Freezer Cutlets, and Goodies from India

A few more weeks have slipped through my fingers- weeks filled with unwanted excitement like tornadoes roaring through our city and colds and coughs making their rounds. But here we are- my sister landed in St. Louis yesterday, I have the day off, the sun is shining and all is well with the world. I hope to capture many of her vacation moments on the blog so I hope you'll see frequent updates on One Hot Stove.

Earlier this year, you all shared so many terrific ideas for freezing Indian dishes. Several people mentioned freezing vegetable cutlets- little patties full of mashed vegetables. Boiled potatoes are a mainstay of these kinds of patties, and potatoes don't have a reputation for freezing well, so I was eager to try this for myself. If it worked, it would be a very good thing to have a freezer stash of patties, because everyone seems to love these little snacks.

I started with making cutlets this past Sunday.

• Into a large bowl went 2 potatoes and 1 large sweet potato (all pressure cooked, peeled and mashed). 
• In a skillet, I heated a little oil and sauteed 1 large onion, 1 large green bell pepper, a couple of small carrots (all cut in small dice) and a large handful of peas. 
• These par-cooked vegetables went into the bowl along with seasoning- salt, turmeric, red chilli powder, coriander and cumin powder, ginger garlic paste. 
• There was a handful of parmesan cheese that needed using up so in it went. 
• I kneaded the mixture together, then formed small patties and rolled them in fine rava (sooji or semolina).

The sweet potatoes add wonderful sweetness and richness to the patties but they do have a very soft texture and make the patties more fragile. Once coated and fried, they held together just fine but you do need to handle them gently.

At this point, I pan-fried the patties until they were barely golden on each side, then transferred them to a baking sheet and stuck the baking sheet in the freezer to get the individual patties to freeze. A few hours later, I lifted the patties off the sheet and put them all in a sealed container (since they are frozen they don't stick to each other to form a giant mass of patties) and back into the freezer.

Cut to Thursday evening when I wanted a fresh hot snack ready for when sis got home from the airport. I pulled the freezer container into the fridge in the morning to start the thawing process. Then all it took was a round of shallow-frying, this time to get the patties really brown and crispy on each side. And they tasted as good as new!

So to conclude, freezing vegetable cutlets works very well indeed. They taste great at room temperature too, making them good candidates for lunch boxes and picnic hampers.

Vacation Moment #1: Squeals of Joy

I feel luckier than the winner of the mega millions- my sister looked at the wish list (thanks for the great ideas, everyone) and brought along all these gifts for my greedy food lovin' self. Here are some pictures for you, with the names of the goodies mostly in the native language (pardon the imperfect spellings).

Specialties from Bangalore: Subamma Stores

This food store is legendary, but my sister was shocked when she visited it. The way she tells it- it is a tiny congested place, their sign-board had fallen down and there was a throng of customers clamoring outside. The store keeper kept shouting, "Swalpa Control, Madam" as a barely effective method of crowd control. My sis bought a bunch of items; the store keeper was so busy that he asked her to add them up herself and give him the money.

These two goodies are to be deep-fried- the first is a crunchy accompaniment to meals and the second makes wonderful curd rice, just in time for summer.

Savory snacks:

Why are these called Congress peanuts? Does anyone know?

Sweets: coconut roti and flaky pastry puffs

With Love from Southern Maharashtra

My mother's often-requested batter fried peanuts:

The town of Sangli is known for its fiery hot bhadang (tempered puffed rice). This is a spice mix that makes it easy for me to replicate the taste in my own kitchen.

Metkoot, a spice, grain and lentil powder to be mixed with ghee rice or yogurt rice. This is comfort food.

Peanut chutney slick and sticky with oil from the peanuts. 

Karnataka Specialties: 

Made with love by my sister's ma-in-law 

I've never even met this lady- but think of how kind and generous she is, sending me her home made spice blends. And in large enough quantities to last me until 2025, what're more.

Chennai (Madras): Grand Sweets

They are not exaggerating even a little when they call this store "Grand Sweets". Everything I have ever tasted from there is as grand as it gets. Oily as these pickles are, they were perfectly packaged and not a drop of oil was visible once they were unpacked.

I've tasted the first and last jars before- the tomato pickle and the vathakozhambu thokku- both to be simply mixed with fresh rice for a divine meal. The middle two are new to me- gongura pickle and curry leaf pickle. I have a feeling I'm going to love them.

So that's a virtual feast for you. If you live in St. Louis, drop by to sample any of these- I am overwhelmed with this bounty and would love to share it with you.

In the next post, I'll tell you about my sister's new creative venture: she designs and sews the cutest bags. Today I am teaching her to knit. Meanwhile, here's to a wonderful weekend!