Vegetable Cutlet

I am a big fan of vegetable cutlet. It also has my childhood memories linked with it. The first time I had cutlet was at Indian Coffee house. And I could never forget the taste associated with it. It was like, whenever I used to travel with my dad and mom, when we pass Indian Coffee house, I used to start hinting that I was hungry, infact I was trying to get a bite of the cutlet there :) ....Even in recent years, before I got married, my dad took me there one day and that day I became a bit emotional as I realized that soon I would be leaving my house after marriage.... My husband too likes this snack. I had prepared it for his birthday recently and it became an instant hit. So here I am sharing with you my favorite recipe.

Ingredients:
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Potato: 3 nos
Beetroot: 1 large
Onion: 2 nos
Carrot: 2 nos
Beans chopped finely: 1/2 cup
Green Peas: 1 cup
Garlic: 4 segments
Ginger: a small piece
*Tomato sauce (Optional): 2 tablespoons
(You may use finely chopped tomatoes instead of the sauce)
Oil
Salt

For tadka:
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Mustard seeds: 1 teaspoon
Cumin seeds: 1 teaspoon
Finely chopped curry leaves: 1/4 cup
Finely minced green chilli: 1/4 cup

Masala powder:

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Coriander powder: 1 1/2 teaspoon

Turmeric powder: a pinch

Chilli powder (if you want more spicy taste): 1/2 teaspoon

Crushed pepper (if you want more spicy taste): 1/4 teaspoon

*Cinnamon powder: 1/2 teaspoon

(You may also use garam masala powder that you get in stores to get a different flavor which is also good)

For the batter and coating:

1. Powdered Bread crumbs for making the powdered coating around each cutlet

2. Maida or all purpose flour mixed with water to make a batter with consistency that is a little loose than the batter made for frying bajjis.

Method:

1. Cook the potatoes, peel the skin. Mash the potatoes.

2. Chope the beetroot into very small pieces. (You may make this work easier by first cooking the beetroot and then chopping it later, so that it makes the chopping easy).

3. Finely chop the onions and carrots. Cook carrots, green peas and beans until tender. Mash the garlic and grate the ginger.

4. In a kadai, heat 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the tadka ingredients one by one, until they splutter properly. Then add mashed garlic and ginger. Stir again. Add chopped onion and stir uniformly. Add the masala powders one by one. stir uniformly after adding each powder. Add the tomato sauce at the end and stir properly. Add carrot, beans, and peas and stir. Then add beetroot and stir again. Add salt. When the vegetables get properly mixed with the masala in the kadai, add the mashed potatoes and again mix thoroughly.

5. Take the kadai off the fire and wait till it cools.

6. Meanwhile spread some oil on a tawa ( a little more oil than is normally used while making dosas). Make small balls of the curry mix and flatten it and smooth the edges. Coat each curry ball in maida, and make sure they are not absorbing a lot of water when dipped, else there is a chance that the cutlet will break while trying to roast it in oil. So for that purpose, after dipping in the maida mix, shake of the excess water and immedietly put the balls in the dish containing the powdered bread crumbs. Coat the balls with the crumbs on both sides. The bread crumbs gives the crunchy taste to the cutlet.

7. Roast the cutlet in the oil in the tawa, add a little drop of oil on each side of the cutlet while roasting. This method of roasting cutlet consumed less oil than if we were to deep fry them. Roast the cutlet until all the sides becomes reddish brown (the reddish brown color comes because of the beetroot). Check if the coating on the cutlet is fully cooked and crunchy.

8. Arrange the cutlets in a plate and serve it along with mint chutney or tomato sauce.