Veggie Cutlet
Vegetable Cutlet reminds me of summer holidays during my childhood when my mom would prepare one tasty snack everyday. This used to be one of the most favourite snacks I used to enjoy with my siblings and cousins. To this day, I relish it everytime it is prepared.Time Taken: 30-40 minutes.
Serves about 4 peopleIngredients Used:4 medium sized potatoes
2 medium sized onions
1/4 inch ginger
7-8 french beans
1/2 cup of sweet peas
1/2 of a medium sized beetroot
2/3rd of a large carrot
1/2 tsp red chilly powder
1/4 tsp garam masala powder
Coriander leaves
Salt to taste
Bread crumbs or rava for the coating.
Oil-as required.
Method of Preparation:Cook potatoes(cut into halves) in a pressure cooker with a little water. In the meanwhile, chop all the vegetables very finely and keep aside. Then, in a cooking pan, warm up oil and fry the onions until golden brown. Grate ginger into this and add red chilly powder. Toss in the rest of the finely chopped veggies along with peas and cook with closed lid taking just the required amount of water and salt. When it is almost done, add garam masala powder and some of the coriander leaves. Stir for a minute or two.
Deskin the cooked potatoes and mash it. Mix this with the veggie mix prepared. Do not use water anytime because the cutlet mix should be dry, else it will be difficult to make balls. Check for salt and roll this mix with your palm into evenly sized balls(each about the size of a medium sized lemon). Flatten these balls into oval/round/heart shaped cutlets-whatever you prefer . Take bread crumbs/rava(fine semolina) in a plate and coat each side of the cutlet with it by touching each side on to the surface. Shallow fry all these cutlets on a heated skillet/tava/griddle(medium heat)-the bigger the griddle the better since you don't have do too many rounds of frying. Pour a little oil around each cutlet and ensure that each side turns golden brown(the entire frying process should take around 15-20 minutes). Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with tomato ketchup/tamarind+chilly chutney.
Labels: Chatpat, Cutlet, Jhatpat, North Indian, One dish meal, Snack, Vegetable, Veggie
Carrot Kosumbari(Salad)
Kosumbari/kismuri is the native name given to what we call salad in English. Basically, it is any raw vegetable in its finely chopped form with a little bit of seasoning. Although carrot kosumbari is raw and usually eaten as a side item in meals, my son and hubby love to eat it with chapati as well. Something about its taste reminds me of bhel puri. I'm posting this right now on the blog, keeping in mind a friend, who has really gotten fitness conscious these days and has been asking me for quite a while to post salad recipes. This is good to taste and healthy at the same time.Time taken: 15 minutes.
Serves about 3 peopleIngredients Used:3 big carrots
1 tomato
1 very small onion
2 small green chillies(chopped finely)
Half a tsp of mustard seeds and urad dal
Quarter bunch of coriander leaves
2 tsp of grated coconut(optional)
1 tsp. of lemon juice
Very little oil.
Salt to taste
Method of Preparation:Grate the carrots in a wide bowl using a kitchen grater. Those who have a food processor with grating option could use it to make life easier. Toss in very finely chopped onion and tomato into the grated carrots. Add grated coconut, lemon juice and salt to it. Then, warm up some oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. Wait till they sputter. To this, add curry leaves, finely chopped green chillies and urad dal. Stir with a ladle until the urad dal turns slightly brown in colour and the chillies appear crispy. Mix this seasoning in the salad. Garnish with coriander leaves. Mom adds two or three leaves of mint sometimes. Isn't this easy to prepare?
P.S: The salad in the picture shown above is that which was prepared when i didn't have coriander leaves at home :) You please don't forget to add it.
Labels: Carrot, Chatpat, Healthy, Jhatpat, Kosambari, Salad, Vegetable
Mixed Vegetable Curry
This is another coconut based curry which has a south Indian touch. It requires a blender or mixer for the paste. So keep that in mind before you try it out, but I assure you that this dish is a pleasure to your taste buds.
Serves about 2 – 3 people
Time taken: 30 to 35 minutes
Ingredients required:
1 big cup of cut vegetables (beans, carrots, peas, cauliflower, potato etc)
(The vegetables must be cut into medium size)
1 handful of toor dal
1 medium sized onion chopped
1 medium sized tomato chopped
4 Tsp of grated coconut
2 pods of garlic
5 green chillies
1 handful of chopped coriander leaves
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp jeera (cumin seeds)
3 Tsps of oil
Salt to taste
For seasoning:
1 tsp mustard seeds
Few curry leaves
3 tsps oil
Method of preparation:
Wash the vegetables and the toor dal and pressure cook it together on medium flame for 2 whistles or till the dal is cooked. Make a fine paste of coconut, garlic, green chillies, jeera, turmeric powder and the coriander leaves with as less water as possible in a blender. Heat oil in a kadai, and fry the chopped onion till it turns soft. Add tomatoes to this and fry till the tomatoes are mashed properly. Now add the green coconut paste to it and fry till the raw smell of the coconut and the garlic is gone. That takes about 5 minutes. To this add the cooked vegetable and toor dal along with water in which it was cooked. Bring it to a boil . Reduce the heat to low and add salt. Simmer for about 2 minutes. In a separate kadai, heat the oil for seasoning. Add the mustard seeds. When they start to splutter,add the curry leaves . Now add this seasoning to the curry and mix. The mixed vegetable curry is ready.
Note : It tastes very well with roti as well as with rice also. If you are having it with rice, then make the consistency of the curry a little thinner by adding more water.
Labels: Chatpat, Coconut, curry, Easy, Indian, Jhatpat, quick, South, Vegetable, Veggie
Vegetable Kolhapuri
When I wanted a very easy and less time consuming dish for my son’s birthday party, my friend suggested that I try this recipe. She told me that normally Vegetable kolhapuri is a very spicy maharashtrian dish . But with a little variation to the original recipe, she had come out with this wonderful version. It is actually quite easy to make and it turned out to be a very big hit at my son’s party.Try it out for yourself.
Serves about 2 -3 people
Time taken – 25 to 30 minutes
Ingredients used:
1 medium sized onion chopped
1 big cup of cut vegetables like carrots, mushrooms, peas, cauliflower, beans, potato
(You can use the frozen mixed vegetable packet also)
2 small tomatoes chopped
½ tsp jeera
1 tsp dhaniya (coriander) powder
½ tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp chilli powder
½ tsp garam masala
1 tsp ginger and garlic paste
1 big cup of coconut milk (thick)
(You can use the canned one available in the Indian grocery store, doesn’t make a difference in taste)
Handful of chopped coriander leaves
Salt to taste
2 Tsp of oil
Method of preparation:
Heat oil in a kadai. Add jeera and let it crackle. Now add the chopped onions and the ginger garlic paste and fry till the onion is translucent in color. Then add the chopped tomatoes and fry till the tomatoes are cooked and mashed properly. Make a paste of chilli powder, garam masala, turmeric powder and dhaniya powder with 3 Tsp of water. Now add this paste to the kadai and fry for 2 minutes. To this add the cut vegetables and the coconut milk. Once the coconut milk starts boiling, add salt and the chopped coriander leaves. Now close the kadai with a lid and let it boil at a low flame till the vegetables are cooked. If you feel the consistency of the gravy is too thick , then add water .
Serve hot with roti or rice.
Labels: Chatpat, curry, Easy, Jhatpat, Kolhapuri, Maharashtrian, Masala, Vegetable
Mixed Vegetable Pulav
The credit of this pulao goes to a hungry afternoon which stimulated my brain cells a little more than usual and made me try out this short cut method. I would confidently vouch for this particular recipe. This method has been tried and tested by many friends of mine and complimented upon. Please follow the instructions to the dot.
Serves about 3-4 people
Time taken-25-30 minutes
Cooking Tip- Using frozen mixed vegetables reduces the time taken to cut them.
Ingredients Used:
3 cinnamon sticks
2-3 buds of clove
Cardamom -2
Bay leaf
(The above four items are referred together as whole masala)
1 large onion
Half an inch ginger
Half a tsp each of turmeric powder, chilli powder, garam masala powder and biryani pulao masala
One and half tsp coriander powder
1 big cup of rice(preferably basmati rice)
1 big cup or equal amount of mixed vegetables like beans, carrots, green peas and corn
6-7 cloves of garlic
1 tomato
2-3 tbsp oil
2 tsp ghee
Method of Preparation:
Warm the oil in a cooker and put the whole masala into it. Stir it with a ladle until you get the aroma of the masala. Add chopped onions to this and fry till golden brown. Then, add plain unwashed basmati rice to this and roast it until it turns slightly white/loses its transparency. This ensures that the rice doesn't become sticky and cooks well too. To this, add turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder, Garam masala and Biryani pulao masala and grated ginger. Mix it well. After about a minute, add medium cut mixed vegetables, two big cups of water, salt, grated garlic and chopped tomato. Pressure cook on medium high flame until one whistle. After the whistle, lower the flame in to medium level and cook for 3-4 minutes. The pulav is now almost ready. Once the cooker cools, open its lid and pour in the ghee for extra flavour. It also changes the consistency of the rice.
Note:Pulav tastes good as it is or with raita prepared by mixing finely chopped onions, tomatoes, cucumber and a little bit of salt in curds(plain yoghurt). You could also toss in a few mint leaves to this mix while preparing pulao to add extra flavour.
Labels: Chatpat, Cooker Pulao, Easy, Jhatpat, Mixed, One dish meal, Pulao, Pulav, quick, Vegetable, Veggie
