Acsumama's Koftas Salvadoreñas

From BrunchRecipes

This is malai kofta, with Central American ingredients. The basic pre-Salvadoreanized kofta recipe was swiped from this page.

Koftas:

• 1/2 yucca root
• 1 medium zucchini
• 1/2 medium onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 plantain
• 2 tbsp coriander
• 2 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• 2 tbsp garlic salt
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1 1/2 cups masa flour (corn flour for making tortillas)
• oil for frying

Peel the yucca, carrot, and plantain, and grate them into a large bowl. Grate the zucchini into the bowl too. Chop the onion into very fine strings, and add it.

In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients together. Add them slowly (1/4 of the bowl at a time or so) to the grated vegetables, mixing the dry flour throughly with your hands. The result should be a moist dough -- add a small amount of water if necessary, depending on how juicy your vegetables were.

Put 1-2 cm of oil in a large pan, and heat it. Form the dough into golf-ball sized balls, flatten them a bit, and fry them on both sides until they're dark brown.

Sauce:

• 1 medium onion
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp turmeric
• 1 tbsp garam masala
• 1 tbsp cardamom
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 bay leaf

Dice the onion and garlic. Fry in a little oil until the onion turns translucent. Add the turmeric, garam masala, and cardamom. Coarsely chop the tomato and add it. Cook until the tomato gets mushy. Pour the mixture into a blender and blend. Pour it back into the frying pan and add the coconut milk and bay leaf. Cook for another 5-10 minutes.

Serve sauce and koftas over rice.