Nargisi Kofteh - Desi-style Scotch Eggs

Easter weekend provided the inspiration to cook with eggs, and in my family's case, in the Desi style.

The name Nargisi kofteh apparently comes from Urdu poetry references to Narcissus-like eyes, and you can see why when you see the dish (below).

There are many variations on the kofta and, quite frankly, it's rare that I've come across one that I didn't like. In our household, the traditional Pakistani kofta is a common dish, where the meatballs sans egg are simmered in a salan ("curry") aka shorba (gravy), although I should add that hard-boiled eggs are very often simmered alongside, just not inside. In the spirit of the Easter egg hunt, I thought it would only be appropriate to "hide" some eggs within the meatballs for the occasion.

Unlike our traditional kofteh, these ones were prepared and cooked in isolation of the shorba. Being a first attempt at making nargisi kofteh, our concern was mainly centered around the ensuring the integrity of the kofteh as they they enveloped an egg and were going to be re-introduced to the gravy. As a result, we decided to prepare the meat component in a shammi kebab fashion, figuring it would hold together a little bit better.

A fairly typical shammi kebab recipe calls for the following:
- ground meat (in our case veal, about 1.5-2 lbs)
- 2-3 eggs, beaten
- ~ 4oz. cooked channa daal
- 2 onions, chopped
- couple of inches of ginger, chopped
- a few cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 t ground cumin
- 2 t ground coriander
- 2 t ground black pepper
- 1 t ground cloves
- 1 t cardamom pwdr
- 2-3 t red chili pwdr
- cinnamon & nutmeg (optional -- we didn't use it)

Slowly cook the onions in oil to until very lightly browned, add ginger, garlic and the spices and cook until your nose tells you when (a coupla mins). Add the meat & daal and cook for a few mins and starts drying out. Throw the mixure into a food processor. Add the eggs either into the food processor, or better yet, work it in with your hands.

Slap the meat mixture onto some hard-boiled eggs:


We shallow-fried them in a karhai (wok), but deep-frying would also be fine. Heck, deep-frying is almost always a good idea. Here's a picture of our karhai floating a poori (breakfast from another day):


Remove the kofteh.


The shorba is not unlike other salans and, unfortunately, my mom makes up her own spice batches and has no idea on exact spice proportions, but I think this is a fairly close approximation:
- 2 onions, chopped
- 2 t ginger paste
- 2 t garlic paste
- 1 T ground coriander
- 1.5 t ground cumin
- 0.5 t ground turmeric
- 1 t red chili pwdr
- 5-10 whole cardamom pods, crushed by hand (just give em a good pinch)
- 4-6 whole cloves
- chopped/crushed tomatoes (maybe 1)
- cinnamon, nutmeg & ground cashews optional (we omitted)

Again, slowly cook the onions until golden-brown, add garlic-ginger, the rest of the spices, and later, tomatoes and bhoon well until the oil separates.



We cooked ours quite well until it was a rich & dark chocolate brown. At that point, we added a small amount of homemade yogurt and cream:



Blend this well, and pour over your kofteh.



Mhays, you asked for the recipe, so I hope this helps. I'm still trying to get the hang of this posting-recipes thing, and sure am learning from the Antonius', Bill/SFNMs, sazeracs, Bridgestones, Jamiesons, Mike G's, GWivs, and many others.

tatterdemalion wrote:unfortunately, my mom makes up her own spice batches

I don't think "unfortunately" is the word you were looking for!


Thanks for the accounting! I would say you have "the hang."

Thanks! Wonderful recipe-writing - it seems to have been quite the undertaking - we'll see if I'm up to it this weekend...