Gatta Kofta Curry

Two of my newly married friends recently asked me and my husband about our overall experiences on our transformation into parenthood. Though the question did not surprise us a bit knowing that our friends have plans of their own to become parents themselves in the not too distant future, the answer was difficult to be summed up in one line. A lot has changed in our lives since the arrival of our son with us feeling more responsible each passing day, our old nocturnal routine replaced by the one suited to our son's sleep pattern, the once happy-go-lucky carefree souls now feeling tired and sleep deprived at all times but in a queer way, we both are enjoying every moment of our time with our son regardless of all the unusual changes our parental duties call for. When the entire US is basking in the warmth of summer going out on camping, visiting sites, me and my hubby are changing diapers, feeding the baby relentlessly at every 2-3 hours gap, giving him warm bath and massage and trying to take quick power naps in between while our sonny sleeps, but we don't complain as every time spent with him gives us thousand times more joy that any picnic or camping can ever give......so I carefully formed my response as concisely as possible in one line to my friends....'you gotta experience it yourself to feel it as the feeling is unmatched with any other feeling of life you have had so far'. I don't know how far my friends, who are apparently more uptight about the hassle taking care of a baby involves, appreciated my response but I just hope that they got the essence of my message.
 

Gatta ke Curry is basically a dish very popular in Rajasthan. I first had it here in USA when a Sindhi couple invited us to their home and regaled us with a variety of Indian cuisines. Apparently, the hostess had a passion for cooking, and she invariably experiments with her culinary fancies. Though I never made Gatta ke curry at home, I first thought of giving it a try when recently in a cooking forum on Facebook, someone shared a recipe on Gatta Kofta Curry. I changed some of the ingredients and their quantity according to my requirement but more or less they are kept as close to the original as possible. It turned out really well, so well that I managed to bag a compliment from a guest fastidious about taste.

Ingredients:

For the gattas

ü  3 1/2 cups of besan (for about 30 gattas)

ü  1/2 tsp baking soda

ü  4 tbsp oil

ü  1 tsp salt

ü  1 tsp sugar

ü  1 tsp turmeric powder

ü  1 heaped tsp garam masala powder

ü  1 heaped tsp coriander powder

ü  2 tsp kasuri methi

ü  2 tbsp yogurt

For the gravy:

ü  2 large onions (ground into paste)

ü  3 large tomatoes (pureed)

ü  4 tbsp yogurt, beaten

ü  1 tsp ginger paste

ü  1 tsp garlic paste

ü  1 tsp turmeric powder

ü  1 tsp red chili powder

ü  1 tsp coriander powder

ü  1 tsp cumin powder

ü  1 tsp garam masala powder

ü  Salt to taste

ü  White oil for cooking and frying the gattas

For sauté:

ü  1 tsp. coriander seeds

ü  1 tsp cumin seeds

ü  A pinch of asafetida

Method:

1) Mix together all the ingredients for gattas and make soft sticky dough. Make small balls from the dough and keep aside.
 

2) Now boil water and toss the balls into the boiling water. Let the koftas boil for 5 minutes. Take them out and reserve the water to be used in gravy.

3) Deep fry the koftas. Keep aside on an oil absorbent paper.

4) For the gravy, heat oil in a wok. When oil heats up, add the ingredients for sauté and wait till they sizzle.

5) Add onion paste and fry till onion turns translucent in color. Add tomato puree, ginger-garlic paste and the powder spices. Sauté the mixture for 8-10 minutes adding spoonful of water at a time till oil begins to float on the surface.

6) Stir yogurt into the gravy. Add salt. Add the reserved water of koftas and bring it into a boil. (The consistency of the gravy would be thick. The koftas would absorb water, and so use your judgment to measure out the water quantity. I added about 2 cups.)

7) Toss the koftas into the gravy. Simmer in medium heat for 3-4 minutes.

8) Serve hot with rice or roti.