Gobi ke Kofte / Cauliflower Kofta

Kofta is one of the items you can expect in every North Indian restaurant's menu. The ingredients vary and so the name as well, e.g. Gobi ke Kofte, Paneer ke Kofte, Palak-Paneer ke Kofte, Veg Kofta, Kathal ke Kofte etc.
I am putting here the recipe for Gobi ke Kofte which I prepared last night. The process remains more or less same for others.

Gobi ke Kofte

Recipe:
There are two steps in this recipe. In Step 1, we prepare the kofta and in step 2, we prepare the gravy (curry).

Step 1: Prepare kofta

Ingredients:

1. Gobi (Cauliflower) : 1 medium size (grated)
2. Aaloo (Potatoes) : 3 medium size (boiled and mashed)
3. Paneer (Cottage Cheese) : 100 gms (mashed)
4. Salt: to your taste
5. Oil 
6. Besan (Gram flour) : 3 table spoon
7. Corn Flour : 2 table spoon
8. Spices:
1. Dhania (coriander) powder : 1 teaspoon
2. Jira (Cumin) powder: 1 teaspoon
3. Kali Mirch (Black Pepper) Powder: 1/2 teaspoon
4. Lal Mirch (Red Chili) powder: 1/2 teaspoon
5. Garam Masala: 1 teaspoon
6. Ginger garlic paste: 2 teaspoon 

For the spices you can simply replace first 5 with any of your favorite chicken masala mix. My personal favorite is Everest Chicken Masala. It has all the right ingredients for a wonderful taste. 

Steps to prepare Kofta: 

• Take grated Gobi, mashed potatoes and paneer in a bowl 
• Add Salt and all the spices listed above
• Add besan and corn flour  (this make the mix sticky and allow you to roll them into balls)
• Mash them all together. 
• Now hand roll them into kofta balls (like meatballs) of your preferred size.  Keep is smaller (like a ping-pong ball). 
• Heat your favorite cooking oil in a kadhai. We are going to deep fry the kofta, so take enough oil.
• Once the oil is heated put the kofta balls into the oil and fry them on low-to-medium flame until they turn brown. Keep the flame a little lower to allow cooking of kofta up to the centre.
• Take them out and put them on a tissue paper. The paper would soak the extra oil. 

The Kofta balls are ready now. 

Step 2: Prepare Kofta Curry:
In this step we will prepare the curry (gravy) for Kofta:

Ingredients:

1. Chicken Masala (Everest): 1 Teaspoon
2. Dhania(Coriander) Powder: 1/2 Teaspoon
3. Jira (Cumin) Powder: 1/2 teaspoon
4. Aamchoor (Mango Powder) : 1 teasooon
5. Red Chili (Kashmiri Mirch) powder: 1 teaspoon
6. Kali Mirch (Black Pepper) powder: 1/2 teaspoon
7. Green chili : 1 or 2 according to your taste 
8. Salt : According to your taste
9. Cooking oil: 3 tablespoon
10. Onion: 2 big (grated/ground finely)
11. Onion : 1 medium (Finely chopped)
12. Fresh Tomatos (or Puree): 3 Medium (Grated/ground finely)
13. Fresh Ginger: 2 inches (finely crushed)
14. Fresh Garlic : 10 cloves (finely crushed)
15. Fresh Coriander Leaves (Finely chopped)
16. Kasoori Methi Leaves(dried)
17. Hing (Compounded Asafoetida) : 1 teaspoon

Additionally we use a variety of spices (whole) as foran (if you don't know foran simply follow the process and you would know)

Ingredients for Foran:

1. Jira (Cumin Seeds): 1 teaspoon
2. Badi Elaichi (Black Cardamom): 1 
3. Chhoti Elaichi (Cardamom) : 3 
4. Dalchini ( Cinnamon) : 1 inch
5. Laung (Clove) : 5 
6. Kali Mirch (Black Pepper) : 10 
7. Chakra phool (Star Anise) : 1
8. Javitri (Mace) :  Half flower
9. Shah Jeera  (Black Cumins) : 1 pinch
10. Tez Patta (Bay Leaf) : 1 

Cook the Curry:
We will now prepare the curry. The magic lies in frying the spices and tomato-onion base. So, have some patience.

1. Take your favorite cooking oil in a kadhai and heat it on medium flame.
2. Once heated drop the chopped green chilies in oil (you may use red chilies if you prefer)
3. Then add all the ingredients of foran. Within a few seconds you would see them turning brown and smell the aroma. 
4. Add fresh and crushed Ginger-Garlic before the foran starts burning. (Avoid using processed ginger garlic pastes. Fresh crushed ones taste a lot better)
5. Add hing.
6. When ginger-garlic starts turning brown add chopped onions. Keep turning the mix untill the onions turn brownish. 
7. Add ground onions and tomatoes.
8. Add salt to your taste.
9. Now add the spices:
1. Chicken masala 
2. Dhaniya powder
3. Jira Powder
4. Kali Mirch Powder and
5. Mango Powder
10. Stir fry the mix on medium flame for 7-10 minutes. Turn on regular and quick intervals to keep it from burning. 
11. The mix would start looking evenly brown and turn aromatic.
12. Pour water now and stir to mix the fried ingredients evenly. 
13. Once the gravy starts boiling, add the fried Kofta balls (in Step 1 above) in it. 
14. Cook for 2 mins on medium flame. 
15. At this point you may add fresh cream (4-5 tablespoon) in the gravy. This will turn it into Malai Kofta. But of course if you are planning to make Malai Kofta then you would have to tone down the spices. A Malai Kofta with white gravy is usually not spicy. 
16. I am skipping the above step to keep the gravy red/brown and spicy, the way I prefer.
17. Turn off the burner. 
18. Garnish the gravy with fresh copped coriander and kasoori methi leaves (dried).

Your spicy mouth watering Gobi Kofta Curry is ready to serve. Enjoy it with pulav or chapati.