Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Eating and Drinking => Cooking, Storing and Preserving => Topic started by: Adrian on July 01, 2008, 19:12
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Someone asked me about this recipe, so here it is. We make a big batch of the balls and freeze them, when courgettes are taking over the world.
Serve with something like Roghan Josh and rice. This is a really tasty, special dish (and not spicy hot, really).
COURGETTE BALLS
Madhur Jaffrey’s Eastern Vegetarian Cooking, p. 41
Serves 4-6
For the balls:
3 medium-sized courgettes (about 1-1¼ lb / 450-560 g)
½ Tsp salt
About 1 fresh hot green chilli, finely chopped
3 Tbsp finely chopped onion
½ Tsp peeled and very finely grated fresh ginger
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh green coriander
1½ oz / 45 g gram flour
Vegetable oil for deep frying
For the sauce:
3 Tbsp vegetable oil from deep frying
2 medium-sized onions, peeled and very finely chopped
¼ Tsp ground turmeric
1/16 Tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground cumin seeds
2 tsp ground coriander seeds,
½ lb / 225 g tomatoes (about 2 tomatoes), peeled and finely chopped
8 fl oz / ¼ l single cream
½ tsp garam masala
½ tsp ground roasted cumin seeds
¼ - 1/3 tsp salt
Wash, trim, and grate the courgettes. Put them into a bowl and sprinkle them with the 1/2 tsp salt. Set them aside for half an hour.
Squeeze as much liquid as possible out of the courgettes by pressing handfuls between your two palms. Save this courgette liquid for the sauce. Dry off the bowl and put the courgettes back in it. Add the chopped chilli (you may want to use more than 1 chilli, depending on your taste), the 3 Tbsp chopped onion, the grated ginger, and the fresh coriander. Sift the gram flour over this vegetable mixture. Mix well and form 12 neat balls.
In a frying pan, wok, or other utensil for deep frying, heat about l½ in/ 4 cm of oil over a medium flame (a wok should have 1½ in / 4 cm at its centre). When hot, put in 5 to 6 of the balls, or as many as the utensil will hold easily in one layer. Fry for about 1½ minutes, or until the balls turn a rich, reddish-brown colour. Turn the balls every now and then as they fry. Remove them with a slotted spoon when they are done and leave to drain on a plate lined with kitchen paper. Do all the balls this way.
To make the sauce, remove 5 Tbsp of the oil used in deep frying and put this in a 10 in / 25 cm frying or sauté pan. Heat the oil over a medium flame. When hot, put in the finely chopped onions. Stir and fry for 7 to 8 minutes or until the onions begin to turn brown at the edges. Take the pan off the fire for a couple of seconds and add the turmeric, cayenne, ground cumin, and ground coriander. Stir once and put the pan back on the fire. Stir for another 5 seconds and then add the chopped tomatoes. Stir and fry on medium heat for 5 minutes. Add the courgette juice. (You need 8 fl oz / ¼ l; if you have less, add some water.) Bring to the boil. Cover, lower heat and let the sauce simmer gently for 15 minutes. (This much of the recipe may be prepared several hours ahead of time.) Add the cream, garam masala, ground roasted cumin, and the ¼ to 1/3 Tsp salt. Mix well, bring to a simmer and cook for 1 minute. Now put in the balls. Spoon the sauce over them. Cover, and simmer very gently for 6 to 7 minutes. Spoon the sauce over the balls a few times during this cooking period.
These balls turn very soft when cooked in the sauce, so handle them gently and serve immediately.
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Gram flour is a tad exotic for the Spanish supermarkets, could I use normal flout or maize flour?
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Gram flour is a tad exotic for the Spanish supermarkets, could I use normal flout or maize flour?
You could olive, but the flavour would be a bit different, but you could get some dried chcik peas and mill them into flour. I done this before with good results :)
Great recipe....definitely one to try WHEN we get courgettes.....no sign of flowers yet! :(
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Agapanthus, could I grind them in the food processor? Don´t have a coffee grinder.
Pamela
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that sounds delish. Will definitely give those a whirl. thanks
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For information about flour made from chick peas see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Besan, http://forums.naturalparenting.com.au/showthread.php?t=8819 and http://www.cuisine.com.au/recipe/sour-chickpea-flour-pancakes-with-fresh-coconut-and-mint-chutney, but there are many more.
It is relatively inexpensive Down Under so let me know and I'll ship some over to forum members living in countries where it is expensive.
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Agapanthus, could I grind them in the food processor? Don´t have a coffee grinder.
Pamela
I should think that would work.....probably have to process for a bit longer tho' :)
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I've seen this recipe and tried it before...it really is delicious.
Took ages for the balls to brown in the wok I recall .
At what stage do you freeze the courgette balls?After you've fried them?
Thanks.Just need my courgettes to hurry up and grow now...I fancy making this recipe soon!
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Sounds like maybe the oil wasn't hot enough, Annie?
We freeze them after frying. They can be re-heated in an oven, or even microwaved. We've never bothered freezing the sauce; just make it fresh each time you cook a batch.
Cheers,
Adrian
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Thanks for that Adrian.....I shall be doing big batches once the courgettes start coming...
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sounds lovely.. hence I am making some right now :D
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Made some mess for freezing after dinner just now.
They really do taste great. Bad news is that they didnt make it to the freezer and never saw any sauce either. Never mind I'll try again :)
Thanks for posting this Adrian.
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"my balls" weren't really balls but still worked a treak and tasted great. Forgot to get some cream so used extra toms and that was still fantastic.
thanks for posting will be making this again and again :)