Chicken meatball curry- Mamma style

“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.” 

                                                                                                                     - Laurie Colwin

I have made a list of dishes I wanted mom to cook for my archives. I thought this would be a great way of preserving some old recipes of hers which could be with my family for generations to come ( too melodramatic I know) Meatball curry or ball curry as we called it when we were kids was one of our favourites at home. Mom had two versions a green ball curry and a red ball curry. We used mutton kheema those days because it was easily, readily, cheaply available :) ( mutton was not that expensive in the Middle east) but then here that does not seem to be the case and I am a renowned miser to my mother's dismay. So we decided to make the same curry from chicken kheema. But, the kheema was too watery and mom had to alter her recipe a bit here and there to get these balls cooked. So I don't think we got the results we wanted. And after we finished these I was told I would be on a veg diet for months to come on account of my carpal tunnel syndrome. But if the treatment helps my hand I don't mind being a vegetarian. So this was my last non veg meal  ( precisely 3 days ago). Hopefully I will get back with the mutton kheema balls soon. I don't think I will get to taste it but my family can and I am willing to make that sacrifice for ..... another post here :P

Ingredients for Chicken meatball curry

For the Meatballs

Chicken minced meat /kheema- 200g

Onion- 1 large diced finely

Ginger- 1 inch piece chopped finely

Garlic- 6-8 pods chopped finely

Green chillies- 4 chopped finely

Salt- 1 tsp

Bread crumbs- 5 tbsp or 4 bread slices soaked in water and mashed

Oil- 2 tbsp

Egg- 1 

For the gravy

Onion- 2 diced

Tomatoes- 3 diced

Ginger- garlic paste- 2 tsp

Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp

Chilli powder- 1-2 tbsp

Garam masala- a pinch

Coriander leaves- a sprig

Oil- 2 tbsp

Directions

For the meatballs. Heat oil in a pan. Saute onions, ginger, garlic, green chillies till they are golden brown. Add the sauted spices to the minced meat along with beaten egg, salt and knead well. It will be a bit watery so add bread crumbs or soaked  bread that's mashed, to make firm balls. Roll the balls and set aside. If you want to fry your meatballs you can but for this recipe, the meatballs are not fried.

For the gravy heat oil in another pan saute the onions, tomatoes and ginger garlic paste till they are half done and let these ingredients cool a bit. Blend this to a fine paste in the blender. Heat oil in the same pan used to saute these ingredients and now add the blended ingredients. Cook it till the raw smell goes away. Add half a cup of water and let it simmer for a while. Now add the meatballs one by one. Do not stir the balls for ten minutes, by then they should cook half way and be firm enough to not break. The meatballs will release some water so you need not add more water unless you require more gravy. Garnish with coriander leaves before serving.

The best part about this recipe is that it does not require frying the meatballs and yet you get firm meatballs. I love the fact that it saves oil and yet keeps the meat intact. I would however prefer mutton meatballs any day to chicken. I also think adding tomato puree would make this curry even richer. I will definitely try the mutton balls with these variations. Stay tuned till then.