Memories of Ceylon with Cutlets
Whether you call them croquettes, or by their more popular misnomers – cutlets or chops, these spiced, crumbed deep fried snacks filled with goodness are a welcome remnant of the British Raj in South Asian cuisine. Vegetable cutlets and the ones made with minced meat are well known in many Indian homes, but not so the fish cutlet, which featured quite frequently at our dining table. Every time I make fish cutlets, I’m reminded of the family’s Sri Lankan connections.
Aiyah’s family had businesses in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and so they maintained two homes – one in the heart of Chettinad and the other across the Adam’s Bridge. Most travelling Chettiars of the day had a home in Chettinad, primarily where the Achi (the lady of the house) lived — this was the ancestral home, one that was rooted in tradition and culture. The Chettiar (the man of the house) would make an annual visit, if that, and usually after every visit, a baby followed... The Chettiar’s second home was where their businesses were, to be run by the man of the house along with his majordomo and entourage of staff, a house of entertainment and good times, one that the Achi visited only infrequently, allegedly because of difficulties in travel…
Aiyah may have been born in the ancestral home, or rather in his maternal grandmother’s home, in Chettinad, but his first love was Ceylon. So, even when the family moved back to India for good, he stayed back and held fort as The Corner Flag, the sports reporter for the Times of Ceylon. In his own words, in those days, he was interested in history, but passionate about sport. When he finally moved back to India, a majordomo was appointed for the pampered young lad (at the ripe old age of 40) and presented with a copy of what was then the authority in westernised Sri Lankan cuisine — the Ceylon Daily News Cookery book — so he wouldn’t miss his first love.
Anyway, with that history, meals at the Muthiah household were peppered with dishes from Sri Lankan cuisine, Ayah having been trained by the majordomo and also being handed a copy of the cookbook. Apart from fish cutlets, regulars at the table were string hoppers (idiyappam) with Sri Lankan fish curry or kaju curry (cashewnut curry); hoppers (aapam) with sodhi (the Sri Lankan version of a coconut milk stew) or pol sambol (a dry coconut chutney hand pounded with shallots, dried chillies and usually maldive fish aka dried salted fish or karuvaadu); and Watalappam (Sri Lanka’s answer to the caramel custard, made with coconut milk and kithul jaggery). And then there was Ayah’s famed Sri Lankan fruit cake, a whole other story. Lamprais (the Lankan cousin to the more popular Nasi Lemak) and kalu dodal (a halwa made with kithul jaggery) were other favourites, sadly never at our table (because they were time consuming to make), but to indulge in whenever we had the opportunity to visit Sri Lanka or, suprisingly, in Australia. One of the reasons both Aiyah loved visiting Sydney (and was rather sad when we moved), apart from connecting with old friends who had migrated there, was the abundance of Sri Lankan food. A couple of years ago, Aiyah was rather excited that the Chefs at the then newly reopened Connemara Hotel in Madras had added Sri Lankan food, and lampries on special order, to their coffee shop menu – I think it made his year, particularly because it is a dying recipe even in Ceylon!
I wish I could someday post about lamprais and kalu dodal, but in the meantime, the fish cutlet is my ode to Aiyah’s Ceylon connections — not from the Ceylon Daily news, but a version that has evolved over the years. The apprentice is not a huge fan of fish, however, he reluctantly agreed to test the recipe and while the kitchen master, aka his mother, had to step in to show the butter fingers how to shape the cutlets, his certificate is that “it tasted good for a fish recipe”. Maybe I should’ve cut him some slack and gotten him to test the recipe for vegetable cutlets instead, which we have included here for the sake of our vegetarian readers, and for my son who runs a mile when he smells fish... Read on if you’d like to make fish cutlets or click here to check out the recipe for vegetable cutlets.
Note:
1. This recipe makes about 30 cutlets. You can halve the recipe, or as I usually do, make the lot and freeze what you don’t use. An easy snack for another day.
2. I prefer to use Seer Fish, also known as Spanish Mackerel / King Fish / Vanjaram / Batang. However, you can use any firm fish that flakes well like Tilapia or Salmon. The only fish the apprentice and his family eat is Tilapia, and it worked well. While filets, free of skin and bones are the best for this recipe, you can also use fish with skin and minimal bones and then removed them once cooked. You can also, in a pinch, substitute with canned drained tuna or mackerel.
3. The traditional recipe calls for the cutlets to be coated in egg and then crumbed, however, I have veered from the original recipe and used a plain flour coating mixture instead, a personal preference, but feel free to substitute with an egg coating.
4. This recipe calls for deep frying, but I have also, on health-conscious days, baked the cutlets. Check recipe for variation.
Ingredients:
500 gm fresh fish
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 medium sized potatoes, boiled, peeled and mashed roughly (about 3/4th the amount of the fish)
2 tablespoons cooking oil for sautéing
8-10 curry leaves, minced
5 pods garlic, minced
1 inch ginger, minced
3 fresh green / red chillis, minced
1 medium sized onion, minced
2 teaspoons curry powder (if you don’t have use 1 teaspoon coriander powder and 1 teaspoon chilli powder)
1 teaspoon ground cumin / cumin powder
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
1-2 tablespoons chilli garlic sauce (or any spiced tomato sauce)
Salt to taste (~1 ½ teaspoon)
500 ml cooking oil for frying
For the coating:
5 tablespoons (75 gm) plain flour / maida
About 150 ml water
Salt to taste (~ ¾ teaspoon)
Pepper to taste (~ ¼ teaspoon)
5 tablespoons (75 gm) fine bread crumbs
Method:
1. Cooking the fish:
500 gm fresh fish
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
a) Marinate the fish with the turmeric powder and boil with just enough water to cover the fish. You can reserve the water to make a soup. Alternatively, steam the fish.
b) Once cooked, make sure the skin and bones are removed (if any), flake the fish and set aside.
2. Cooking the potatoes:
2 medium sized potatoes, boiled, peeled and mashed roughly (about 3/4th the amount of the fish)
a) Boil the potatoes, skin on, either in a pressure cooker (5-7 whistles) or in a pot. The potatoes are ready once the skin starts splitting open and a skewer can go straight through.
b) Once boiled, cool the potatoes, peel and mash roughly using your hands and set aside.
3. Preparing the filling:
2 tablespoons cooking oil for sautéing
8-10 curry leaves, minced
5 pods garlic, minced
1 inch ginger, minced
3 fresh green / red chillis, minced
1 medium sized onion, minced
2 teaspoons curry powder (if you don’t have use 1 teaspoon coriander powder and 1 teaspoon chilli powder)
1 teaspoon ground cumin / cumin powder
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
1-2 tablespoons chilli garlic sauce (or any spiced tomato sauce)
Salt to taste (~1 ½ teaspoon)
a) Heat oil in a frying pan. Add the curry leaves, ginger and garlic, fry till slightly brown.
Note: You can substitute the minced ginger and garlic with 1 tablespoon of ginger garlic paste.
b) Next, add the onions and fry till translucent.
c) Add the green / red chillis and fry for a few more seconds.
d) Add the flaked fish and salt. Mix for a couple of minutes.
e) Add the curry powder and the cumin powder and fry till the raw smell goes off.
f) Next add the roughly mashed potatoes and mix.
g) Add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of the chilli garlic sauce. Mix well and taste. Add more lemon juice / sauce / salt if required.
h) Finally add the coriander and mix. Take care not to overmash / overfry the potatoes.
i) Make small lime sized balls with the fish and potato mixture and then flatten them to ½ inch thick cutlet shapes.
4. Coating:
a) Make the coating batter - mix the plain flour with salt, pepper and water (start with about 120 ml and increase if required). Make sure there are no lumps. The consistency of the batter should be thin, but able to stick to the cutlet. Check the seasoning, add more salt and pepper if required.
5 tablespoons (75 gm) plain flour / maida
About 150 ml water
Salt to taste (~ ¾ tsp)
Pepper to taste (~¼ tsp)
Note: Substitute with 2 eggs, beaten up and seasoned with salt and pepper, if you'd prefer the traditional recipe.
b) Set up your coating station - first the cutlets, next the coating batter in a bowl, then the bread crumbs in a bowl or deep plate and finally a plate to arrange the finished cutlets.
5 tablespoons (75 gm) fine bread crumbs
c) Pick up a cutlet with one hand, drop it into the coating batter. Coat thoroughly - if not, then the breadcrumbs will not stick to the cutlet when frying. Watch video for detailed instructions.
d) With the same hand, pick up the coated cutlet and drop it into the breadcrumbs. Use your other hand, which should be completely dry, to coat with the crumbs (if wet, the crumbs will stick to your hand).
e) Reshape at this stage, if needed, and arrange on a plate.
5. Frying:
a) Heat oil in a deep frying pan. Once the oil is hot (you can check by dropping in a bit of the coating batter – if it rises up immediately, the oil is hot), turn the heat to medium and fry the cutlets until golden brown. Turn the cutlets once in a while but not too much as they will split.
500 ml cooking oil for frying
b) Drain and serve hot with tomato sauce or just by itself.
Makes: about 30 cutlets
Apprentice rating: Medium - hard. The filling was easy enough to make, but learning to shape the cutlets was hard.
This video shows the making of vegetable cutlets, but the process is the same .
Note:
1. This recipe freezes well. To freeze, assemble all the cutlets, and store in an airtight freezer friendly box, separating the layers with plastic wrap or greaseproof paper. To fry, you do not need to defrost - fry directly from frozen, but on a low flame to allow time for the insides to thaw.
2. While this recipe calls for frying, the cutlets can be baked as well. To bake, reduce the water in the coating mixtture by about a tablespoon and substitute with a tablespoon of oil. Shape the cutlets, and line on a grease proof paper lined baking tray - bake at about 180C (~350F), until the top turns golden - about 20-30 minutes.
3. Just as you can substitute the coating mixture with egg, you can also experiment with the choice of crumb - spice up the breadcrumbs with herbs and a dash of spice, substitute with fine semolina (rava / sooji), coarse almond flour, roasted and coarsely powdered oats or any other variation you can think of...
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