Daily Archives: September 23, 2014


Deconstructed cutlet pie

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Preparation time : 35-40 minutes

Cooking Time : 25 – 30minutes

Serves : 4 members

Description

Deconstructed cutlet pie . I first came across this deconstrution of a dish in a satellote tv channel competition held among chefs . At first I didn’t understand what it meant , mainly because most of the dishes deconstructed by the chefs were new to me . Only after watching a few episodes , my mind suck in the real concept . It’ s just that you have to use the same ingredients used for a dish and reconstruct it to another form . Simple but you have to be innovative , that’s the key to deconstructed. I will not take credit for this dish as I came across this recipe in a food blog called mallu kitchen run by Reshma Nooh of Cochin . Tried it and wolla it was yum . I have used brown bread for the base as I was out of stock of white bread . It tasted exactly like cutlet but was served in pie form . Have to mention how one naned dish mean different things around the globe . Wired but its true . CUTLET in lndia means the round (or any desired shaped ) patties mainly made with potato mixed with other ingredients of choice , coated in bread crumbs and shallow fried . But the same word CUTLET in Australia means a find cut part of meat with its bone neatly carved (we call it as mutton chops in lndia ) . So folks where ever you are make sure the dish in mind is what you think it is . ….

Ingredients

Ingredients
Quantity
Bread10 slices ( edges cut and cut small circles in the size that fit exactly into your muffin tray or ramekins )
Butterto grease and to dot
Egg1
Cutlet mixture3 cups
Mashed potato mixture3 cups

Ingredients for cutlet mixture

Ingredients
Quantity
potato1/2 kg ( boiled , peeled and mashed )
chicken200 gm (boneless )
Turmeric powder 1/4 tea spoon
onion3 chopped
garam masala powder 1/4 tea spoon
green chillies4 crushed
ginger garlic paste 1/2 tea spoon
chilli flakes 1 tea spoon
coriander leaves 2 table spoon chopped
mint leaves1 table spoon chopped pepper
saltto taste
lime juice 1/2 lime

Method for cutlet mixture

  1. boil chicken with turmeric powder , ginger garlic paste and salt to taste . Cook till dry n shred the chicken .
  2. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a non stick kadai . Add onions and green chillies and fry to translucent .
  3. Add all the other ingredients one by one except for lime . Sauté till all the flavours infuse together .
  4. Remove from flame and add lime juice .Mix well taste and adjust set aside and cool .
  5. can substitute chicken with mutton keema or fish . Vegetarians can add paneer , soya chunks or more veggies like carrot , beet root , cauliflower , cabbage , beans , green peas and capsicum .

Ingredients for potato mash

Ingredients
Quantity
potatoes400 grams
butter chopped20 grams
hot milk1/4 cup
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Chilli flakesto taste
Maida 1 tablespoon

Method for potato mash

  1. Peel potatoes and cut into large pieces . Cook in a large saucepan of boiling salted water for 20 minutes or until very tender but not falling apart.
  2. Drain potatoes well. Return to saucepan over low heat.
  3. Shake pan gently until any remaining water evaporates. Using a potato masher, roughly mash potatoes.
  4. Add butter , maida and hot milk , to potatoes. Beat with a wooden spoon until fluffy. Season with salt , chilli flakes and pepper . Set aside .

How to proceed

  1. Pre heat an oven to 180 degree Celsius .
  2. Grease a muffin tray or ramekins with butter . Place the bread circles on the bottom . Dot with butter . Mix the egg with the cutlet masala .
  3. Top about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the cutlet mixture over the bread . Level it . Dot with butter .
  4. Pipe the potato mash over the cutlet layer or can just spread evenly over . Finally dot with butter .
  5. Bake in the pre heated oven for 20 to 30 minutes until you get a golden crust on top . Remove and cool .
  6. Run a knife around . Turn into a plate . Place the cutlet pie straight with the potato mash layer on top .
  7. Serve hot with tomato sauce or any dip of your choice .
  8. vegetarians can avoid adding one beaten egg and chicken ( add veggies , soya chunks or paneer instead ) to the cutlet mixture and follow the same recipe for the veg version .
  9. Leave the vegetarian cutlet mixture a bit moist , so after you bake your cutlet pie does not turn dry .

 


Left over mixed mini idli

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Preparation Time : 10 minutes

Cooking Time : 10-12 minutes

Serving : 4 members

Method

Week end breakfast special with left over that transpired into a colourful visual treat. Left over beet root poriyal ground and mixed with idli batter for the deep pink colour mini idli , left over spinach ground and mixed with idli batter for the light green mini idli and left over bottle gourd kootu ( bottle gourd cooked with dal ) ground with turmeric powder and iddli batter for the yellow coloured mini idli . No artificial colours added and a sure hit with kids at home . Skewered in tooth picks and served with tomato chutney .


Paruppu urundai kuzhambhu

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Preparation Time : 35 minutes

Cooking Time : 30 minutes

Serving : 4-5 members

Description

Paruppu urundai kulambhu . A typical Tamil dish . Those who don’t follow the Tamil language here goes the translation of this dishes name . Paruppu means dall , urundai means round that they refer to the round dall koftas here and kulambhu means gravy . So this dish is a tamarind based gravy flavoured with sambhar powder and enhanced with dall koftas . Its had for lunch with boiled white rice along with a poriyal or a kootu and an appalam . This dish is a mainstay in all the tamil households and every mom has her own take on it . My daughter ANISHA being a vegetarian , I was forced into learning all these dishes and every one at home relishes it to . So no complaints . At home we make a similar curry called kola urundai kulambhu . The only difference being we add minced meat koftas instead of the dal koftas . These sort of home style food items are unaffected by changing trends and some thing you turn to all year round . Once in a while there is no harm in stepping back in time , going back to the roots and cooking the old school way as our ancestors did !!!!  Gives us a chance to be loyal to old traditional recipes :-)))

Ingredients For urundai

Ingredients
Quantity
Toor dal /thuvaram paruppu 3/4cup
small onion 3 chopped
coconut grated 2 tablespoons
Dry Red chillies 4
fennel seeds 1/4 teaspoon
Cumin seeds 1 teaspoon
chopped coriander leaves 4 tablespoons
Salt To taste

Ingredients For Gravy

Ingredients
Quantity
Tamarind/puli1 big gooseberry size
small onions 1/2 cup
Garlic10 flakes
Tomato 1 chopped
Sambar powder 4 to 5 teaspoons
Turmeric powder1/4 teaspoon
Jaggery 1/4 teaspoon
SaltTo taste

Ingredients To grind

Ingredients
Quantity
Coconut grated 1/2 cup
onion1 medium

Ingredients To temper

Ingredients
Quantity
Sesame oil 3 tablespoons
fenugreek seeds1/4 teaspoon
Mustard seeds 1 teaspoon
cumin seeds 1 teaspoon
curry leaves2 sprigs

Method for paruppu urundai

  1. Soak toor dal for 2 hours . In a food processor ,first grind jeera,fennel seeds , red chillies,coconut to a coarse powder.
  2. Then add the toor dal (soaked,water drained )and grind coarsely.(little bit finer than we grind for masala vada)(don’t add water)Add chopped onions,salt,coriander leaves and mix well.
  3. Make small balls out of the ground batter and steam it by placing in a greased idly plates and steam it for 10 to 12 minutes.Cool down a bit(but let it be still warm),and again shape tightly,to make it perfect shaped koftas.

Method For Gravy

  1. Extract tamarind juice,keep a side,grind the coconut and onion to  a fine paste,keep a side.Heat a kadai,with oil and add the tempering items and  temper. Add garlic,onion and fry till golden brown.Then add the chopped tomatoes and fry for a minute.
  2. Add the tamarind extract,sambar powder,turmeric powder and fry for a minute .add the ground coconut masala and fry until oil separates .
  3. Add water and bring to boil and simmer until raw smell has gone .Lower the flame and add the urundais ( dall koftas ) one by one carefully.
  4. Boil in medium flame until all the balls float on the top(6 mins approx),by this time it would have got cooked.
  5. Do not stir till this stage. simmer for 4 mins add the jaggery . taste and adjust seasoning and the kuzhambu is ready .

Notes

  1. If you are beginner to cooking you can follow the steaming the urundai method confidently.
  2. The direct adding method is time saving,if you are confident on yourself you can just go ahead and try.
  3. You can use channa dal also for making the urundais. Or mixture of both dals, I have tried all the ways, makes no difference.
  4. Serve with any veggie kootu and appam (south Indian paped ) as side dish to this curry with hot boiled white rice .