I look far from “hot & sexy” in my kitchen!
No cooking in curd rice other than the tempering 
(I noted that she moved the pot into the sink before adding the curry leaves, so oil didn’t splatter onto her or everywhere else 
)
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Not only do I not look that way, I don’t aspire to it and didn’t when I was 50 years younger.
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I love a good kofta curry! Must have potatoes!
The one linked below looks like the one my friend’s mom (Keralite Syrian Christian) made last month.
Also very similar to my mom’s (which is stupid simple — aromatics and tomatoes sautéed down and ground with desiccated or fresh coconut, then cook till the masala is done, add koftas, potatoes, and water, and cook till done; if using powdered spices add them after grinding, if whole then grind with the aromatics and coconut).
Maybe @BarneyGrubble has a home version from his Goan family he can share, or @BierMonk has one in his repertoire.
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Vadouvan / french curry powder came out of the french colonization.
I had never heard of it until I tasted it at a french vietnamese restaurant and had a huh??? moment
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Thank you!!
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Does your mom add anything to bind her meatballs?
The Keralan recipe doesn’t appear to contain anything that binds. I’m used the the Greek method
No, not for kofta (yes for cutlets and kababs).
You don’t want to over-mix, but when you do mix the meat with the seasonings, some of the fat emulsifies and makes it sticky.
You can form them and bake to set the outside instead of frying, then poach in the finished sauce so the flavor gets inside and the koftas soften.
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Okay, thanks.
We barely mix when making keftedes, very loose.
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My variation on the Keralan recipe you posted. We all liked it. I accidentally added most of the powders to the meat, so the sauce was only garlic, ginger, turmeric, garam masala, tomato and coconut milk.
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Looks super!
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Unfortunately I don’t have any Goan recipes as I have a major problem with digesting anything with chillies. My mother was a wonderful cook, and I enjoyed the food she made, but as a kid I always had digestive problems, and never grew out of it, unfortunately.
We tried a local Indian buffet place here once, where we were told by the waiter that nothing but the vindaloo was hot. My French-Canadian wife tolerates heat better than I do, but all we could eat, I think, was the tandoori chicken. Even the “sweet” mango pickle was way too hot. I do keep trying Indian restaurants, but can’t find anything consistent; the food is sometimes tolerable, and sometimes too hot.
The most comprehensive compilation of Goan recipes I’ve come across is here:
I recently came across this blog that reviews restaurants in Goa. Unfortunately the blogger speaks in a dull monotone.
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In the Keralan recipe I made above, I omitted the green chilies because I didn’t have any and one DC can’t eat most green vegetables, and I cut back on the Kashmiri Chile a little. It was a delicious dish, and would be delicious chile -free.
Many of the kormas are mild at Indian restaurants around London Ontario, as well as the butter chicken and dal makhani usually.
I was surprised when I ended up with a spicy butter chicken in Toronto a few months ago. I had been craving the mild type. I didn’t know they weren’t always mild😂
At my most recent Indian take-out restaurant, in Woodstock, ON, I was able to special mild, medium, hot or extra hot on almost every main course or side dish.
One of our friends was Indian via Uganda, and he also couldn’t tolerate hot peppers well. He made some wonderful mild curries. I think he stuck to butter chicken when they dined out.
I’ve had trouble with butter chicken and korma, even in restaurants where you could specify the level of spice. I have a friend whose wife used to always get it right for me. Unfortunately she died at 45.
If from Uganda too, BTW.
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I wonder if they just add chilli powder while reheating to make the base sauce spicier.
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I often forget to add green chillies, because we cut back on them so much at one point. But they add a different herbaceous heat that you can detect when they are present.
But when there are so many aromatics and spices in play already, the dish will be flavorful even if you skip the chillies entirely.
(Green chillies actually range from mild to superhot too, so if one gets the mild ones, you can get some of the flavor without the heat.)
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…oops
The only Meatball Recipe I have is from Ruta Kahate’s 5 Spices Cookbook.
I believe that is also a Malabari style dish. Very delicious though
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