Heart Healthy Salmon Cutlets

Cutlets are always a favorite when it comes to any Indian. Cutlets whether vegetable, fish, meat or chicken, it speaks for itself and i am sure there wud be no Indian kitchen in this world were this snack wud not have been made at least once. Among my friends group, this is once snack that will always be made no matter what the function is , for its holds a special place WELL in our tummies.

But these days, due to stress, busy life styles and junk foods , esp. for we NRI's , poor health is an upcoming issue in the toplist of problems that we face. As Asians, we are more prone to heart disease due to high cholesterol and BP. And as i love to cook our fried Indian snacks and dishes,good health for me and my family has always been my priority.So cooking food without compromising taste and health is the style i have always been working on.Though its not always easy, its just a matter of will and will power to go for it.

Hence, i love to make heart healthy cutlets without frying or using eggs the healthiest way and yet one does not have to compromise on the taste too. Ok even if u feel its impossible to eat cutlets without frying i wud recommend that they use bread crumbs from whole wheat bread or whole grain(which is the best). Try using egg substitutes(such as egg whites) instead of real eggs which are cholesterol free.Also use only olive oil or canola oil for frying, they may be expensive, but not more than our own lives.Also use IDAHO potatoes which are low in calories.(easily available in any US supermarkets).

Heart Healthy Salmon Cutlets without compromising the Taste.Here's how i make it.The following quantity can be served for 3 to 4 people.

Ingredients
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1. Salmon - 2 big slices(without skin or bones)
2. Potatoes - 4(average size)
3. Sliced Onion - 1
   
4. Chopped Tomato - 1/2
   
5. Crushed garlic - 2 pods
6. Tomato Paste - 1 tsp
   
7. Mixed veg. - 1/2 cup.(peas and carrots)
8. salt - to taste
9. chilli powder - 1/2 tsp.

Preparation Method
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Boil the potatoes and the mixed veggies(i used frozen but still boiled it again to smoothen the veggies),mash them nicely without any hard pieces. Cook salmon slices by adding little water and salt to taste. Once the salmon is boiled, and then cooled, mash the salmon and mix with the mashed potatoes. Keep aside.

Now heat oil in a skillet and splutter some mustard seeds, add ingredients 3, 4 ,5, 6 then stir and cook in low flame till its a thick paste. Then add salt and chili powder.Now mix the salmon and potatos and veg mix to the paste and blend in well stirring all the time. Simmer in low flame for 2 or 3 mins. Remove and keep aside for cooling.


Broiling the Cutlets
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Turn on the broiler by turning the oven's themostat to Broil option. Once the mix is cool, use both your palm to make the desired shape of the mix and lay flat on the broiler tray. Make sure u spray a bit of cooking spray to the tray. Keep the tray in the broiler part( the lowest part in the oven). Broil on both sides of the cutlets for abt 3 to 4 mins on each side. Remember, broiling is done very fast due to direct fire to the already cooked mix. So keep checking for over-broiling and use gloves when handling any thing with broiling or baking always.

I did not use eggs or bread crumbs yet the cutlet tastes very much nice and crunchy and soft, i can assure u that.

Priti, NJ

Fiesty Fast Tomato Rice

Quick Tomato Rice made to Taste
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Rice varieties are one of the fastest and easiest way of making everyone at the table happy. It is easy to make , quick and everyone from leaner to expert can always try this without worrying about time or whats in the Refrigerator. Today i made this special variety of tomato rice for lunch.It takes hardly 10 mins to prepare and can be made with the basic ingredients and yet very mouth watering and yummy.So here goes the Recipe.....

Ingredients
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1. Cooked Rice( Basmati or any long grain rice) - 1 cup
2. Sliced Tomatoes - 2
3. Garlic pods - 3 or 4
4. Sliced Onion - 1
5. Tomato Paste - 2 Tsp
6. Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
7. Chili Powder - 1/2 Tsp
8. Garam Masala - 3/4 tsp
9. Curry Leaf
10. Mustard Seeds
    
11. Coriander Leaf
12. Spring Onions - 1 bunch(optional)

Preparation Method:
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Heat Oil (a few tbsp) in a pan and splutter mustard seeds when hot. Add the sliced onions and cook in low flame until the onions are golden brown. Then add the sliced tomatoes and curry leaf and the crushed garlic. Once the tomatoes are well blended with the onions,add the corriander leaf and spring onions, also add the tomato paste and stir again to blend in the paste well. Remember, adding fresh tomatoes and tomato paste are totally different. Tomato paste gives color and a special sweetish sour taste.

Now add all the masalas and stir for a min or 2. Then add in half glass of water , and wait to boil. Then add the cooked rice to the hot tomato masala mix, and stir well. Close the lid of the pan and simmer in low flame for 3 to4 mins, then keep aside for cooling.


Its quick and Yummy....A pinch of sour lime pickle as a side adds a wonderful flavour to this forever favorite dish.

Traditional Pesaha Appam and Pesaha Pal Kurukku

According to our( malankara orthodox) belief, we make pesaha appam (holy body ) and pal(holy blood) celebrating the passover day during the holy week . The shown type of pesaha appam is mostly made in vadakan part of Kerala,India.

Making this pesaha appam and pal is now becoming a scarcity esp among the youngster couples due to its assumed complexity of the making process. But i would like everyone to know that its only a matter of little will power and a few hours of our time we can make this sacred pesaha appam at the leisure of our own home without the help of our grand mothers or mothers for that fact. This way we can yet sacredly celebrate monty thursday without compromising our traditional culture esp. for all of us living abroad and alone without much family members.

The quantity given is for a family of 2 to 6 (give or take).I love to make for couple of my friends esp. since they are our family here in the US.



Here is how i made it:

Pesaha Appam
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Ingredients
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1. Uzhunnu(Urad Dal) - 1 cup
2. Raw Rice- 2 cups (rice flour can also be used instead with same quantity of 2 cups)
   
3. grated coconut - 1 packet or 1 whole coconut(i used one whole packet of daily delight brand of coconut)
4. Garlic Pods - 8
5. Jeerakam - 1/2 Tbsp
   
6. Salt - to taste

Preparation for Pesaha Appam
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Fry urad dal until the sweet flavor of dal comes out and the urad dal changes in color.Do not over fry. After frying, soak the urad dal for overnight. Then remove the dal from the water and spread the dal in any newspaper for drying from the water.I dried using the fan in my room for almost half hour. Also soak the rice for overnight . Dry the rice the same way as with the Dal. Do not fry the rice.

Once the dal is dried , DRY grind the dal separate in the grinder. Donot add water. Grind the dal to a medium consistency.There is not need for the dal to be of fine powder just that dal shud be broken into pieces, the dal shud feel like how we make for wet puttu podi(not very fine ).

Then DRY grind the rice, the same above way. Donot add water. If you are using rice flour then the same can be used as such for mixing.

Then grind the coconut, garlic and jeerakam together adding water little by little. Do not add too much water. The coconut just needs to be smoothened and garlic and jeerakam crushed well.I grind the coconut for about 3to 4 mins on normal speed.

Mix with hand the powdered urad dal, rice or rice flour and coconut mix and keep aside.the final batter shud be of thick and not smooth consistency.But the more coconut u add the tastier the appam will be.

Making Process:
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Cooking the mix is exactly like making idli, instead of idli thattu we use the aluminum thattu .In the aluminum pan (aluminum thattu that comes with pressure cooker) using hand or a tablespoon to flatten the mix in the pan to the desired thickness.About half of the thickness of the pan wud be perfect. Put enough water in the cooker as we wud do for making idli . Then put the pan for cooking in medium flame for about 15 to 20 mins. Do not put pressure on the cooker.

Repeat the process until all the mix is over. To remove appam from pan, wait until the appam is completely cooled from cooking.



Pesaha Pal Kurukku
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Ingredients
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1. Jaggery - 500 gm
2. Water - 1/2 glass
   
3. Coconut milk - 500 ml
4. Rice Flour - 5 Tbsp
   
5. Cardamom Powder - 1/2 tsp.

Preparation of Pesaha Pal Kurukku:
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Make a caramel by boiling the jaggery in 1/2 glass of water and keep aside to cool. For coconut milk i used the ready made coconut milk, coconut milk powder can also be used to make 500ml of thick milk.

Mix the rice flour in required amount of water just enough to dissolve the rice flour very smooth. this is done to avoid formation of flour balls.Do not add too much water.

Now in a sauce pan , mix the jaggery caramel, coconut milk and rice flour mix. Now slowly heat the saucepan in medium flame and keep stirring until the the whole mix thickens up to a payasam or porridge consistency. The sweetness can be adjusted by adding little more rice flour.Add little water to reduce the thickness in case the mix is heated up too fast.

Remove from flame and add the cardamom powder and keep aside for cooling.

Hope everyone who try this recipe find it in its authenticity.