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!

Brown Sesame Chicken, a bitter sweet experience.

The fondness for greens once made me incorporate fresh fenugreek leaves into the chicken gravy and the taste lingered on. Since then I started making use of fresh leaves in some of my non vegetarian dishes. This particular recipe is a favourite at home and something that I loved creating the first time round. Whenever a dry chicken dish is desired, this is one of the recipes the kids too love. The fenugreek leaves impart the dish a light bitter taste, and the onions give it the sweet taste, hence a bitter sweet experience.

Brown Sesame Chicken:

Adding sesame to the dish lends it the desired nutty taste, as well as the crunch. It acts as a source of fibre too. Sprinkling dry roasted sesame on the dish, as garnish, gives it a more appealing and desirable look. Food that is appealing to the eye results in tingling the taste buds. Eating home cooked food that is made using the fresh herbs is always a satisfying experience. Go ahead, try making this recipe and find out if it holds true for you too!

Lets get cooking my Brown Sesame Chicken recipe:

Ingredients:                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Chicken- 800 g (washed and coated with little turmeric)                                                                                          

Onion- 2-3 medium sized

Fresh coconut- 1/2 grated (approximately 50 g)

Garlic- 5-6 cloves

Dry Kashmir chilli- 2 (It imparts a nice red colour.)

Red Chilli powder- 1 tbsp.

Garam masala (ground whole spices) – 1 tsp.

Salt- as per taste

Oil- 2 tbsp.

Fresh fenugreek leaves- 1 bowl (50 g)

Sesame – 50 g (Dry roasted)

Fresh green Coriander- finely chopped for garnish

Method:

The onions are chopped roughly and sautéed in pan with 1 tsp. oil till they are almost brownish in colour. The chilli should also be sautéed along with the onions in the pan. The fresh coconut too is cooked in pan till it is almost brownish in colour, taking care not to burn it.

These ingredients- coconut, garlic, red chilli and onion should be ground to a fine paste, little water can be used to get the fine paste.

 Heat oil in pan on medium flame, add half the quantity of roasted sesame seeds, and then the finely ground masala paste. Cook it for 5-7 min on slow flame, add the red chilli powder and salt, and keep for 1 more minute. The oil should leave the ends of the fried masala, then add the cleaned washed chicken to which turmeric was coated. Mix all the ingredients and let the chicken cook on slow flame, no water should be added. When the chicken is almost done, add the finely chopped fresh fenugreek leaves and mix so that it gets nicely coated with the chicken and the masala. The leaves need to cooked only till the raw taste is gone, hence should not be cooked for too long. They should be visible, as well as green in appearance. Put off the gas flame, then sprinkle the garam masala on the cooked chicken and mix.

Garnish it with freshly chopped green coriander leaves and sprinkle the left over dry roasted sesame on top of the cooked chicken.

Enjoy!

ZhatPat rice-My dinner recipe

As the name itself suggests, yes, this is a rice preparation that can be cooked within no time, and without much efforts. After a long day, with the fridge vegetable basket empty, the tummy craving for a yummy meal, but with no inclination for spending much time in the Kitchen, this is the perfect dinner menu for that day. Today I am going to be sharing recipes for the Zhatpat boiled egg rice as well as the Chicken rice that I cook on those days.

Boiled egg rice: 

Ingredients:  Onions, garam masala, salt, and oil of choice for cooking.

Method: Heat a pot on the stove and add oil according to ones cooking requirement, then add sliced onions and fry till they are almost dark brown in color.  For cooking one bowl of rice, I use 1 large onion for frying.  Add the washed rice to the dark browned onion, 1 ½ tbsp of garam masala, salt to taste, and required quantity of water, and cook till rice is half done, then add shelled boiled eggs to the rice and cook till it is completely done.

Cooking the rice along with the browned onions and spices gives the egg rice a good flavour, and the desired brown color. This can be served with a salan or curd raita of choice. Instead of boiled eggs one can try making it using soya chunks.

Zhatpat Chicken Rice:  

Ingredients: Rice, shredded or small chunks of chicken, mint and coriander leaves, garam masala, salt, oil to cook.

Method: Cook the rice with some salt added to it. In a pan heat some oil and add the shredded chicken pieces and sauté adding salt, chilli powder, turmeric powder, and garam masala (ground spices) to it. When the chicken is almost cooked, add chopped mint and coriander leaves.  Add the cooked boiled rice to the chicken and mix it properly so that the herbs and spices are evenly mixed with rice.

The fresh herbs added give a distinct flavor and minty taste, and the green color adds a nice appealing look to the rice. It can be served hot with papad and curd raita of choice.

As you can see, both these preparations do not need longer cooking time or any elaborate preparations, are very simple to cook and yet wholesome, nutritious, and healthy. Try them out and find out for yourself if you like the recipe.

ashu 🙂