Sindoori Cutlet

Ingredients: Makes 12-14 cutlets

1 cup rice flour

1 carrot shredded

2 cups water

½ cup curd

1 ½ tablespoon corn flour

Few strands saffron

Salt to taste

Red chilli powder to taste

Pinch each of garam masala, coriander powder and aamchoor.

1 tablespoon kasuri methi

4 slices of garlic finely chopped

Oil, to deep fry the cutlets.

Recipe:

In a sauce pan, add 1 cup water and bring it to a boil and then lower the heat to minimum. Add rice flour, stir it continuously. Flour will absorb the water instantly, but still keep stirring it. When water has been completely mixed with the flour, mix half cup of water and curd together and add to the flour. Stir again till this thin curd is absorbed by the flour nicely. After a couple of minutes, the flour will start to come together and will bind into dough. When that happens, turn the flame off and take the dough out into a bowl.

In the same pan add remaining half cup of water and heat it. Add saffron and let it simmer for a minute. Then add this to the dough. With the help of a whisk mix the dough nicely.

Now add all the remaining ingredients together and mix nicely.

With the help of spoons make small cutlets and fry them till golden brown.

Serve them hot with cold mint chutney.

Note:

Dry the shredded carrot onto a kitchen towel before adding to the dough.

Preferably use a non-stick pan to prepare the dough.

Be innovative and use these cutlets as koftas in the gravy of your choice.

Spiced Caramel Pineapple

Trust me it tastes so good that I was not able to stop myself from eating it, not that I have any grudges about it especially since making it turned out to be more arduous than I thought. I was rattled already enough with the thought of cooking this without a barbeque or a griller, and then came along the task to cut the pineapple into slices. It seems facile on television, but it’s tough like gymming on the first day, you manage to do it but regret it afterwards when the muscle pain kicks in. I also somehow managed to cut the slices out of it and was left with a couple of scratches from pineapple thorns. But all the pain was worth the taste.

Ingredients:

1 pineapple sliced

2 inch cinnamon stick

½ teaspoon black pepper powder

4 tablespoon sugar

4 tablespoon roughly crushed jaggery

2 tablespoon butter.

3/4 cup water

Recipe:

Add butter, sugar, jaggery and water in a sauce pan, and leave it to simmer on low flame till sugar and jaggery dissolves.

Now add cinnamon stick and turn the heat on. After the syrup has boiled once, turn the heat off, and leave it to cool down for a couple of minutes after which add pepper powder and mix nicely.

Now soak pineapple slices in this syrup for at least ten minutes.

Then in a frying pan on low flame, fry these slices. Don’t add oil or butter in the pan. Just take the slices out of the syrup and lay them down one by one in the pan. The juice from the pineapple and syrup will scatter around the pan. Don’t worry; this scattered juice is what will help the pineapple get nicely caramelised.

After 2 minutes of frying on one side flip the slices and gently dab the syrup again on the slices with the help of a kitchen brush, and again fry for 2 minutes on the other side. Also during this step, keep collecting the juice scattered into the pan and pouring it back on the slices. Repeat all of this once again, and then take them off the pan.

Technically, this kind of recipe is cooked on a barbeque, but since I don’t have one, I roasted them for few seconds on nude flame on both sides, once the frying was done. This helped them get that charred flavour which naturally comes in a barbeque.

Serve them hot along with the leftover syrup.

Dahi Ke Kebab

Ingredients: Makes 5-6 small kebabs

1 cup hung curd

Handful of fresh coriander leaves

4 tablespoon corn flour

1 medium onion finely chopped

1 green chilli chopped

¼ inch ginger finely chopped

Salt to taste

Black pepper powder to taste

Oil to shallow fry the kebabs

Recipe:

In a bowl, whisk hung curd lightly.

Add corn flour and whisk again till nicely mixed.

Add all remaining ingredients together and mix well.

In a pan add oil, and form small kebabs of the mixture with the help of a spoon. This mixture is very wet in texture and will stick if hands are used directly. Shallow fry all of the kebabs on lowest flame possible on all sides till nicely brown.

Serve with any dip you like.