Malai Kofta is a very popular dish which includes a kofta (cutlet) made from potato and paneer and served in a cashew and cream sauce. With the butternut squashes making a final appearance before spring we wanted to use its deliciously orange meat and turn it into a kofta. 

For making the kofta we first pan roasted the cubed squash to bring out some flavors and then slowly cooked it in water with some salt till soft enough that it can be cut easily with a spoon. 

We then drain the water and lay it out on a cutting board to chop it up fine. It is important to drain well and okay toeven dry these on a towel since this really affects how your koftas bind. Then add some grated paneer, some green chilies, cilantro, salt and black pepper.

Gently bring it all together and without pressing hard just bind it together. Moving it around in your palm will bring it all together with a shiny finsih. 

Next step before frying is to buy some insurance before shallow frying these. Refrigeration lets the flavors blend and allows the koftas to bind nicer. Leave it in the refrigerator for atleast 30 minutes. Meanwhile you can make the sauce.

Our curry for kofta is very simple to make. We have seen lot of recipes but we think it takes just a few simple basics and spices. We bring in the butternut squash to play as well. The sauces is based on three main ingredients each bringing sweetness and creaminess – onions, squash and cashews. The fresh kind of heat comes from green chilies and pungency from some garlic.  For the spices the cardmom brings sweetness and the camphor like freshness while turneric brings its citrusy flavors and color to cut down the richness. Its very clean flavored sauce without any smoky compenents and rightfully even the onions are simply boiled and turmeric as well is boiled without getting toasted in oil. All the ingredients simply go in a pot and cook in water like a stock on medium high heat for 1 hour.

Next step is to just puree the ingredient with only a little of the stock added at a time till desired sauce consistency is achieved. Then put it back in a pan on very low heat and add some cold butter and melt it stirring with a spoon like you are whipping and you will end up with a brightly colored, mildly flavored sauce of a perfect consistency.

Next step is to sautee our koftas and set some oil in a non stick pan on medium heat. Then ease the koftas in one at a time. At the beginning just move them around in the hot oil, to make sure they dont stick. Once you add the koftas just keep very gently shaking the pan so they move and don’t stick but make sure they dont bump into each other much. Its like a phone being on a gentle vibrate mode! Then only when you are sure the bottom side has turned golden brown you should try to flip them. Repeat the frying technqiue when flipped. Once done add some pumpkin seeds in the oil to toast them as well and drain them on a paper towel and lightly salt them.

Generally cream is added to the sauce but we like to drizzle it on the top. In us thick cream is not easy to get but in this case since the sauce and koftas are rich slightly sour cream actually helps cut it down. We mix some sour cream with some whipping cream to get a flowing consistency. We keep this cream cold since the cool cream and warm sauce work quite nicely in a bite.

To plate spread some sauce and top it withthe kofta which chan be cut into half. Spoon a dollop of cream and finsih with the pumpkin seeds for the crunch. If you keep the flavors simple and light this can be enjoyed on its own, but is also delicious wiped up with a naan or chapati. Some simple fluffy basmati rice will also work.