Sunday, September 09, 2012

Vegetable Cutlets

When we talk about cutlets, first name that comes to mind is Diana Restaurant of Udupi that is world famous for vegetable cutlets. Their cutlets are light, crisp on the outside and soft inside and go well with tomato ketchup and green chutney. I have tasted excellent cutlets at Komal’s Cream Parlour which used to exist till late Seventies near Central Talkies, Mangalore. They had special cake box parcel service to retain them crisp for hours. Today, Ideal’s in Hampankatta and Pabba’s in Lalbaug make the best cutlets.

Mohini Vilas, Madhuvan and Shetty Ice Cream Parlour near Hampankatta signal lights also had good cutlets, but Diana was the best when I tasted them in my younger days. I was trying to develop that recipe since long, and I was fortunate enough to get that from a Restaurant in Bunder Mangalore later in the early Nineties. Here’s that recipe and these cutlets are close enough to Diana Udupi cutlets.

This recipe will make around 30 cutlets and should be sufficient for a family of six.


Preparation Time:  45 Mins.
Waiting : 3-4 Hrs.
Final  frying : 15- 20 Mins for 30 Cutlets

Cutlet Ingredients:
1. Potatoes - 250 gms boiled, peeled and smashed
2. Carrot - 100 gms peeled and grated
3. Beet Root - 100 gms peeled and grated
4. Garlic - 8 flakes peeled and chopped
5. Green Chillies - 2-3 chopped fine
6. Garam Masala Powder - 1/2 Teaspoon
7. Bread Slices - 4 dipped in water and squeezed to a pulp
8. Corn Flour - 2 Tablespoons (Optional)
9. Salt - To Taste
10. Bread Crumbs - 100 gms
11. Roasted Urad daal - 1Tbsp (Optional)
12. Refined Vegetable Oil - For Deep Fryin

Method:
1. Heat little oil in a kadai. Season the Green Chillies chops and garlic chops till they become golden and dry. Add the grated carrots and beet root. Mix with salt to taste. Add garam masala powder, cook well and allow the water to evaporate. Allow to cool down.


2. To this cooled mixture, add the smashed potatoes and bread slices pulp. Mix well into a stiff dough. Add corn flour if the mixture is watery. Make equal size balls, size of mithai laddus with this mixture. Keep in the fridge for an hour or so.


3. Remove from fridge. In a tray, arrange a sheet of paper. Take each ball, roll it in bread crumbs (Urad Dal mixed in as optional) and flatten it into oval shaped cutlets with the help of a knife blade, patting all the sides to shape them properly. Arrange the cutlets on the paper sheet; cover with one more layer of paper and so on till all the cutlets are made. Keep in the fridge for 3-4 hours to bind.

4. Heat oil in a kadhai for deep frying. When the oil is hot and fuming, reduce the gas to little more than medium and deep fry the cutlets, 2-4 at a time, depending on the amount of oil and taking care not to break the cutlets. When crisp and brown, drain the oil and transfer to a plate with tissue paper to absorb the oil.

Serve with Tomato Ketchup and Green Chutney.

Please Note:
As soon as one batch of cutlets is fried, oil should be allowed to heat up again and any droppings in the oil should be removed immediately.


Green Chutney Ingredients:
1.  Grated Coconut -  1 cup
2.  Medium Size onion - 1
3.  Green Tomato Small - 1
4.  Garlic Flakes Peeled - 4-6
5.  Green Chillies - 1-2
6.  Coriander Leaves - A handful
7.   Salt - To taste

Grind all the ingredients to a smooth thick paste in the mixie.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Is roasted urad dal POWDER ( Oornu ) or dal itself used ?

Rajanikanth Shenoy, Kudpi said...

Annu Mallya it is Urad Daal intact and not the roasted daal powder, which you can roast or fry with little oil until golden and mix into the cutlet dough.

Reshma Prabhu said...

Maam, I tried these cutlets today for my guests and they loved it..absolutely super

Rajanikanth Shenoy, Kudpi said...

Reshma I am happy you successfully made them. Thanks for the feedback.

Tejal Shenoy said...

Sir I want to try this but I don’t have bread slices as it’s lock down so instead of bread what we can use for binding??

Tejal Shenoy said...

Instead of bread what can we use?? As it’s lock down bread is not available?? I was thinking thick rava?? What’s ur suggestion??

Rajanikanth Shenoy, Kudpi said...

Tejal Shenoy,

Sorry for the late reply.

Actually bread adds to soft substance within the cutlet. So substituting with rava or similar ingredient does not help. One idea is to dry roast rolled Mangalore Buns dough(We call it Vastad Rotti) over the tawa, allow to cool down, soak that in water, squeeze and add. You may also try adding soaked squeezed leftover chappatis.

https://kudpiraj.blogspot.com/2012/09/mangalore-buns.html

If it is only for binding, you can add some corn flour. Now that the lock down is open in many places, you should be getting bread.

DivyaJP said...

Mam,

I have been to Pabbas many times and had this cutlet. Thanks for your recipe. It tasted the same.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Image Copy Control