Paneer Koftas in a Coconut gravy

Paneer is becoming a staple food in my household nowadays. I used to love Paneer in any form. But not anymore. I have been making Paneer dishes atleast once a week since my daughter loves it, and at one time it was colossally boring for me to make the same paneer dish again and again. Its everywhere. Whether its a party, or a Indian restaurant, a Paneer dish ends up on our plate certainly. Any Indian Restaurant menu has majority of dishes under Vegetarian made with paneer. Nowadays I repeatedly choose a paneer dish to prepare for a potluck party, so I can be sure my daughter will eat something.

However, I love to cook Paneer dishes regularly, because a good thing about Paneer is, its so versatile that it can be used with any combination of spices to give a delectable dish. I think, my blog itself has quite a few paneer recipes with different variations, and there's quite a few sitting in my drafts waiting to be posted.

Well, here is one of them - a Paneer dish with a different twist. Paneer Koftas soaked in a creamy coconut gravy. Koftas are usually combined with a thick and rich creamy gravy, primarily using fresh cream for thickening. This dish goes much like the usual gravy, but mostly uses coconut milk instead of fresh cream. I used 75% coconut milk and 25% fresh cream. I followed this recipe from different sources and I think vahrevah video cooking was very helpful to make the Koftas. Overall, this dish came out quite well and gave a completely new and different flavor.

Ingredients:
For Koftas:

• Grated Paneer - 1 cup (I run the fresh paneer cubes in a food processor or you can also grate the paneer)
• Boiled and Mashed Potatoes - 1 cup
• Boiled and mashed peas and carrots (don't mash the vegetables too much) - 1 cup
• Raisins - a few
• Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp
• Corriander powder - 1 tsp
• Grated Ginger - 1/2 tsp
• All purpose flour or Corn flour - to dust the Kofta balls
• Chopped corriander leaves - a hand full.
• Salt as required

For Gravy:

• Onions - 1 medium
• Tomatoes - 1 large - diced
• Ginger/Garlic paste - 1 tsp
• G.chillies - 2
• Corriander Powder - 2 tsp
• Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
• Crushed paneer - 1 tbsp
• Broken Cashews - 2 tbsp
• Cream - 1/4 cup
• Coconut milk (light coconut milk is better) - 1 cup
• Chopped corriander leaves - a hand full.

Procedure:
For Koftas:

• Combine the crushed paneer, mashed potatoes in a wide bowl.
• Squeeze the water out of the boiled vegetables (you can use this water for the gravy), and mash the vegetables until they lose shape (don't make it a paste). Add this to the paneer and potatoes.
• Add Chilli powder, corriander powder, ginger, salt and corriander leaves. Mix well.
• Make a small balls from this mixture, pat it a bit flat, place 2 raisins in the middle, and roll it back to a ball. Adding raisins is completly optional, I make it this way as my daughter enjoys it and also definitely adds a kick to the koftas. You can certainly make just a plain ball.
• Roll over these balls on the flour (I use all-purpose flour). Set aside.
• Deep fry the Koftas in oil. Set aside.

Tip: To get perfect Koftas, all the ingredients should be free from water as much as possible. I remove the potatoes from water as soon as they are cooked and let it dry for 5 mins before I mash them. I also drain the water from the vegetables as soon as they are cooked.
Try to deep fry only one first. If it breaks, add some Rava or bread crumbs to the mixture and mix well. This may absorb that extra moisture.
For Gravy:

• Heat oil in a pan. Fry the onions until they trun color, then add ginger/garlic paste and tomatoes and fry again.
• Add turmeric, chilli powder and corriander powder. Add salt and fry for a few mins until the tomatoes are well cooked. Let this cool, add cashews and grind this mixture to a paste.
• Heat a little oil in the pan again, and add this blended mixture. Fry for a min or two and add the squeezed vegetable water. Cover and cook for 5 mins.
• Now add the crushed paneer, boil it for a min.
• Finally add the coconut milk and fresh cream. Boil for 2 mins. If required add some water.
• Add the Koftas and remove from heat immediately. Garnish with corriander leaves. The Koftas will absorb the gravy quickly. So the gravy should not be too thick.

Serve hot with Rotis/Parathas.