Courgette 'meatballs'

4 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
1¼ Courgettes
½ teaspoon Salt
1 Fresh hot green chilli, finely chopped
3 tablespoons Finely chopped onion
½ teaspoon Peeled and very finely grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons Finely chopped fresh green coriander
1½ ounce Graham flour
Vegetable oil 4 deep frying
5 tablespoons Vegetable oil 4 deep frying
2 mediums Onions, peeled and very finely chopped
¼ teaspoon Ground tumeric
1/16 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon Ground cumin seeds
2 teaspoons Ground coriander seeds
½ pounds Tomatoes (about 2 tomatoes) peeled and finely chopped
8 fluid ounce Single cream
½ teaspoon Garam masala
½ teaspoon Ground roasted cumin seeds
⅓ teaspoon Salt

Directions

MEATBALLS

SAUCE

Wash, trim and grate the courgettes. Put them into a bowl and sprinkle them with the salt. Set them aside for ½ hr. Squeeze as much liquid as possible our 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 - i use about 4 hot ones!), onion, ginger and coriander. Sift the gram flour over this vegetable mixture. Mix well and form 16 neat balls (i find throwing them from one hand to the other is easiest).

In a frying pan, wok or other utensil for deep frying, heat about 1½" /4cm of oil over a medium flame (a wok should have 1½"/4cm at its centre). When hot, put 5 or 6 of the balls, or as many as the utensil will hold easily in one layer. Fry for about 1½ min.s, 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 'meatballs' this way.

To make the sauce, remove 5 tbsp of the oil used in deep frying and put this in a 10"/25cm frying or saute pan. Heat the oil over a med.

flame. When hot, put in the onions. Stir and fry for 7 - 8 min.s or until the onions begin to turn brown at the edges. Take the pan off the heat for a couple of sec.s and add the tumeric, cayenne, ground cumin and ground coriander. Stir once and put the pan back on the fire. Stir for another 5 sec.s and then add the chopped tomatoes.

Stir and fry on med. heat for 5 min.s. Add the courgette juice (you need 8 fl oz, if you have less, add some water). Bring to the boil.

Cover, lower heat and let the sauce simmer for 15 min.s (this much of the recipe may be prepared several hours ahead of time). Add the cream, garam masala, ground roasted cumin and the salt. Mix well, bring to a simmer and cook for 1 min. Now put in the 'meatballs'.

Spoon the sauce over them. Cover and simmer very gently for 6 - 7 min.s. Spoon the sauce over the 'meatballs' a few times during this cooking period.

These 'meatballs` turn very soft when cooked in the sauce, so handle them gently and serve immediately.

Makes 16'meatballs' and serves 4(normal) - 6(feather-weights).

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