Fail-ai Kofta

I wanted to make Malai Kofta. All the recipes I looked at called for silly things like “two potatoes”, but I had three pounds to use. I tried to scale up, but I didn’t have enough paneer. I substituted mozzerella and brie. The taste and texture were good, but the disintegrated when I tried to fry them. So…I tried baking them instead.

My approximate recipe was to take 3 lbs of potatoes, peeled, boiled, and mashed, 4 oz frozen paneer, 4 oz shredded mozzerella, 4 oz brie chopped in little bits (recipes called for equal volume paneer and potatoes, but I didn’t have that much cheese, and this was plenty), a splash of milk, a cup of cashews, a cup of corn meal, salt, garlic powder, garam masala, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper all to taste.

Blend everything except cashews until smooth, then mix in the nuts.

Preheat oven to 450.

Wet hands, form potatoes into balls and then flatten slightly, dredge in additional corn meal, and place on parchment papered cookie sheet. Bake for about 30 minutes until brown on top.

This makes a whole lotta kofta. I will be freezing some.

(And then I cheat)

Take the number of kofta you intend to eat for the meal, cover them with Aldi’s Tikka masala simmer sauce, when the sauce starts bubbling, eat with rice or naan 🙂

Leeky Tater Soup

I got an immersion blender.  This means now I can make all the soups, all the time. I love potato soup.  I love the delicate flavor of the leeks.  I love running around the house with a leek held to my head like a unicorn horn yelling “I’ve sprung a leek!”

1/2 medium size onion, diced

3 leeks, white and light green sections sliced into 1/4 in rounds

a whole lot of garlic

8 golden potatoes. cubed. you can use any variety, but red skins make the soup a strange color.

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp rosemary

1/2 tsp marjoram

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 bay leaf

salt to taste

water of sufficient quantity to boil potaotes

oil of choice

in a soup pan, saute onions, garlic, and  2/3 of the leeks in oil until onions are transparent and leeks are floppy. Add cubed potatoes and sufficient water to cover them.  Add spices.  Bring to a boil and then simmer until potatoes are soft.  Use the immersion blender to homogenize your soup.  Adjust spice levels as needed.  Add remaining leeks to soup and simmer until they are floppy.

if your soup is too thick, add more water. If it is too thin, cook it longer.

Enjoy!