Kola Urundai Kuzhambu (Meatball Curry)

So, this is basically a fairly simple South Indian style meatball curry that I modified from a recipe I found on the website pachakam.com. It has just a little bit of coconut for richness and some tamarind for a mild tang in the background. It's not extremely rich and tastes awesome over hot cooked rice!

Ingredients:

For the meatballs:

Mutton - 1 lb
Egg - 1
Salt to taste

Grind the following to paste (for meatballs):

Fried gram dal (pottu kadalai/dalia) - 3 tbsp
Poppy seeds (gasagasa) - 1 tbsp
Green chillies - 10, or to taste
Garlic - 4 cloves
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Onion - 1 medium, cut into large chunks
Coconut, grated - 1/4 cup
Cloves (grambu) - 5
Fennel seeds (sombu) - 1 tsp

For the gravy/kuzhambu:

Tomatoes - 3 medium, chopped
Tamarind - gooseberry size, soaked in water and pulp extracted
Salt to taste

Masala to grind for Gravy:

Onion - 1 medium
Garlic - 3 cloves
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Cloves (grambu) - 3
Fennel Seeds (sombu) - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds (jeera) - 1/2 tsp
Corainder seeds - 1 tbsp
Red chillies - 8, or to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp


Method:

1. Grind the masala ingredients listed for meatballs into paste without adding water.

2. Mix this masala paste with the ground meat, egg and salt to taste. Form small meatballs out of this mixture. If the mixture feels too loose, you can add some gram flour (besan) to firm it up a bit.

3. Grind the masala ingredients for gravy.

4. Heat oil in a pan. Once it's hot, add the ground paste from step 3 and fry until the raw smell disappears.

5. Add tomatoes and fry until softened. Then, add tamarind pulp , enough water to make a gravy, and salt.

6. Boil for a few minutes to let the raw tamarind smell cook away.

7. At this point, lower the heat to medium and add the meatballs to the gravy. Lower the balls in gently so that they don't break as you add them.

8. Let the meatballs simmer in the gravy until they are cooked. The gravy should thicken as the balls cook. If it has become too thick, add a bit more water.

9. Serve over hot cooked rice and enjoy!