Thursday 2 April 2015

Vegetable Cutlet

Evening snacks are often sought after, especially on a holiday. A deep fried snack prepared once in a while does not make our diet unhealthy. Vegetable cutlets are easy to make and they can be eaten as a snack or served with pasta or made into a sandwich with bread and slices of raw vegetables. Here’s a step-by-step instructions for making vegetable cutlets.

Ingredients:
Potato – medium sized, 3 no
Onion – 1 no, chopped
Carrot – 1 no
French beans – 1-2 no, finely chopped
All purpose flour or maida – 3 tablespoons
Salt – to taste
Peanuts – 1 tablespoon, coarsely broken
Kashmiri chili powder – ½ teaspoon
Cumin powder – ½ teaspoon
Green chili – 1 no, chopped
Coriander leaves – chopped, 1 tablespoon
Bread slices – 2 no
Oil – for frying

Method: Scrape the carrot and cut off the ends. Wash potatoes and carrot; and pressure cook them for 5 minutes or 5 whistles. Once the pressure subsides, remove the vegetables from the cooker. Peel the potatoes. Mash potatoes and carrots together into a fine mass using a ladle. Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a kadai. Add chopped onion and sauté till it becomes transparent. Add chopped green chili and French beans; sauté for a minute. Now add Kashmiri chili powder, cumin powder, coriander leaves, peanuts and salt. Mix well. Add the mashed potato/ carrot and blend into a mass. Switch off the stove and let it cool. 

Shape the vegetable mixture into cutlets. You may use cutlet moulds to make different shaped cutlets. If you do not have moulds, use a common katori (stainless steel serving cup). Take a lump of vegetable mixture, shape it into a ball and flatten it gently. Now use the katori to cut it into a circular cutlet!

Place the bread slice on a paper napkin on the turn table of the microwave oven and cook on ‘micro high’ for 40 seconds. Turn the slice over and repeat the process. Cook the other slice in the same manner. Allow the bread slices to cool and then powder them into crumbs using the mixer grinder.

Roll the vegetable mix shaped into cutlets in all purpose flour to coat them on all sides (Fig.1). 

Fig.1: Vegetable mixture shaped into cutlets and coated with all purpose flour
Alternatively, you may mix all purpose flour in little water to make a thick paste and dip the cutlet in it.
Then coat the cutlets with breadcrumbs (Fig.2). Repeat the process with all cutlets and keep aside.
 
Fig.2: Cutlets coated with breadcrumbs
Heat oil in a kadai; once hot, gently drop the cutlets 2 or 3 at a time and fry on medium flame till the cutlets turn golden brown on all sides. Remove the cutlets and place them on tissue napkin for the excess oil to drain. Serve hot with tomato ketch up.
 
Fig.3: Deep fried cutlets, kept on tissue paper
Note 1: Breadcrumbs usually fall off the cutlets while frying in oil (Fig.3). Hence, I prefer to add the breadcrumbs and all purpose flour to the vegetable mix after it cools to room temperature. Blend them well with vegetable mixture. Then shape the mixture into cutlets and fry in oil (Fig.4). 

Fig.4: Vegetable Cutlets
Note 2: You may add green peas and grated beet root along with French beans, if you so desire.

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