate the courgettes - either in a food processor, using a grating disc, or with the coarse side of a box grater. Transfer the grated courgettes to a sieve over a bowl and sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of salt. Mix well, using clean hands, and leave for 30 minutes.
3. In the meantime, make the tomato sauce. Put 3 tablespoons of oil into a large lidded frying pan over a medium heat and, when hot, add the onions. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes until soft and golden, then add the ginger. Cook for a further 3 minutes, then add the tomato passata. Mix well, cover with the lid, and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add the cumin, coriander, garam masala and chilli powder, and mix well, Add the honey, ground almonds and salt, and mix again. The sauce will be quite thick now, so slowly add 200 ml hot water to bring it to a nice consistency, then cook for a final 5 minutes and remove from the heat.
4. Take a handful of courgette at a time and squeeze out as much water as you can., then transfer to another bowl. The courgettes should now weigh around 550 g. Add the breadcrumbs, garam masala, chilli powder and chickpea flour, and mix together. Take a golf ball-sized bit of mixture, roll into a ball and place on the baking tray. Repeat with the rest of the mixture, then put the trays into the oven and bake for 20 minutes, until crispy on the outside. Heat the tomato sauce, carefully lever the kofta off the trays using a palate knife and drop into the sauce.
5. Serve with rice, and cucumber and mint raita or beetroot raita.
Notes:
1. This recipe is taken from the book "Fresh India" by Meera Sodha.
2. If you don't have any passata, chop 450 kg good quality ripe tomatoes and add to the onions with a couple of tablespoons of water and a couple of teaspoons of tomato paste/puree. You can blitz this in a food processor if you like a finer sauce. Reduce the hot water added to the pan at the end by a similar amount.
3. I used 2 teaspoons of soft light brown sugar instead of honey.
4. The chilli makes this quite a pungent dish. If you don't like a lot of chilli, add a milder chilli powder to both the kofta and the sauce, or reduce the amount added to the sauce.
5. Although the kofta are crispy on the outside, they are still soft on the inside and soften up when they are left to go cold. I left the kofta in the residual heat in the oven while I prepared the accompaniments to keep them crispy.
6. I made myself a couple of chapattis too and served up 5 kofta. It was rather filling! Four kofta would have been adequate.
7. As I only added a little salt to the courgettes, I used the liquid to make the chapattis.
