According to wiki, The word cutlet is originally from french word cotelette which literally translate a small piece of meat. It is a dish which generally uses a mashed vegetable or minced meat , then dipped in egg like mixture, rolled in breadcrumbs and deep fried. The one and only appetizer which took many avatar in almost all cuisines.
But today, we are going to shallow fry the cutlet instead of deep frying it. Though we shallow fry it, the outer layer is very crispy but inside is soft and yummy. This typical street food can easily prepared by the ingredients available at home and today’s version is completely vegan, If you do not get tofu, you can substitute it with paneer. Instead of breadcrumbs, rava or coarsely powdered oats can be used for rolling the cutlet.
Basic Information:
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 35 minutes
Makes: 12
Ingredients:
Tofu – 1 and 1/2 cup, crumbled
Potato – 1 medium size
Carrot – 3/4 cup, grated
Green Capsicum – 1/4 cup
Onion – 1/2 cup
Oil – 1 tbsp
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tbsp
Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Garam Masala – 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds powder – 1/2 tsp
Chat masala – 1/2 tsp
Amchoor powder – 1/2 tsp
Salt – to taste
All purpose flour – 1/4 cup
Water – 1/2 to 3/4 cup
Bread crumbs – 1/2 cup
Video Recipe:
Method with step by step pictures:
1) Pressure cook the potato for 3 to 5 whistles. Meanwhile, finely chop the onion and capsicum, grate the carrot.
2) Once the potato is pressure cooked, peel the skin and mash it without lumps.
3) Heat oil in a pan. Add onion and saute till it becomes soft.
4) Add ginger garlic paste. Mix well for few seconds.
5) Add capsicum, grated carrot and crumbled tofu. I used extra firm tofu, squeezed out the excess water and crumbled it. Mix well and let it cook well in a low to medium flame.
6) Once the vegetables and tofu cooked well, add all the masalas. Increase the spicy level according to your personal preference.
7) Continue cooking the mix till the raw smell of masala goes off. Now added boiled potato. continue to mix till it forms like a dough. Make sure to add the potato when the vegetables and tofu are cooked well and dry.
8) Turn off the flame and cool down the mixture. Once it is cool down, knead it well so we get a smooth dough.
9) From the dough, pinch a lemon size ball and form a patty. Repeat the same steps with rest of the dough.
10) Now, mix the all purpose flour with the approx. 1/2 cup of water. This mixture should be thin. Instead of all purpose flour, one can use the wheat flour as well.
11) Immediately place the patty in breadcrumbs, roll it over, so that it coats over the patty.
12) Place this patty in a hot tawa, sprinkle oil, cook till it becomes golden brown. flip to cook the other side.
13) As we have already cooked the tofu and vegetables, it is enough to cook the patty tilll the outer layer becomes crisp and golden brown.
14) Serve hot with ketchup and green chutney.
Serving Suggestions:
1) Serve it as an appetizer with green chutney or tomato ketchup.
2) It serves as an after school snack and it can also be packed as a snack box or lunchbox for kids.
Notes:
1) Instead of tofu, one can use paneer as well.
2) Addition and choice of vegetable is your choice. Increase or decrease the quantity according to the personal preference.
3) Add potato as a last step and it act as a binding ingredient. if you still not able to form a dough, add corn flour or all purpose flour to make it like a dough. If you add corn flour or all purpose flour, then make sure to shallow fry the patties for longer time in low flame took additionally added flour.
4) Instead of round shape, the shape can be changed according to the personal preference. For example, heart shape, triangle, globe, cylinder shapes can be used.
5) Instead of shallow frying, you can also deep fry it.
