Malabar meatball curry

One of the things hubby loved to come home with is fresh flowers(smiles) and at times a newly purchased cookery book. While I used to love the flowers, the sight of the book used to literally amuse me. I would have have barely prepared a few recipes from the last purchased book and bang, a new one would have arrived. 

One such book was Modern Cookery by Thangam Philip. A no frills, no fancy kind of book with just recipes jotted down along with a few chapters dedicated to how to go about in the kitchen with your ingredients and food. This particular book also didn''t restrict itself to a particular region or cuisine of India. Thangam Philip had it all. Pretty soon, it turned out to be the most loved and used book of mine. I thought it fitting to note down the most loved recipes of her's in this blog. 

Source: Modern Cookery for teaching and the trade by Thangam Philip
Ingredients:

For the meat balls:

• Minced meat 500 gms(beef)
• Green chillies 4
• 1 large onion
• 1" piece ginger
• salt to taste

For the curry:

• 7 Red Kashmiri chillies
• 2 short red chillies
• 2 tablespoons coriander seeds
• 1" piece ginger
• 8 flakes garlic cloves
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 6 cloves
• 1/2 " cinnamon
• 4 cardamoms
• 12 peppercorns
• 1 tsp fennel seeds(saunf)
• 2 tomatoes
• 400 ml coconut milk
• 5 tbsp water for grinding spices 

For tempering:

• 1 tbsp each oil and ghee 
• 2 sprigs curry leaves
• a pinch of mustard seeds
• 2 pods red onions or 1 small onion sliced

Method:

1. Grind the minced meat in a mixer with the ingredients mentioned in for the meat balls.
2. Add salt and form into 25 balls.
3. Dry roast the red chillies and coriander seeds.
4. Grind together along with the ginger, garlic, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, peppercorns, fennel seeds, turmeric powder, tomatoes and water(The paste should be thick).
5. In a vessel, heat oil and ghee together.
6. When hot, add mustard seeds.
7. As the seeds crackle, add the curry leaves and sliced onions. Fry them well till brown.
8. Add the ground curry paste and fry for 10 minutes till you get a nice aroma.
9. Rinse the mixer of the ground paste with a cup of water. Add this water to the fried paste and bring it to a boil.
10. Add the meat balls one by one to the simmering liquid. Cook over a slow fire for 20 to 30 minutes.
11. Add the coconut milk and simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes. Adjust salt and serve with hot rice or bread of choice.