I love middle eastern food, and I like to try to find ways to bring food from other cultures into our failsafe home and make the variations I need to get even a slight hint of what the original is. I know this is nothing compared to a real Kofta with all the wonderful aromatic spices they behold, but just to pinch the idea of what they are and make it something that everyone in my family can safely eat and enjoy brings me pleasure. Plus, anything that comes on a stick and requires dipping has to interest kids, right?
They were a hit! Woo hoo! My son polished off 6 with some of his Chilli Pear Ketchup to dip into with the cashew cream. Even my littlest non eater ate one {shock horror!}!! My hubby and I really enjoyed them too, they are rather filling we ate 4 each on their own without a side and felt full. I had good intentions of making a side to go with it, but with a busy day and swimming lessons it just didn’t happen and didn’t really need it anyway.
I am sure mini koftas or made as meatballs with toothpicks would be great for a party and I am dreaming up other ways I can use the cashew cream as it was sooooo good!
To make the Koftas:
1 clove garlic
Pinch of saffron threads
1 leek
a good sprinkle of chives
Small handful parsley
6-8 brussel sprouts
1 teaspoon salt
200g bread crumbs
800g chicken mince
Add garlic, saffron, leek, chives, parsley and brussel sprouts to TM bowl. Chop for 5 sec on speed 7. Add salt, bread crumbs and mince.
Mix on speed 6 for 10 sec to combine, stir with the spatula and continue mixing for another 10 sec or until combined well.
Shape the chicken mixture into a sausage about 3cm in diameter and 10 cm long. (I made a few smaller ones for the littlest ones in the family). Insert skewer straight through the length of the sausage. Lay them on a tray lined with baking paper, cover with glad wrap and place in the fridge for at least 1 hr.
Next, make the cream.
300g of cashews
300g water
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon citric acid
1 teaspoon of salt
Place all ingredients in the Thermomix bowl. Mix on speed 9 for 30 sec.
Scrape down bowl, then cook on 90° for 4 minutes speed 3.
Then mix again for 40 sec on speed 9.
Spray Koftas with spray oil and cook on a medium heat in frying pan. Turning every minute until cooked right the way around. May take approx 10 mins all up.
Serve Koftas with the cashew cream.
Tips: I made my own bread crumbs before starting using 4-5 slices of bread on speed 6 for 5 seconds. Then put aside until ready to use. You could use rice crumbs or any that your family can tolerate.
love the recipe. what is the citric acid do? and what does it replace.
Thank you. 🙂 I use citric acid to replace lemon, lime or vinegar in a recipe.
They look great! I also love middle eastern food, luckily hubby and I went out for the real thing recently 🙂
These would also be brilliant with lamb mince. Yum!
Lucky you! 🙂 Yes, I agree Trishy, lamb would be really lovely too. I must try that next time I make them.
Hi
Just wondering how to make the cashew cream without a thermomix??
Hi Kristie, Do you have a good blender? You could blend the cashew mixture in that until you get the right consistency, then cook it on the stove in a saucepan stirring until it thickens. 🙂
We’re all loving the cashew cream! In fact, one of my daughters is using it as a dip, with crackers or pita bread. We also used it in our rice paper rolls with some cooked chicken and salady bits. Yummeh!
This is our new favourite meal. My kids are still happy even though I have served it 4 times. I have used the Kofta mixture and made it into meatballs for lunches. I also added some cream cheese to the cashew sauce. Thanks for the great recipe, any time I can add a new FS recipe that everyone can eat is a wonderful day indeed!
So glad to hear that your family are enjoying the Koftas. Love the meatball idea, my son would like that too! 🙂
Thank you for the lovely recipe. We had it last night (with rice) and my girls loved it. The younger one hasn’t been keen on dinner lately but she gobbled it up and asked for second and the older one took some of the glamour off it by renaming it ‘digger dogs’ (you remember those disgusting hot dogs on sticks?)! But a huge success, we will be having these again!
It is so good to have a win in the kitchen isn’t it! I love the name your children have come up with. 🙂
Made these on sticks for my girls and also as mini meatball shapes as appetizers when we had guests for Easter.
Really popular all round and can’t believe my daughter ate brussels sprouts, even in such an invisible form! Thank you…
So good! Loved the cashew cream! Kids are having the leftovers on wraps tomorrow for dinner too. They’re so excited!
Looking forward to trying the recipe!! Two quick questions, if you don’t mind:
1. Good sprinkle of chives – would that be about 1 tbl spoons worth?
2. If I am pan frying them as meatballs, do you think it would be best to spray them, or to just use regular oil in the pan?
Thank you!
Yes Reegan, about a tablespoon of chives. You could use either method to cook them as meat balls, just keep turning them every few minutes to cook evenly.
Huge apologies for the late reply, I have just discovered a heap of comments in my “spam” folder. 🙁
Hi Rona,
How long does the cashew cream keep for and do you keep it in the fridge?
Hi Kirstie,
Yes, I keep the cashew cream in the fridge. It will keep in the fridge for about 5 days.
I made this yesterday with lamb mince rather than chicken, and without the cashew cream. Have to say I was pleasantly surprised! – not because I doubt domesticdiva, but because I’m always skeptical of failsafe recipes, expecting them to all taste the same due to the limited range of ingredients. But these were a different flavour for me and very tasty! Highly recommended! Thank you once again! Your many recipes have made my quality of life on failsafe much better!
Wonderful! Thank you Kylee. 🙂
It was delicious !! Never thought a failsafe recipe would be this good ! thank you !!
Would it be okay without citric acid? Or is there a replacement? I seem to be okay with mod Sals. Unfortunately citric acid has turned out to be a trigger for me.
You could leave it out or use a little bit of ascorbic acid (vit c powder) instead of the citric acid to give it the tart balance of flavour.