Cheat's Cookery - Potato Cutlets

Well! According to me this isn't cheating, but having known so many people back home who prepare every component of this dish at home I'd resign to calling mine cheats cookery as many things are shop bought in my case.

Ok....now that I have got my foreword out of the system I'll write about my potato cutlet saga. 

All I wanted to prepare for the evening meal was a simple aloo jeera with a few spices - cumin powder, coriander powder, chilli powder, some turmeric and salt to taste and serve this as a chunky potato side dish. What I however ended up with were overboiled potatoes and so it was a masala mash that ended up with in my pan. It also was extremely spicy - you see I love spicy food so much that I went a bit over board this time.

I thought of making cutlets out of these immediately and chopped a whole lot of onions, carrots, got my peas and ginger mince ready. After the prepping up I decided to make it with just the potatoes and not add anything else - mainly coz the quantity was so much that it would have been enough for 6-8 people.

Ingredients:

Potato mix- 

Potatoes - boiled and over boiled works just fine!

Jeera powder

Chilli powder

Cumin powder

Turmeric

Salt to taste

Seasoning - oil, cumin, mustard, asaphoetida 

Coriander 

Chutneys to serve (the cheat factor) 

Green chutney - mother's recipe's Bombay sandwich chutney has got me completely

Date & tamarind chutney

Sweet chilli sauce - not a great option but my cutlets were so spicy that I thought. It would help.

Prepping the Cutlets-

Corn Flour - 2tbsp (add water to thin it)

Breadcrumbs  (the cheat factor)

How I made it:

I made nice big patties out of my potato mix and dunked them in corn flour, rubbed them against bread crumbs and toasted them on either sides and voila! My cutlets were ready.

How I enjoyed it:

I served them with all my chutneys and as it still was extremely spicy I finished it off with a dollop of curd/yogurt. This made a perfect anytime snack, I had one during tea, another as my evening snack and couple of them for dinner.

Cheat's Cookery - Tomato Saaru (Rasam)

Anna-Saaru (Rice & Rasam) is our staple meal. It's funny how after a couple of days of having all types of food our heart's crave for this simple wholesome meal full of flavour. Sunday evening is typically anna-saaru time, to comfort me from the weekend that is done and prepare me for the week of work and the mundaness that comes with it.

Saaru is a any-day, any-time dish for me.  I am (used to be) strict about a couple of things when it comes to this dish -  I don't prepare it if I don't have nice ripe tomatoes and a fresh bunch of coriander. Everything else can be substituted - lime instead of the tamarind sauce, sugar instead of jaggery, even moong dal instead of toor dal. Now, are you thinking that all this is cheating already?

Well, the last week I  cheated on one of the main ingredients - the tomatoes. Are you thinking of the obvious substitute - canned tomatoes? No! By the way, I do have an odd feeling about canned food, can't bring myself to use them. Hmmm, that's another story in itself. 

I had bought this bottle of passata sauce from the little shop selling all stuff organic (Now, that makes me think that everything there is healthy and natural!, Weird how the mind operates).  I thought of making a simple spaghetti pasta with tomato sauce and ground black pepper and not fuss about with any other ingredient. This passata sauce was made of sun-dried tomatoes (one of the bestest things that I have found in the western world).

I bought this for a crazy day when work was too much, eating out was not an option. A day like that did happen, but the craving  was for Indian, ghar ka khana (home made) which made me do this version of saaru. 

I just kept a pan and put all the ingredients in the pan, brought it to a boil, added the tadka (seasoning) and served it hot with rice.  So, I ended up making an otherwise authentic south indian staple meal by using pasta sauce! 

Ingredients

Passata - 1/2 the bottle ( The cheat factor) 

Saarina Pudi - 2 tbsp

Sugar - 1 tsp

Ground black pepper - 1 tsp

Water - to thin it. 

Salt to taste

For the tadka:

Sunflower Oil - 1 tbsp

Cumin - a pinch

Mustard - a pinch

asafoetida (another key ingredient)

curry leaves 

coriander (nothing happens in my kitchen without this)

It was the easiest tomato saaru ever and tasted heavenly with the sun-dried tomatoes giving a huge earthy flavour with both sweet and tang bursting in the mouth. 

Cheat's Cookery - Pita Bread with Sides

I do enjoy different cuisines and though many of them seem bland when compared to the masalas which make a big part of the spicy Indian food, I enjoy trying and tasting food from different places. However, when I give it a go in my workshop, it does have an Indianized feel to it.

Moroccon/Mediterranean food is something which caught onto me, mainly for the reason of trying something different and secondly that it is definitely healthy. I tried the same at home and the result is what you see here - try it when you can on a day when you are not in mood to eat too much or when you don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen

Ingredients:
Pita Bread/ Flat bread
Oil
Hummus - Plain would do, I used Caramelised Onion Hummus
Peppers - red and green
Onions
Sweet Corn
Green Chillies
Ginger
Crushed Red Chillies
Parsley - dried too can do
Butter/ Margerine
Extra Virgin olive oil
Coriander - Of course - nothing is complete without this!

Steps to prepare:

Step 1 - Side dish
- slice onions and peppers length wise
- Steam/ microwave the sweet corn
- Chop green chillies and ginger
- In a pan, add some oil, add the ginger and green chillies, then add onions and brown it.
- Add the peppers and sweet corn and saute it for a while until cooked
- Sprinkle some crushed red chillies and saute it for a couple of minutes
- Garnish with freshly chopped coriander


Step 2- Hummus
- Add the Hummus on a plate
- Add a splash of olive oil on it
- Sprinkle some Parsley and Crushed Red chillies

Step 3 - Pita bread
- Smear butter/margerine on the pita bread and toast it on a flat pan until warm/cooked

Serve the side dish along side the hummus and the hot pita bread.

Cheat's Cookery - Pizza

While I was chatting with my friend this afternoon, we happened to talk about Pizzas. This pal loved Pizza Hut
Pizzas...the Pan Crust….big fat cheesy pizzas as I was terming it...Well! Who doesn't like pizzas????

There was a day when I attempted my Cheat's pizza @ home and I thought today as it was nostalgic talking about Pizzas and the times spent together with my buddy @ Pizza hut made the right day to pen this up..

Well, I have been thinking of writing a food blog about all my trials (and errors ;-) at cooking, however, I don't seem to have the patience to do it!

Well... today it happened!...
My idea of cooking....keep it simple.... nothing over an hour....tasty, spicy, colourful and easy....
I don't make all the base ingredients at home...so I have labelled it my Cheat cookery!

Ingredients:
Wheat Tortillas/Chapathis.. left overs would do :)
Tomato chutney/salsa (prepared)/ tomato sauce+ chilli sauce
Mozzarella Cheese - Grated
Kidney Beans - soft & boiled - 1 cup
Coriander - I love it! Loads of it... well... Indian cooking is not complete without this..
Butter - for spreading.


Steps:
- Apply butter on the tortilla/chapathi
- Spread the salsa evenly on the chapathi
- sprinkle the Rajma on it.
- Add the grated mozzarella

Turn on the Oven (Gas Mark 5/6, Electric 200/250deg), Place the created Pizza on the middle shelf and wait for the cheese to melt.

Garnish with Coriander and serve hot!!!

Hurray!...I managed to write this up!!!! Phew! I wonder how the cook books do this!!!! I know it's not quite a pizza...well..it's mine...so I can call it that :) and look I even have a pic of this...