Baby Corn Chops, a Vegetarian Snack

Vegetarian snack from ashuskitchen

Each person have their varied moods and fancies, all different from one another. Many a times the urge to try out something different from the regular makes some moments of a foodie’s life memorable. But, sometimes I do get to see the day when a new recipe try results in only me ending up eating what I cooked, well  I do believe in respecting other’s taste. But mommy chefs have the added advantage of bullying, kids have to finish what is served in the plate, also the family is aware that most often the new try outs do taste good. For me the meals served to the family need to be nourishing, appetizing as well as relishing, hence the bullying is allowed once in a while while experimenting!

Well, if one does not try out new things then the monotony would make life quite boring. It applies to home meals too.

The last couple days saw hectic activity in the house. Members of my family were dashing in and out of this place, and me chauffeuring them  to the airport. When the boys were away, the mother daughter team did get to spend some ‘gal-time’ together. If you have a daughter, then you would know what I am talking, how the shopping trips are always good-times especially when the boys are not around. We had our overeating time too, at the neighborhood Pizza Hut, my Instagram post will tell you which pizza we ate that day.

As I already mentioned that I like trying out new recipes, I had made something similar to this recipe couple years back and never made it again. My Jr. had liked that, and every time I bought baby corns the thought crossed my mind to make that recipe again, but it never was done. One of my reasons of writing this blog was also to document the many recipes that I make and later forget, but now they remain handy as a menu-card to go back to again and again. The day I made this version of the chops, I used only the ingredients that were handy in the refrigerator. I have posted Mutton Chops, a non-vegetarian recipe and always wanted to make a post using vegetables and call them vegetarian chops, and finally here I am posting it today. It was one of the days when the daughter wanted to eat something simple like only Rice & Dal with ghee for dinner. I surprised the kids by making these veg chops, which were liked by both, and the simple dinner turned out to be simple yet a little fancy! Small surprises add liveliness and increase the happiness quotient, true for mealtimes too! Try it out with your family.

INGREDIENTS:

Baby Corn: 1 Packet

Boiled Potatoes: 2 (Medium-sized)

Green Peas: 1 Bowl

Carrot: 1 (Medium size, Grated)

Ginger/Garlic Paste: 2 Tsp

Cumin Powder: 1 Tsp

Green Chili: 2 (finely chopped or paste) OR Red Chilli powder -1 Tsp.

Green Coriander: 1 Tbsp (finely chopped)

Cornflour: 100 gm

Breadcrumbs: 100 gm

Salt: As needed

Oil: For frying

NOTE: (Cornflour is used for binding as well as coating. Breadcrumbs are required for coating. Breadcrumbs and cornflour quantity use as required, little amount might remain OR may be required more than stated)

METHOD:

Assemble and prepare all the required ingredients.

Mash the boiled potatoes, green peas, and add the grated carrot, ginger-garlic paste, green chilies, chopped coriander, cumin powder and salt. Add 2 or 2 1/2 tbsp cornflour and mix all the ingredients together. The mixture should be firm to hold.

Mashed Vegetable mixed with cornflour.

Roll the baby corns in cornflour that is seasoned with salt and chili powder, and keep them in a plate.

Mix little water in this remaining cornflour and make a medium thick batter.

Cornflour batter

Make lemon-sized balls of the vegetable mixture, flatten it and place the flour dusted baby corn in the center and fold it, press tightly. Only half portion of the corn should be covered with vegetable coating.

Dip this vegetable and baby corn chop into the cornflour batter, then coat with breadcrumbs and pat tightly with both hands so that the extra crumbs are removed. Make all the chops and keep it in a plate ready to fry.

Baby corn chop

Baby corn chop

Heat oil in a Karahi, and deep fry the chops until crisp and golden brown from outside.

Deep Fry

Deep Fried Baby Corn chops.

Baby Corn Chops from ashuskitchen.

Serve hot with tomato ketch-up or a green chutney or chilli sauce.

These chops can be enjoyed as a finger food for parties, snack, or a weekend special breakfast item. Do try them in your kitchen and leave your thoughts about the recipe.

Have a great weekend.

ashu

Herbs,Cottage Cheese & Sprouts Croquettes

When the weather turns a bit cold, one looks forward to making hot, deep fried foods. When the day dawned, I had not planned or even thought about trying out anything new in the kitchen, this recipe just happened. I would also not say that it is cold out here now as compared to the rest of the world. This morning while sipping the hot tea in front of the TV screen and flipping the channels on the TV remote, I came across the word croquette in one of the travel shows. It was definitely a mouth watering moment and the thought to make it in my kitchen got rooted in the mind. It is always fun to try out making something different from whatever ingredients I can use that are available in the fridge or at home when such instances occur. I had some of these left-over ingredients in the fridge and the Herbs, Cottage Cheese (fresh Paneer) and Sprouted Legume Croquette recipe got shaped and taste was good.As I was happy with the taste and it was also approved by my foodie Jr. so here I am sharing it with you all. The herbs used are parsley and coriander (coriander and mint combination would also go well). The breadcrumbs used were extremely fine. I usually dry the leftover bread and use this for making breadcrumbs for coating. I used the mixer pot and ground it fine so the outer coating of the croquette was smooth. The corn flour was used for dusting and dipping the croquette and then breadcrumbs for coating. The outer coat was crisp with a soft inner side. The herbs gave it a lovely green colour, appealing to the eye when it was cut in half.

Do leave your thoughts if you find it tempting enough to try out and enjoy making it in your kitchen as much as I did in my kitchen.

Herbs,Cottage Cheese and Sprouts Croquette:

Ingredients:

Cottage Cheese (Paneer)-100 gm

Legume Sprouts (Green Gram)-100 gm

Boiled Potato: 1

Herbs: Parsley and Coriander -50 gm (or 2 Tbsp each, finely chopped)

Green Chillies: 2 long (as per taste)

Corn Flour: 2-3 Tbsp

Bread Crumbs: 150-200 gm( left over can be stored for later use)

Cumin: 1Tsp (Dry Roasted)

Flax seeds: 1Tsp (Dry Roasted)

Salt: To taste

Oil: For frying

Method: Do assemble all the ingredients before starting the recipe, this saves time in the preparation. Combine the herbs, cumin, flax seeds, chillies, sprouts in a mixer pot and grind to get a coarse mix. The ingredients should be dry as the grinding results in obtaining a slightly wet mix if wet herbs or sprouts are used. Remove this mixture in a bowl and crumble the Paneer cubes ( or if using a paneer block then grate it) in this mix. Mash the boiled potato and add to the mix, add 2 tbsp of cornflour. Add the salt as per ones taste. Mix all the ingredients and if the mixture is still a bit moist then add breadcrumbs as needed. If all ingredients used are dry then the mixture might not require breadcrumbs, hence use your discretion for adding the breadcrumbs. I have added breadcrumbs to the mixture.

The mixture should be firm and hold together. Make small even-sized balls of the mixture and give them croquette shape, and keep them in a plate.

Take some cornflour in a plate and coat each croquette with the flour.

In a bowl mix 1 Tbsp corn flour with water to make a paste and then dip each flour coated croquette into the paste and remove immediately, then coat them with the fine breadcrumbs. Dust away the extra coating of the crumbs.

Heat cooking oil in a Kadai on high flame. Once the oil is hot, then deep fry the croquettes on high-to-medium flame until they get cooked inside and we get the desired golden brown colour on the outside coat. Remove them from the pan and drain on a kitchen tissue roll so that the excess oil gets absorbed.

Serving Options: They can be served with a sweet, tangy tomato ketchup or chilli sauce, or a chilli mayonnaise too. The dip to serve are many, choice is yours!

Nutritional Information : When making a dish or recipe I try to incorporate all the three components of food, i.e. proteins, carbohydrates, and fat in it.  In this dish too the Paneer and Legume Sprouts provide the protein part, the potato and cornflour the carbohydrates part, the flax seeds (click-flax seeds) the essential fatty acids. If one wishes to reduce the fat content then instead of deep frying , pan frying with less or 1-2 tsp oil can be done. The cumin, flax seeds, chilli and herbs add the required flavours, tastes, and not to forget-the fibre!

Home cooking ensures best quality ingredient use and one has the free hand to alter the recipe by adding ingredients of choice. Hence friends, a healthy eating approach starts right at home in your kitchen, give some time and make your daily cooking an intelligent choice and an enjoyable experience. Happy Cooking.

Enjoy!

Marrow With Chicken Stuffing

The marrow squash, a vegetable that has a mild taste and is closely related to Zucchini. I had never eaten this vegetable in my home country, though we do have other vegetables that resemble it and do have somewhat of a similar taste.

Here it is seen in abundance in the supermarkets, with lot of people buying it. Finally, I thought it was about time for me to find out the taste of this marrow vegetable, and I tried cooking it the usual way that I cook other vegetables on a daily basis. None of us liked the bland taste and hence I discontinued buying. But as I like Zucchini, I gave this vegetable another try, but this time tried a different cooking method. I had some leftover tandoori chicken from the previous day that I thought of using for stuffing the marrow and this is the new recipe that I came up with.

For making this recipe select small marrows so the taste would not be too watery, bland. The spices/masala coating of the marrow adds the tandoori taste to the vegetable and the grilled chicken with cover of breadcrumbs and cheese adds the texture and flavour to make the bland vegetable a good grilled dish. If you are interested to try out something different from regular cooking, then maybe you could try out this dish.

This can be a good choice of vegetable for people on diet. To reduce the calories from the dish the butter and cheese should be omitted or reduced, but I liked adding these ingredients.

Marrow With Chicken Stuffing:

Ingredients: Marrow-4 no. (small)

Breadcrumbs-½ bowl

Butter-1 tbsp

Marrow Filling: Grilled/Tandoori chicken- 4 Medium pieces

Tomato-1 small, finely chopped

Onion- 1 small, finely chopped

Salt & Pepper for Seasoning.

Masala/Spices: Chat masala-1 tsp

Turmeric- ¼ tsp

Red Chilli powder-1 to 1½ tsp (as per requirement)

Garam masala- ¼ tsp

Dry Coriander powder- 1 tsp

Yogurt-2 tsp.

Salt to taste.

METHOD:

Wash and dry the marrow, and cut them into halves. Remove the flesh from inside to make a cavity for the stuffing.

Mix all the spices, salt, and yogurt together and apply this mixture on the insides of the marrow, and keep aside.

Shred the grilled chicken pieces and mix the finely chopped onions and tomatoes to it. Season it with salt and pepper.

Use the chicken mixture as stuffing inside the marrow. Press the stuffing firmly.

Mix the butter into the breadcrumbs to make a moist mix. Cover the stuffed marrow with this breadcrumb mix, pressing firmly so that the coating stays firm in position. Place them in a tray or on rack and bake them in a preheated oven at 180°C for 30 min or until the marrow is cooked.

Remove the tray from oven and top the breadcrumb mix with grated cheese, I used mozzarella cheese. Return the marrow into the oven and bake just enough to melt the cheese.

Bake the marrow a little more if you like them very soft.

Happy Baking. Friends do let me know what your thoughts are about this dish.

Enjoy!

 

 

Mutton Chops

Mutton chops coated with herbs and boiled mashed potato, a dish that was first tasted during childhood. I relished only the outer potato coating then, and this hasn’t changed even today. My elder brother had first bought these home from an eatery that was famous for its mutton chops in our hometown. Today, I make them in my kitchen, according to my taste, and the family loves this preparation. It is an easy dish, but needs slow cooking and hence lots of patience before one can finally put them in the mouth and relish. Slow cooking ensures the meat is cooked completely. The potato coating holds all the juices coming out of the marinated chops when they are being cooked.

Mutton Chops: (Recipe for 4 chops)

Ingredients: Mutton chops- 4 (cleaned, washed, and dried on paper tissue to remove water)

Green chillies-2 nos.

Garlic- 4 cloves

Cumin seeds- 2 Tsp

Herbs-Coriander and Mint

Red chilli powder/salt/turmeric- As per taste.

Potato- 2 Big size (Boiled and mashed)

Breadcrumbs- 1Bowl (approximately 2-3 large dried bread slices)

Oil- 2 Tbsp

Method:

1. Boil the potatoes and mash them.
2. Grind the chilli, garlic, herbs, and cumin to fine paste.
3. Apply the ground green masala and seasonings to the chops and let them stand for 30 min for marinating.
4. Mix some of the ground green paste with the mashed potatoes and season it with salt.
5. Take some of the mashed potato and coat the marinated chop so that it is completely covered with potato.
6. Coat the potato coated chops with breadcrumbs. Firmly press with hands so that the potato and breadcrumbs tightly hold the marinated chop. If this coating is loose then it might break in the pan.
7. Heat pan with oil and cook the coated mutton chops.
8. Cooking should be done on a slow gas flame, turning the chops on all sides so that even cooking is possible.

The pictures below will illustrate how to make the chops. Go ahead, try making them and do share your experience with me.

Enjoy!!