Courgette 'Meatballs'

Directions

Wash, trim and grate the courgettes.

Put them into a bowl and sprinkle them with the salt.

Set them aside for ½ hr.

Squeeze as much liquid as possible our of the courgettes by pressing handfuls between your two palms.

Save this courgette liquid for the sauce.

Dry off the bowl and put the courgettes back in it.

Add the chopped chilli (you may want to use more than 1 chilli depending on your taste - I use about 4 hot ones!), onion, ginger and coriander.

Sift the gram flour over this vegetable mixture.

Mix well and form 16 neat balls (I find throwing them from one hand to the other is easiest).

In a frying pan, wok or other utensil for deep frying, heat about 1. 5 inch /4 cm of oil over a medium flame (a wok should have 1½ inch/4 cm at its centre).

When hot, put 5 or 6 of the balls, or as many as the utensil will hold easily in one layer.

Fry for about 1½ minutes, or until the balls turn a rich, reddish-brown colour.

Turn the balls every now and then as they fry.

Remove them with a slotted spoon when they are done and leave to drain on a plate lined with kitchen paper.

Do all the ‘meatballs’ this way.

To make the sauce, remove 5 tbsp of the oil used in deep frying and put this in a 10 inch/25 cm frying or sauté pan.

Heat the oil over a medium flame.

When hot, put in the onions.

Stir and fry for 7 to 8 minutes or until the onions begin to turn brown at the edges.

Take the pan off the heat for a couple of seconds and add the tumeric, cayenne, ground cumin and ground coriander.

Stir once and put the pan back on the fire.

Stir for another 5 seconds and then add the chopped tomatoes. Stir and fry on medium heat for 5 minutes.

Add the courgette juice (you need 8 fluid ounces, if you have less, add some water). Bring to the boil. Cover, lower heat and let the sauce simmer for 15 minutes (this much of the recipe may be prepared several hours ahead of time).

Add the cream, garam masala, ground roasted cumin and the salt.

Mix well, bring to a simmer and cook for 1 min.

Now put in the ‘meatballs'.

Spoon the sauce over them.

Cover and simmer very gently for 6 to 7 minutes. Spoon the sauce over the ‘meatballs’ a few times during this These ‘meatballs` turn very soft when cooked in the sauce, so handle them gently and serve immediately.