It’s about time, I picked up the ‘ol East Indian Cookery Book and tried something new! This was one of my Mom’s treasures and now mine. I decided to try this Ball Curry aka Meatball curry as it has some unique ingredients like poppy seeds, peanuts and coconut and it was marked good by my Mom.

Although I love these old cookbooks, it’s sometimes hard to read and I made a version before this that turned out a little different than this one.

Once I tried it a few times, I reorganized the process so it’s easier to handle in todays busy and modern kitchen – enjoy!

P.S. Yes, I served these with fugiyas!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CA1SkNLhHSc/

EI Ball Curry

Ingredients
  

Spice Paste
  • 4 Kashmiri Chillies
  • 1 tsp Cumin seeds
  • 3 tbsps Coriander seeds
  • 1 tbsp Peanuts
  • 1 tsp Mustard seeds
  • 6 Garlic cloves
  • 1 inch Ginger sliced
  • 3 tsps Poppy seeds khus khus
  • 1 tsp Sesame seeds
  • 1/2 cup shredded or grated Coconut
  • 1/2 tsp Turmeric
  • 1 tbsp Gram Flour or Chana ka atta
  • 3/4 cup Water
Meatballs
  • 1 tbsp shredded or grated Coconut and I’m going to process this again
  • 1 tbsp of the prepared Spice Paste
  • 500 gms approx – 1 lb – 10 oz lean ground Beef
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 tbsp finely minced Garlic
  • 1 tbsp finely minced Ginger
  • 1 tbsp finely minced green Chilli
  • 1/4 cup finely minced Onion
  • 1 Egg
  • 1 tbsp chopped Coriander leaves
  • 1 tbsp chopped Mint leaves
  • Add a squeeze of Lime juice
For frying
  • 1/2 cup all purpose Flour
  • 1 cup cubed Potatoes
Gravy
  • 5 – 6 Curry leaves
  • 1 cup of diced Onion
  • 1 cup diced Tomato
  • Rest of Spice Paste
  • 400 ml canned Coconut milk
  • 1.5 cups Water
  • Salt to taste
  • 2 tbsps Tamarind paste
Garnish
  • 1 tbsp chopped Coriander
  • 1 tbsp chopped Mint leaves

Method
 

  1. Prepare the spice paste by roasting all the spice paste ingredients except the coconut, turmeric and gram flour
  2. Keep aside to cool and then roast the coconut
  3. In a food processor, add the spice paste ingredients including the coconut, turmeric, gram flour and water and make a smooth paste
  4. Reserve all except 1 tbsp of the spice paste, add another tbsp of coconut and grind again
  5. To make the meatballs mix all the meatball ingredients well together and make golf sized balls
  6. Heat some oil and roll the meatballs in the flour and shallow fry
  7. Clean the saute pan, and add fresh oil and cook the potatoes till they are about 3/4 cooked and keep aside
  8. Add the curry leaves followed by the diced onion and allow the onion to get translucent
  9. Add the tomatoes, cover and cook till squishy
  10. Add the spice paste and saute it
  11. Add the coconut milk and mix it in, followed by the water
  12. Add salt to taste and the tamarind paste and bring to the boil
  13. Add the meatballs back in and cook for about 5 mins followed by the potatoes and allow the potatoes to cook as well
  14. Garnish with the coriander and mint leaves