21st February 2026

You know how much I love the bookclub I am part of, well the book of the month is Dishoom “From Bombay with Love” and, so far, I have only managed to cook one thing from it.  Today we made the vegetable koftas in a Makhani sauce.  I thought it might be interesting to let you know how recipes when we make them.

I think I over reduced the sauce it, not because it tasted badly or even over reduced actually, it didn’t, but because it wasn’t as ‘saucy‘ as the book.  I hurt my back last week and so am a little slow and moving quite gingerly and the koftas took so much longer than I anticipated (SO much longer) so it was busy reducing away before I realised the time.  It could of course also be because I reduced the oil so much (see below).  However, look aside, it tasted very nice and was thoroughly loved by us all and I didn’t think it needed the extra oil.  My go to Makhani sauce has a stronger chilli powder than the deggi mirch which gives a better warmth and so I think if I made this version again I would use a hotter chilli powder. That aside it was delicious.

My changes, I just couldn’t use 175ml of oil stated (especially since there is additional butter and cream) and so reduced this to 75ml, I did not think the reduction adversely affected this and I would do the same again.  The chopped garlic took only 2 minutes to cook not the 7-8 stated.  Otherwise I followed the recipe.

Now for the kofta. 

I halved this as there was just 2 of us. That being said, it was a generous portion and we got 10 kofta.  We followed the ingredients and recipe.  The ditty at the top said these are a pleasure to make, maybe because of my back I did not find this a pleasure to make for 2 let alone 4, it took ages messing about and the filling was an absolute pain to try to get together.  We did enjoy these, they were delicious but I am just not sure the filling was worth the faff, the cheese wasn’t melty (there was not enough of it) and I am not sure there was such a difference.  If I ever made it again I would be tempted to just mix it all through and not have a middle. 

Having used so much oil so far I chose to cook these in the air fryer rather than frying, they came out very beautifully crispy and I was pleased to not have ruined them after the amount of time they took to make. These are fairly delicate when you put them into the sauce (even when fried apparently) so I had to take care when turning them.  I forgot to add the pomegranate (DOH) and we simply had them with nan to mop up the beautiful sauce. 

Although we thoroughly enjoyed these I am not sure I would make them again.  The taste didn’t justify the amount of time in the kitchen or the amount of faffing that was needed.