A rainy evening, perfect mood…All you need is a cutlet. A homemade all natural crunchy cutlet filled with nutritious veggies and green chutney on the side. What else can we ask for. I saw fresh pea pods in local market. They are still sitting in my fridge. A great way to use fresh peas. I kept watching my favorite movie while I shell peas out of pod. Yes it is a bit of work but the satisfaction of eating a dish made of fresh ingredients is price-less. Fresh peas are round, meaty and are hydrated unlike frozen peas.
Cutlets make great evening snack. Excellent to entertain guests with cup of coffee/tea or sip of cocktail. Wisely use up your left over potatoes. Baked, shallow and deep-fried versions of cutlets can be made to suit your diet and taste. Traditionally made of potato as the base and mixed with a variety of vibrant veggies and deep-fried. In my cooking experience, shallow fry makes it light in calorie, crunchy on top yet tasty. I tried baked, but it still needs oil to be brushed. Otherwise they stay dry. Yet, they weren’t as crunchy as shallow fried ones.
You can prepare potato peas mixture ahead of time and refrigerate for couple of days. Keep outside for couple of hours to bring to room temperature. Try to find fresh pea pods in local market. Fresh peas are so irresistible. All nutrients are completely preserved.
Nutrition in fresh peas is amazing. Green peas are an extremely low-fat food. It has impressive amounts of fat and fat-soluble nutrients. Research shows that green peas are a reliable source of omega-3 fats in the form of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). In one cup of green peas, you can expect to find about 30 milligrams of ALA. About 130 milligrams of the essential omega-6 fatty acid, linoleic acid, can also be found in a cup of green peas. This very small but high-quality fat content of green peas helps provide us with important fat-soluble nutrients from this legume, including sizable amounts of beta-carotene and small but valuable amounts of vitamin E.
- 2 cups potatoes
- 1 cup - fresh green pea pods. If you don't have fresh, you can go with frozen peas.
- 4 - green chillies. Add more if you love spicy.
- salt
- Bread crumbs
- 4 tbsp - oil
- 1 tbsp - jeera powder
- 1 tbsp - fresh ground coriander powder - optional
- ½ cup spring onion or onion - optional
- ½ cup - fresh coriander
- Salt
- 2 tbsp - corn starch (In India it is called corn powder)
- Approx 1 tbsp - water
- 4 tbsp - seasoned bread crumbs. (If you have plain bread crumbs at home, add dried
- Dice potatoes to even sized pieces. Fill pan or cooker with 2 cups of water and cook potatoes till soft. Do not over-cook. If over-cooked, they retain lot of water and you cannot shape them into cutlets. If you are not confident how soft to cook, follow this procedure. While steaming potatoes, keep pricking with fork. If fork doesn't slide in, keep cooking till it slides.
- Open up pea pods and remove peas. If you are using frozen peas, thaw and make sure to squeeze water off.
- Pour 2 tbsp oil in a pan. Heat to medium. Add green chillies, peas and onion. Cook for 2 minutes, add salt and stir. Close the lid and cook for 10 minutes till peas are soft. Turn off and let them cool.
- Blend cooked peas mixture coarsely.
- Add salt and ground peas to potatoes. Mash together till well mixed. Add coriander and spring onion.
- Make even, desired sized balls. Press them a bit flat. Keep them aside.
- Add water to corn starch in a bowl. Stir till well mixed. Thicker the cornstarch batter is, crunchier cutlets are. But it is hard to roll cutlets in thick batter. You make judgement what you like.
- Roll cutlets in cornstarch, then in bread crumbs.
- Add oil to a griddle (tawa). If you are making many cutlets, use electric griddle. On electric griddle, you can fry many at same time.
- Place cutlets on oil and press lightly. Pressing makes cutlet flat and fries evenly. Fry cutlets on both sides till golden brown.
- Serve hot with ketchup or cilantro chutney. Optionally serve with lettuce leaf, cucumber rounds or radish rounds.
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