Mutton Cutlets- served with stir fried snow-peas and a shot of tambuli!

Before you get intimated by the name of this dish, relax! This dish is no rocket science, just my way of presenting a couple of simple dishes together as a gourmet platter and getting a little bit of style and variety onto your plates.

The day I put this dish together, my mom had prepared delicious 'tambuli' using 'sambrani leaves', plucked fresh from our tiny garden in the balcony. 'Tambuli' is basically like cocum or sol kadi and it is quite popular in Mangalore, Karnataka (that is where I come from).

Traditionally, 'tambuli' is supposed to be eaten with hot, steaming rice. But I like it more as a drink- it is refreshing, healthy and activates my taste buds. Now, coming back to the inception of this dish- mom had prepared tambuli and I do not prefer eating it with rice. Moreover, I was in mood for some light, yummy gourmet style food- the result of which, is this dish.

 

 

I served the tambuli in a shot glass, just to make it look elegant on the platter. It complimented my juicy mutton cutlets very well and some snow-peas on the side- adding greenery to the plate and healthy too!

 

Let us get to the recipe of each component now.

 

Serves: This platter is one portion. If you wish to serve it like I have, make the number of platters according to your guests. Individually served, this recipe serves 2-3 persons.

 

Ingredients for mutton cutlets:

 

Mutton mince                          1 cup

Onion (medium size)              1 nos.

Potato (medium size)              1 nos.

Bread slices (crust removed)  1-2 slices

Green chilli                             1-2 nos.

Ginger                                     1 inch piece

Garlic (big cloves)                  4-5 cloves

Coriander Leaves                    half a bunch

Salt                                          to taste

Crushed black pepper             1 tsp

Red chilli powder                   1/2 tsp

Cumin (jeera) powder            1/4 tsp

Oil                                          4 tbsps + for shallow frying

 

 

 

Method:

• Boil, peel and mash the potatoes. Keep aside in a mixing bowl.

• Finely chop the onions.

• Using a small grater/food processor, mince the ginger, garlic and green chillies to a fine paste.

• Heat 4 tbsps of oil in a pan or skillet and sauté the chopped onions until they turn pink (translucent/transparent).  

• Add the minced ginger-garlic-green chilli paste and fry for a minute.

• Add the (washed) mutton mince and stir on medium heat.

• The mince will start releasing its own water and juices. Add a bit of salt and keep stirring.

 

• In the meanwhile when the mutton mince is cooking and the water is drying up, take the mashed potatoes in the mixing bowl and add cruched black pepper and a pinch of salt to it.

• Next, take the bread slices (sides removed) and moisten it with little water. Squeeze all the water off by pressing the bread slices in between your palms and add this to the potato. The bread slices will help in binding the cutlets.

• Now, to the cooking mutton mince, add the red chilli and cumin powder and mix well. Make sure that the liquid is completely dried up before turning off the gas.

• Allow the cooked mince mixture to cool a bit. Add this mince to the potato and bread mixture.

• Add finely chopped coriander leaves.

Note- At this stage you can add one egg white to the mixture which will aid in binding. But I made these cutlets without the egg and it turned out perfect. Though I do make another version of cutlets with egg white in it also. But make sure you use only the egg white and not the yolk because that will make the oil in which you fry the cutlets foamy and will also give an eggy odour.

 

• Mix all this with a fork. Once the mixture has cooled, use your clean hands to mix it well and bring it all together.

 

• The mixture will come together like a ball.

• Now take a bit of mixture and shape it into round cutlets. You can even make it a bit oblong shaped or oval shaped.

• Form all the cutlets. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate it for atleast half an hour before frying. This will make the cutlets firm and easier to fry.

• Heat a little oil in a pan, enough for shallow fryng. Place the culets slowly into the oil in a single layer. Make sure you do not over-crowd the pan and fry the cutlets in batches.

• Once it has fried on one side, gently flip it over and fry for 2-3 minutes on the other side.

• Drain it on kitchen tissue.

 

For the tambuli you need:

 

Whole cumin seeds             3/4th tsp

Green chilli                         1 nos.

Sambrani leaves                  10-12 leaves

Grated fresh coconut           1/2 cup

Curd (thick)                         1/2 cup

Salt                                      to taste

 

For tempering the tambuli (tadka):

 

Oil                                       2-3 tbsps

Whole dry red chilli            1 nos.

Urad dal                               1/4 tsp

Mustard seeds                      1/4 tsp

Curry leaves                        7-8 leaves

• Dry roast (without oil) whole cumin seeds, green chilli. Add the sambrani leaves. When it starts leaving water, add grated coconut and roast everything together.

• Transfer this to a blender. Add curd and salt to taste and gring everything well to a smooth paste.

• Prepare the tadka by heating oil in a pan, crackle the mustard seeds. Add urad dal and dry red chilli and at the end add the curry leaves.

• Pour this tadka over the prepared tambuli.

• Serve hot, at room temperature or cold.

Alternatively, you can substitute the sambrani leaves with curry leaves. Just follow the same procedure as above, but use 1/2 cup of curry leaves instead of sambrani leaves while roasting.

 

For the stir fry snow-peas:

• Boil water in a vessel. Put some salt into the boiling water. Add the snow-peas and boil for only 1-2 minutes until tender.Drain the water and immediately immerse the snow-peas in cold water to retain the color. This technique is also called 'blanching.'

• In a pan, put only 2 drops of oil and once the pan is hot, take out the snow-peas from the water and toss it in the hot pan. Sprinkle a little salt and black pepper powder and toss it for another 2 minutes.

 

Tweaking Tips:

• You do not have to serve this platter as it is. Try out the individual recipes. The tambuli can be had with rice; the mutton cutlets as a starter or side dish and the stir fry vegetable as a bowl of greens by the side to add balance and flavour to your meal.

• If you do not have snow-peas or it isn't available, try the same stir fry using fresh brocolli, spinach, green beans or any vegetable of your choice that is full of flavour even if eaten on its own. Follow the procedure as above for any vegetable you choose.

• The tambuli can be substituted by serving a shot of rasam, cocum kadi or even a simple mint lassi by the side.

• Mutton mince can be substituted with chicken mince or even tinned tuna. For a vegetarian version, use some mashed paneer.

• If the mixture feels a little loose or wet, just break in one egg white (use only the white for binding as using the whole egg will make the cutlets eggy and will also make the oil in which you are frying foamy). If you do not want to add egg, use few tbsps of plain flour (maida).

 

 

Happy cookin' & keep it stylish!!