Cabbage Kofta curry / Fried Cabbage balls in tomato yogurt gravy

Cabbage Kofta curry / Fried Cabbage balls in tomato yogurt gravy

My Mom and Dad are here on a visit and will be staying here with me for a while. So while my mom is around, I get to eat her cooking and dishes from my childhood. So right now I will do the eating, tasting, clicking and posting what she she cooks!!! :) I cook only sometimes when she is here, like the variety stuff.
My Mom makes different kinds of koftas with different veggies. Many of those which I learnt later on how to cook them by asking her for recipes. Here is one of the kinds -- Cabbage Koftas. The gravy too can be made in many ways. She made an easy gravy with dry whole garam masala, dry coconut powder, and little bit of garam masala powder in combination with tomatoes, onions, ginger-garlic paste etc.,.
She made this the other day in combination to peas pulao which I made. See I chose the easy one and gave her the difficult one. Why not let the better cook do the better curry right!!

So here goes the recipe for cabbage kofta curry - OUR WAY !!  (please adjust spice according to your taste)

Ingredients:

For Koftas:

1 small cabbage head, chopped small
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped
1/2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp chilli powder
salt to taste
2 green chillies, chopped
1/2 cup to 1 cup besan or channaga pindi or channa daal flour
1/4 cup rice flour
some water
oil for deep frying the balls
( do not add all the besan and water, just add enough to make a thick dough, otherwise you might mix too much besan and won't feel the cabbage)

For gravy:

4 cloves
4 small pieces of cinamon sticks
2 bay leaves, broken
5-6 curry leaves
water squeezed from cabbage
1 onion, chopped
2 tomotoes, chopped
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
4 green chillies, chopped
1 tbsp dry coconut powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp jeera powder
1 tsp garam masala powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
1/2 cup yogurt, well beaten
1 tbsp lemon juice
some water to make gravy, if necessary
2 tbsp oil
Chopped coriander leaves for garnish

Method:

To make koftas:

Add the chopped cabbage in a microwave dish and microwave for about 5 min till just soft and cooked (not mushy). When cool, squeeze the water out from the cabbage and keep aside. Add all the ingredients for the koftas and knead into a dough, not too soft nor hard. Make small balls and fry in heated oil.

To make gravy:

Heat oil in a pan. Add the whole garam masala and saute. After browning, add the onions, green chillies, curry leaves and saute till brown. Add the ginger-garlic paste and saute. Add the tomatoes and cook till soft. Add the coconut powder, coriander powder, jeera powder, chilli powder, turmeric, garam masala and saute in the tomato mixture.
Add the squeezed water of cabbage and cook for 5 mins. You will see that the gravy is now liquidy and  not very thick. Take out some of the liquidy gravy and put the cabbage balls in it. This will let the balls soak up some of the liquid and become little bigger. To rest of the tomato gravy add the beaten yogurt and lemon juice and let simmer for 5 min before removing of heat. The gravy will become thick. Add some water if necessary, if the gravy is too thick. Add the soaked balls into the gravy before 1/2 hour before serving. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with rice, pulao, fried rice or biryani. It goes well even with parata, roti or chappathi. Enjoy!!!

Tip: If you add the balls into the gravy before only, they might become too soft and break. So its better to add them before serving, since the already have soaked some of the liquid, they will be juicy too.