Veg Cutlets

Most of my summer holidays during school time was spent in Salem with my cousins and grandparents.Taking the kovai express train from Chennai to Salem became a routine. The early morning busyness of Chennai central railway station smelling of fresh fish, ah how i used to crib about that smell, people pushing trolleys all over the place, my heart hoping I would get a window seat ;) - all those memories remain so fresh even now. The kovai express must be the most traveled route by far for me. I have exhausted that route so many times :).

You must be waiting for the connection between the kovai express and cutlets right? :P. One of the things i used to look forward to during these train journeys was the vegetable cutlets from their pantry. :). One of my all time favorite snack. I have wondered how these cutlets sold outside turned up so firm with a crunchy outer texture.Few of my cutlet making experiences went bad, and I gave up hopes until I recently landed on a winner recipe and I am going to share that with you now. I have used this method 3-4 times now, turns perfect each and every time. Though the process is time consuming, its worth every second :)

Veg Cutlets

Ingredients

Adapted from homecooksrecipe

Serves - Makes about 15-20 cutlets
Spice Level - Moderately Spicy
Prep Time - 2.5 hours
Cook time - 30 min

Potato - 3 medium sized , boiled and mashed completely
Beetroot - 1 small sized ,grated finely
Beans - 6 chopped finely
Carrot - 1 chopped finely
Green peas - fistful
Onion - 1 chopped finely

Oil - 1 tbsp
Saunf/ Fennel- 1 tsp
Jeera/Cumin - 1 Tsp
Hing/Asafoetida - a pinch
Green Chilli - 4 finely chopped
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Corn Flour - 1 tsp
Garam Masala - 1 tsp
Turmeric  - a pinch
Red Chilli/Curry powder - 1 Tsp
Coriander Leaves - 1 tbsp - finely chopped

Maida/All purpose flour - 1/4 cup mixed with water to form a thin paste to dip the cutlets in.
Brown Bread - 6 slices + 2 slices

salt - as per taste.

How to make it

1. Firstly boil the potatoes, drain the water used to cook the potatoes in if remaining, mash the potatoes completely and refrigerate for 1 hour minimum.

2. Toast the 6 brown bread slices to a dark brown shade and crumble them in your food processor / mixer to get bread crumbs

3. Make the maida paste and keep aside.

4. Boil all the vegetables to a mash-able extent - beetroot,carrot,beans,peas. Once boiled, drain the excess water and take the veggies. Make balls of these boiled veggies and squeeze out all the liquid from these veggies as much as possible. This step is very important as the water content needs to be as little as possible for the cutlets to shape up fine.

5. Heat oil in a kadai. Add hing, jeera and saunf - let them roast. Add in the chopped onions, green chilli,Ginger-garlic paste and saute till the onions are done. Add the turmeric powder, garam masala and coriander powder, chilli powder and saute well. Add the boiled veggies now and saute until you get a dry mixture with no moisture content.

5. Add mashed potato, coriander leaves and mix well with the veggies. Saute for a couple of minutes and switch of flame and let this cutlet mixture cool.

6. Dip the 2 bread slices in water, squeeze the water out of the bread and add bread pulp to the cutlet mixture. Add the corn flour and salt too now and mix well.

7.Pinch a lemon sized ball from the mixture and flatten into a round shape using your fingers.

8. Dip the cutlet first in maida mix quickly and and then in bread crumb mixture. The cutlet should be wrapped well with the bread crumbs as it forms the outer texture. Maida paste here acts as a bonding agent between the cutlet and bread crumb.

9. Do this for all cutlets, arrange on a plate , wrap with a cling film and refrigerate for minimum 30 minutes.You can store even overnight and thaw it for 30 minutes before frying.Before frying ,bring the cutlets to room temperature by keeping them out for 10 minutes.

10. Heat 1/4 cup of oil in a pan and deep fry the cutlets, till they turn into golden brown color in medium flame.

11. Remove the Cutlets on tissue paper, serve with tomato ketchup. Makes an awesome pair with a cup of steaming chai :)



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