Rajma Patties Recipe

     Potato..Breadcrumbs..Rajma..Spices..Yummmmmm !!!! Anything with potato would be yumm, no doubt about that. Had some leftover rajma masala from previous day's dinner. Or rather I should admit that I had wantedly taken a ladle of rajma and reserved it as a leftover :P just to try these rajma patties or rajma cutlets or tikkis or whatever. I was imagining that it would be so delicious.. How can it not be - when you put in two delicious ingredients for a recipe, the outcome is definitely a doubly delicious treat :)
     It was a nice weekend evening and I was keen to try something new to munch on. Luckily, I had the enthusiasm bubbling inside me :P thanks to the breadcrumbs which I had made at home few days back. I was determined that it shouldn't sit anymore in the fridge and so wanted to try this dish to use it up :P  Came out crisp on the outside and soft in the inside. Turned out to be a delectable treat for a quick evening snack..
     We gobbled some with sauce and had the remaining patties sandwiched between breads and finished our dinner. Try these easy to make patties and treat your taste buds !!

Prep Time: 10 mins || Cook Time: 20 mins || Serves: 8 tikkis || Category: Starters/Cutlets/Patties

Ingredients:
1. Rajma masala - leftover (I had some 5-6 tablespoons)
2. Potato - 1 (boiled and mashed)
3. Coriander leaves - finely chopped
4. Green chili - 1 
5. Cumin powder - 2 tsp
6. Amchur powder - 1 tsp
7. Hing - 1 tsp
8. Salt - as required
9. Bread crumbs - 100 gm
10. Oil - for shallow frying

Method:
1. Mash the leftover rajma, potato and mix them together in a bowl along with coriander leaves, salt, cumin powder, hing, amchur powder, green chili.  Sprinkle some breadcrumbs and mix well into a single mass.

2. Divide the mixed rajma potato masala into small portions and flatten them as tikkis. Dust them in breadcrumbs and roll the edges of the tikkis in breadcrumbs to give a complete coating. 

3. Heat 2-3 tbsp of oil in a pan and gently place the tikkis on it. Cook in medium flame for 3-4 mins and turn each tikki to the other side carefully without disturbing the other tikkis. Cook till the sides have turned golden brown. 

Suggestions:

• Instead of leftover rajma masala, you can dedicatedly soak rajma overnight and pressure cook for 5-6 whistles and then mash it and use in the recipe.
• As I used rajma masala, it provided some flavors to the tikki as it already had all the spices and tomato in it.
• If soaking and cooking rajma for this recipe, add in more spices otherwise the patties will taste bland.
• Need not overcook the patties. As the potato and rajma are pre-cooked, it is enough to stop shallow frying with just the sides browned and crisp.
• When combining the ingredients for the patties, if the mixture is loose or a little sticky, adding a good amount of breadcrumbs makes the mixture combine well into a mass.
• These patties can be used as a stuffing for bread sandwich.

Birds Nest (with potato & vermicelli)

     I came across these lovely little potato vermicelli birds nests in a potluck conducted at office some 3 years ago. One of my teammates had done this along with many other dishes. I couldn't get a bite of it as there were many hands fighting for the few nests :D From that day, I wanted to try this mentally bookmared eye-catcher dish...
     This would surely serve as a very good irresistible starter for the guests in any party. The visual appeal of this dish would be a great hit among kids and keep everyone hooked to it...

Prep Time: 20 mins for Boiling potato + 15 mins || Cook Time: 10 mins || Yields: 6 || Category: Starters/Kids Recipes/Finger Food

Ingredients:
1. Potatoes - 1  (Boiled)
2. Green Peas - 1/4 cup (steamed)
3. Chat masala - 2 tsp
4. Garam masala - 1 tsp
5. Red chilly powder - 2 tsp 
6. Coriander powder - 2 tsp
7. Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
8. Asafoetida (hing) - 2 tsp
9. Amchur powder - 2 tsp (optional)
10. Salt - as required
For Coating:
11. All purpose flour (Maida) - 1/2 cup
12. Corn flour - 1 tbsp
13. Rava (Sooji) - 2 tbsp
14. Salt - as required
15. Roasted Vermicelli - 1 cup (Broken to small pieces)
16. Oil - For deep frying

Method:
1. Mash the boiled potatoes completely without any lumps. To this mash, add about 3/4 quantity of the peas (I used steamed frozen peas. Hence soaked in hot water for 2 mins to bring it back to the soft texture). Add the masalas and powders (chat, garam, coriander, red chilly, turmeric, amchur), asafoetida, salt and mix well to form a soft mass.

 2. Make a thick paste with maida, corn flour, salt adding required amount of water. Make small balls out of the potato peas batter. Shape them in the form of nest and give a gentle dent at the center to make small oval cups. 

 3. Dip the potato nests in the maida paste and then in pre-roasted vermicelli. Rest the dipped nests for 2-3 mins in freezer.

 4. Deep fry the potato nests in hot oil until they turn golden brown. In a bowl add the remaining green peas, 1 tsp chat masala, salt and mix well. Fill the potato nests with 4-5 green peas and serve with tomato ketchup.

Suggestions:

• Can add ginger garlic paste if desired.
• The amount of masala powders can be adjusted according to availability and one's requirement.

Serve with Tomato ketchup or Raw mango chutney.

Hara Bhara Tikki / Spinach Aloo Cutlet

     

     This Hara Bhara Tikki / Cutlet was so promisingly tasty to look, in Venkatesh Bhat's show, that as I was watching the program, I knew for sure I would make it one day !! It was so delicious that I could not stop myself from eating more than 1 tikki :P ( Yes.. I munched on 4 at a stretch !!! ) In any form, in general I like the flavour of coriander leaves a lot. This tikki offers flavours more than that. A blend of spinach, peas, coriander leaves and spices..

Felt like having this tikki as a side dish for jeera pulav for lunch. As usual, I could n't make jeera pulav, as I had to take rest after trying out this new dish :D

Now, lets go to the recipe...........

Prep Time: 20 mins || Cook Time: 10 mins || Yields: 10 cutlets || Category: Starter/Snack

Ingredients:

1. Spinach - 1 bunch

2. Potato - 1 

3. Green peas - 50 gms (handful) 

4. Sugar - 2 tsp

5. Ginger - small piece

6. Green chilly - 1 small

7. Coriander leaves - as desired

8. Salt - as required

9. Asafoetida - 2 tsp

10. Amchur Powder (Dry Mango powder) - 3 tsp

11. Chat masala - 2 tsp

12. Besan flour (Gram flour) - 2 tbsp

13. Oil - 3 tbsp

Method:

1. Boil potato with a pinch of turmeric powder added in water; peel its skin and keep aside. Boil green peas in water for about 10 mins or until it is cooked (I used frozen green peas). In a pan add 200 ml of water and bring it to boil. To this add sugar and then add the cleaned and washed spinach leaves and give a stir. Blanch the spinach in the boiling water for about 2 mins.

 2. After 2-3 mins, spinach would have become cooked & reduced in volume. Switch off the flame and filter the spinach from water. Run through cold water to reduce the heat & retain its colour. To the blanched spinach, add boiled peas, ginger, coriander leaves, green chilly and grind to a smooth paste without adding water.

 3. To the spinach paste, add well mashed potato, chat masala, hing, amchur powder (for mild tanginess), salt and mix well. Slightly wet the hands and make balls of desired size, flatten them and place them on a tawa/pan drizzled with oil.

 4. Flip and cook both the sides until slightly brown, adding oil as required. Yummy green cutlets are ready !!! 

Suggestions:

• Adding sugar helps to retain the green colour of spinach. Adding sugar is optional.
• After running the spinach through cold water, it is better to squeeze them to get rid of water. Else the the ground paste will tend to be a little watery. ( I forgot to squeeze the water from spinach. So I had to keep the paste in fridge for a while to make it a tighter mass).
• The tikkis can also be deep fried, if you are not much conscious about the calories.
• If you do not have amchur powder, it can be skipped.

Serve hot with tomato ketchup or any tangy chutney.