Cutlet

Ingredients

• ½ cup cup chopped carrot or 1 medium carrot
• ¼ cup chopped french beans or 7 to 8 beans
• 1 cup chopped potatoes or 2 medium-sized
• ½ cup fresh green peas – fresh or frozen
• 1 inch ginger – roughly chopped
• 1 green chili – about ½ to 1 teaspoon chopped
• 2 garlic cloves (medium-sized) – peeled and roughly chopped, optional
• ¼ teaspoon red chili powder or cayenne or paprika
• ½ teaspoon cumin powder
• ½ teaspoon Coriander Powder – optional
• ½ teaspoon Garam Masala
• 3 to 4 tablespoons breadcrumbs – panko or regular, or bread pulp from 2 to 3 bread slices
• 2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves or parsley
• salt as required

For Crumb Coating

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3 to 4 tablespoons water
• ⅓ cup breadcrumbs – panko or regular

For Pan Frying

• 2 to 3 tablespoons Fiona Refined Sunflower oil – any neutral oil, add as required

Method Preparation

• Rinse, peel and chop the veggies like carrots, potatoes, french beans.
• Boil or steam the veggies until fork tender in a steamer or pressure cooker.
• Drain all the water from the cooked veggies very well using a strainer. Set the cooked vegetables aside to become warm.
• When the veggies are cooling, blitz 4 to 5 slices of bread in a food processor or blender till fine to get bread crumbs.
• Set aside the bread crumbs in a plate or tray.

Making Cutlet Mixture

• When warm, transfer the cooked vegetables in a bowl.
• Mash them with a potato masher. Do not make a fine paste but keep it slightly chunkier with tiny bits of veggies. Set aside.
• Crush roughly chopped ginger, green chillies and garlic (optional) in a mortar to a semi-fine paste.
• Add the crushed ginger+green chili paste, red chili powder, cumin powder, garam masala powder, coriander powder, chopped coriander leaves, bread crumbs and salt as required to the mashed vegetables.
• Instead of bread crumbs you can also add 2 to 3 slices of bread dipped in water and then squeezed completely of the water.
• Mix everything very well. Check the taste and add more salt or the ground spice powders if needed to the mix vegetable cutlet dough.
• In another small bowl, take all-purpose flour and water.
• Stir and mix this mixture to get a smooth paste or slurry without any lumps.
• Now take the cutlet mixture in a plate and using a cutlet mould, shape it or make small to medium-sized round cutlets by rolling and flattening the mixture in your palms.

Breading

• Take a cutlet and dip in the all-purpose paste gently so that the paste gets coated all over the cutlet.
• Then dredge the cutlet in breadcrumbs evenly and all over. Dust off any extra breadcrumbs. Crumb coat and bread each cutlet this way and set aside.
• If you do not have breadcrumbs, then you can also use rava (sooji or cream of wheat).

Pan Frying Veg Cutlet

• Heat 2 to 3 tablespoons Fiona Refined Sunflower oil for shallow frying in a skillet or frying pan. Dust the excess bread crumbs from the veggie cutlets sand place them in the medium hot oil.
• When one side is light golden or golden, flip and fry the other side. Add more oil if needed.
• Flip a couple of time more and fry all the vegetable cutlet till they are evenly golden and crisp from all sides.
• Drain them on kitchen paper towels to remove excess oil. Fry the remaining cutlets this way add add more oil if required.
• Serve the cutlet hot or warm with mint chutney or coriander chutney or tamarind chutney or tomato ketchup. You can also make burgers, wraps or sandwiches with them.