I’n my eternal quest for the perfect meatballs or Koftay, I have finally reached meatball or Koftay Nirvana 🙂 finally after 3-4 years. I just thought, Koftay are one of those things I will never get them right. Either they were too soft that they would collapse in the gravy or as hard as stone.

I am pretty good at making chicken or fish meatballs or Koftay (because I use the same recipe for both lol) but when it came to beef meatballs, aaahhh destruction and disappointment, every single time. Here are my experiences and recipes for Chicken koftay and fish meatballs stuffed with cheese that even kids love to eat.

But finally, I have found the Authentic recipe that works, works wonders for me. Apart from the magic-ingredients that makes these minceballs/koftay soft, tender and round, there are a couple of important points that one needs to pay Special attention if you want to make those soft and juicy meatballs or Koftay.

Tips to make perfect soft, juicy meatballs or Koftay:

1. Mince meat should be finely minced, minced twice or even thrice.
2. Mince meat or qeema shouldn’t have fat in it, almost negligible amount of fat is good-to-go but fat in mince meat doesn’t let the koftaz bond. So this is very important.
3. It should have any water in it.
4. The finely chopped onions shouldn’t have any water in them also, so once your finely chop them or rinse them, press them nicely for any traces of water.

The main reason I am writing this post is because of a very dear old friend, Khushbhakt. She’s been on my case for more than a month to post this recipe, but all in vain until today. So I finally decided to learn the best ones and then post the recipe on her request, so this post is an over-due on-demand post. 🙂

“Hope you like ’em Khushbhakt 🙂 ”

For the Koftay/Meatballs
You’ll get 18 medium sized mince meatballs or Koftay with this recipe.

What you need 

Beef Mince Meat————— 500g
Green chillies—————— 2-3
Onion————————– 1 finely chopped, remove any water by pressing firmly
Salt—————————- 1 tsp
Red Chili powder————— 2 tsp
Chickpea flour or baisan——– 2 1/2 tbsp
Oil—————————– 2 1/2 tbsp
Fresh coriander—————- 2 tbsp finely chopped
Garlic cloves——————– 5 paste form
Ginger————————– 1 inch pieces paste form
Roasted cumin (zeera)———- 1 tsp
Roasted Coriander (Dhania)—– 1 tsp

How it’s made

1. Grind mincemeat/qeema in your chopper two to three times to make it nice and smooth, set aside.
2. Roast your cumin and coriander in a dry pan and then roughly grind. Do not grind them to powder, set aside.
3. Now take oil in your shallow pan and add chickpea flour (baisan) to it, cook it for a minute or two, set aside.
4. Now is the easy part, just combine everything together except the chickpea mixture with oil either in chopper or with your (clean) hands (hopefully).
5. Once everything is nicely mixed, now add in the magic ingredient in these meatballs/koftay which is the chickpea flour mix.
6. Combine well and then shape them into balls, cook right away or freeze for later use.

For the gravy

The gravy recipe I am providing you here is for 500 g mince meatballs or  koftay So, adjust accordingly.

What you need

Onions————————— 3 large thinly sliced
Tomatoes———————— 3 finely chopped
Yoghurt————————– 1 1 /2 cup
Green chillies——————— 2-3 slitted and de-seeded
Salt——————————- 1 tsp or according to taste
Red Chili powder—————— 2 tsp or according to taste
Turmeric (haldi)—————— 1/2 tsp
Garam Masala powder———— 1 tsp
Fresh coriander——————- 2-3 tbsp finely chopped
Cumin powder (zeera)————- 1 tsp
Coriander powder (dhania)——– 1 tsp
Chart masala———————- 1 tsp optional (I like to add chart masala in everything)
Garlic/ginger paste—————- 2 tbsp
Oil——————————— 1 cup (you can always take excess of oil out once the oil comes on top, and the masala has been thoroughly cooked)

How it’s made