Monday, June 27, 2011

Lamb Kofta Curry Recipe

lambkofta2
Spiced lamb meatballs simmered in a yoghurt-based curry sauce.

Preparation time: about 50 minutes (excludes simmering time)

Serves about 4.

We use digital kitchen scales to weigh ingredient quantities greater than one teaspoon. Our spoon/cup measurements are for a 20ml tablespoon and 250ml cup (Australian Standard sizes).

Kofta
500g lamb mince
1 medium (about 170g) onion
1 large (about 5g) garlic clove
10g piece fresh ginger (about 4cm long by 2cm diameter)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon dried hot chilli flakes
1/2 teaspoon fine table salt

Curry Sauce
280g (about 2 medium) very ripe tomatoes
1 medium (about 170g) onion
1 large (about 5g) garlic clove
10g piece fresh ginger (about 4cm long by 2cm diameter)
1 (about 12g) long red chilli
40ml (2 tablespoons) oil (we use a mild-flavoured oil, such as sunflower)
5 cloves
5 cardamom pods, lightly crushed to release seeds
24g (1 tablespoon) tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons (4g) ground coriander seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons (4g) ground cumin seeds
1 teaspoon (3g) mild paprika
1 teaspoon (2g) garam masala
Salt, to taste (we use 1/2 teaspoon fine table salt)
62ml (1/4 cup) water
135g (1/2 cup) natural yoghurt (we use Greek-style yoghurt with 9.7 percent fat)
lambkoftaingredients
Kofta

Place mince in a large bowl.

Peel the onion and grate onto a plate or chopping board.
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Pick up the grated onion, leaving the excess juice behind (discard juice), and add onion to the mince.

Peel and crush garlic. Peel and grate ginger. Add garlic, ginger, egg, cumin, coriander, chilli flakes and salt to the bowl with the mince.

Using your hand, mix until well combined.
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If you wet your fingers with water during the rolling of the kofta the mince won't stick to your fingers. Form mince into 20 even sized balls.
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Place kofta on a plate or tray and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate while preparing the sauce.

Curry Sauce

Peel the tomatoes (for instructions see this recipe), finely chop and set aside.

Peel and finely chop onion. Peel and crush garlic. Peel and finely grate ginger. Finely chop the chilli.

You will need a large heavy-based frying pan or large saucepan with a base diameter of at least 22cm so the kofta will be in a single layer while cooking. Add the oil to the pan and heat over medium-low heat.

Add onion, garlic, ginger, chilli, cloves and cardamom pods to the pan. Cook, stirring often, until the onion has softened (about 10 minutes).
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Add the tomato paste, turmeric, coriander, cumin, paprika, garam masala and salt and cook, stirring constantly, for about 30 seconds.
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Add tomatoes and stir to combine.
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Stir in the water and yoghurt and bring to a simmer.

Place the kofta in a single layer in the sauce.
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Return sauce to a simmer and simmer uncovered. After about 15 minutes, gently turn kofta using two forks or a pair of tongs. Shake the pan (don't stir as this may break up the kofta) a couple of times during cooking to prevent the kofta sticking to the bottom of the pan. Cook for about 40 minutes, until the kofta are cooked through (if you are unsure, check by breaking one apart).

Remove the cloves and cardamom pods from the sauce. Serve the kofta curry with naan and rice.

Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container. Suitable to freeze.
© www.exclusivelyfood.com.au
lambkofta1


19 Comments:

Blogger Yasmeen said...

Kofta is one of my all-time favorite meals, and yogurt-based curries are also very high on my list. Beautiful photography, too.

28/6/11 12:00 pm  
Blogger Sashquatch said...

I love your recipes so much because they look so gorgeously flavoursome but really manageable too, I think i might well give this one a go sometime soon as (touch wood) i think i have nearly everything needed hurrah! Your photography and posts are really inspiring, thank you for the lovely recipes :)

28/6/11 8:56 pm  
Anonymous John Cotterell said...

Made this last night. Have never made kofta before. Michelle said it was a two thumb job. Ladies you have done it again 5*+!
I love the precision of you recipes even down to the weight of onions. No rubbish about 'medium' or 'small' or whatever, & comments like 'discard juice'.Nothing much is left to chance.
Newbies like me should pre-measure all ingredients including spices for sauce before starting cooking it otherwise they will be very busy indeed at stages when ingredients are called for. I didn't and was a very busy boy for a while.

29/6/11 2:39 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I can't wait to try this this weekend, if it is anything like your rogan Josh, which is the best I have ever had, we are in for a treat :)

30/6/11 1:44 pm  
Blogger Amanda and Debbie said...

Thank you all for the lovely comments and to John and Michelle for the thumbs up on the recipe!

6/7/11 10:41 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for the recipe! I'm quite pleased with my first attempt.

I didn't have quite enough sauce to simmer the meatballs in (my saucepan was 30cm diameter). So I added another 1/2 cup water, and increased the amount of spices - but it still tasted good.

The recipe is much quicker & easier to make than it looks. Excluding simmering time, I probably took about half an hour to put the meatballs and sauce together.

15/7/11 9:49 pm  
Blogger Anna said...

This recipe looks fantastic!However, I cannot eat tomatoes and was wondering if there was a substitute that can be used inplace of the tomatoes? Would roasted processed capsicums work??

Thanks,

16/7/11 9:19 am  
Anonymous Oh Jiraporn said...

i'm wondering if it's suitable to substitute lamp with chicken

31/7/11 12:32 am  
Anonymous The Island Chef said...

I will be trying this week! It looks amazing! Your recipes are really fresh and inspiring...Thank you!

16/8/11 9:11 am  
Blogger Mary Bergfeld said...

This looks delicious. I love lamb and am really fond of kofta. This is my first visit to your blog but I will be back. I really like the food and recipes you feature for your readers. I really enjoyed the time I spent here.Have a great day. Blessings...Mary

24/8/11 3:43 am  
Anonymous dinner party said...

While I haven't made the recipe yet,But i will make this at the end of weekend.Thanks for such a lovely recipes.

30/8/11 4:17 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I made this for some visiting family this week and it was fantastic. I made the sauce and kofta in the morning and put it in the fridge to save time later on. It was so easy to just heat up the sauce and cook the kofta when we were ready. :)

15/1/12 5:10 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have made this recipe a few times now and love it. Can't wait for more new recipes

17/1/12 10:02 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Delicious and loads of flavour. This was really easy to make. Will def make again

4/5/12 10:34 pm  
Blogger Mel said...

Every time I cook one of your recipes they turn out fantastic. My other half was sceptical on this one, but it was so good that we have made it at least 3 times since then. Thank you.

19/5/12 6:21 pm  
Blogger Chris said...

Absolutely DELICIOUS! Think this will be a family favourite

20/5/12 9:39 pm  
Anonymous Sarah said...

Delicious! I used beef mince as I don't like lamb and it tasted amazing. A great recipe, will definitely be cooking this one again.

6/8/12 11:25 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Loved this recipe. I'm vegetarian and my partner loves meat so at the point of adding the kofta into the curry, I removed some of the sauce and simmered it separately with some cauliflower and it was still delicious. Would like to say thank you to exclusively food for all of these wonderful recipes that turn out perfectly first time every time

15/8/12 7:24 pm  
Blogger Ann Goh said...

Thanks for all the wonderful recipes. First time I got to your site.... I will try out some of the recipes here. Again thanks for sharing.

20/1/18 4:51 pm  

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