White Radish Kofta – Mooli Kofta/Mulangi Kofta

I like the way the blogging marathon pushes me to make something I’ve never made before and to make it right now. Blogging Marathon is a themed blogging challenge (run by Srivalli) that happens every month and several wonderful food bloggers take part in it. It’s really inspiring, fun and comforting to know there are other crazy women out there just like me who are rummaging through their recipe clippings for that unique masala combination, who scurry from window to window or the terrace for some decent lighting, who hoard napkins, tableware and random stuff (for props) and who try to plate up like a master-chef while the toddler tugs at their salwar. I’ve made this radish kofta just for the blogging Marathon – “Dallying with dumplings” theme. I am happy I did. It has turned out really well and I am writing this now after having had these koftas for lunch. They tasted great, crisp and golden on the outside and tender on the inside. These koftas have a nice unique texture with shards of crisp fried grated radishes and powdered fried gram which also gives it a wonderful boost of flavour.

These koftas are quick and quite easy to make. I made these at the last moment just before I was about to leave to office. Cook them on medium or low heat to ensure that they’re cooked through. You could try varying the masala combination also. Serve these koftas hot with a yogurt based dip or as is. I fried these on a tawa and I think it is best to pan-fry or shallow-fry them and not deep fry them as they’re quite moist and could drink up too much oil and also they could break in too much oil and then it’s one oily mess. This way, you use much lesser oil as well. These koftas are a great way to serve white radishes and I am sure even the radish haters wouldn’t mind having one of these koftas.

Prep time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 15 mins
Makes: 12-15 koftas/patties

Ingredients

White Raddish – 1/2 kilo rinsed, scraped and grated
Pottu Kadalai/Fried gram – 1/2 cup
Green chillies – 2
Fennel seeds/Sombu/Saunf – 1-1/2 tbsp
Garlic – 2 large cloves
Red chilli powder – 1-1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Salt to taste
Oil - 6 tbsp

Method

1.      Rinse the radishes well. Grate radishes and squeeze out the water. Set aside the squeezed out grated radishes.

2.      Grind together fried gram, green chillies and garlic to a fine paste adding little or no water.

3.      In a bowl, combine the grated radishes and ground paste. Add red chilli powder, turmeric and salt and mix well. No need to add water. The squeezed out radishes will still have enough moisture. Mix well and knead lightly so that the mixture comes together like a ball of dough.

4.      Take small lemon sized balls of the mixture and flatten between your palms into round patties.

5.      Heat about 2-3 tbsps of oil in a tawa/pan and place the patties on the tawa. Cook on medium/low till golden and crisp, flip and cook the other side as well till golden. Remove on to absorbent paper. Serve hot.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#30