Koftay/meatballs what ever you wanna call it. These meatballs are so so soft and juicy, it’s gonna leave your kids wondering whether they’re having chicken or something else. No smell at all. Best for those picky kids and family who just won’t get any close to fish for its different odor.

Silken soft meatballs stuffed with rich Cheddar cheese smothered in savory fresh tomato sauce or gracefully served on a bed of pasta sounds delicious , ‘eh?

The best thing about these meatballs is that if you don’t wanna use fish, use chicken instead, I made chicken balls with this recipe and they were as soft as the fish ones. And if you don’t wanna try these fish or chicken meatballs recipe, use your regular chicken or beef meat balls recipes and add cheese in the dead center before shaping it into a ball and go ahead fry or steam in your traditional/typical way. Cheese would give your regular/boring meat balls a wonderfully flavored twist.

But you gotta try these fish balls, with or without the cheese, they are A MUST! A MUST I say. 🙂 they were definately a little explosion of surprises.

What you need

boneless Fish fillets ————————- 450 g
Salt—————————————- 1/2 tsp
Black pepper——————————- 1/2 tsp
Bread crumbs—————————— 2 tbsp
Spring onions—————————— 1 tbsp finely chopped
Ginger————————————- 1 tbsp finely chopped
Corn flour———————————- 2 tbsp
Egg—————————————- 1
Mushrooms——————————– 1 cup finely chopped (optional)

Cheddar cheese—————————- as much as you like

For the sauce

Fresh tomatoes——————— 1/2 kg skinned
Salt+ black pepper—————— according to taste
Garlic——————————- 4  cloves, finely chopped
Onion——————————-1 medium, finely chopped
Oil———————————- 3 tbsp
Salt + pepper———————— to taste
water——————————– if needed
Oregano—————————— 1/2 tsp
ketchup—————————— 2 tbsp
Coriander—————————- 2 tbsp finely chopped

How it’s made

1. Throw everything together into your food processor and bind everything together nice and easy.
2. Now before shaping them into balls, place a cube of cheddar cheese, or any other you like and then shape them into a ball. Be careful to cover the cheese or else it should ooze out once they are fried.
3. Once all done, deep fry or shallow fry these fish balls and set aside.
4. Now take a pan, put oil in it. Once it’s hot add onions, sautee onions and add garlic.
5. Sautee garlic and throw in the tomato paste (Note below). Give it a good mix, cook for another 2-3 minutes and throw in rest of the seasonings.
6. Cook it for another 10-15 minutes, till everything learns to work together, add water if the sauce gets too thick or cook a little more if you want it to be thicker.
7. Once you think it’s just according to your taste, throw in the meatballs right before serving and love it and be loved. 😀
8. I like my tomato sauce to be chunky, where I can feel a bit of tomatoes here and onions there and a beautiful blend of everything else, so if you don’t like, just cook it for a wee bit longer till everything forms one paste and there you go.

Note: How to peel tomato

1. Take a tomato and cut a shallow X at the bottom of it.
2. Now put it into a pot of boiling hot water on the stove and bring it to a boil. Make sure you have enough water for all the tomatoes.
3. Once the skin starts to peel off or after 30 sec of boiling, take them out and throw them in a bowl of ice cold water. Let them sit there for 5 minutes.
4. Once it has cooled down, peel off the skin with your hands.
5. Mash it, dice it and use it as you please.
6. If the skin is stubborn, use a small sharp paring knife to remove the pieces of skin that will not budge, being careful not to squeeze the tomato. In this recipe, use these peeled tomatoes, diced or mashed.