Lamb Cutlets - Kerala style

In Kerala these cutlets are ideally made with minced beef. Since most of my Christmas party guests were non beef eaters, I substituted beef with lamb. It turned out pretty authentic in taste and, a hard core mallu friend of mine couldn’t tell the difference. So my take – you could use any sort of red meat in this recipe and it wont be easy to tell. What does make a difference however, is what you serve them with. To bring out the actual  flavor or these savories you have to, I cannot stress this more, serve these with the Malayalee Charlas – thin slices of onions and finely diced green chilies soaked in white vinegar with a dash of salt.

Ingredients

1 lb very lean ground/minced beef or lamb
3 medium sized Yukon white potatoes, cooked pealed and mashed
1 very large  or 2 medium sized onions finely chopped
5- 6 green chilies, finely diced
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tbsp grated ginger
2 tbsp diced garlic
2 tsp Black pepper powder
1/2 tsp kerala garam masala
refined vegetable oil
1 beaten egg
1 cup bread crumbs
2 tsp whole coriander seeds, dry roasted and crushed
Salt to taste

Directions

Sauté the chopped onions in a tsp of oil  in a shallow pan  until golden brown

Crush the grated ginger and garlic and add them to the pan along with the green chilies and continue to sauté until oil separates

Add in the ground meat, turmeric powder, garam masala, pepper powder and  crushed coriander seeds and let it cook on high flame for 10 – 15 mins, mix occasionally with a spatula to prevent clumping to the bottom of the pan.

Add salt to taste

When the meat is well cooked take it off the flame and mix in the mashed potatoes

Roll the mixture it into lemon sized balls and shape them into round or oval patties

Dip each patty one at a time into the beaten egg and coat with bread crumbs

Refrigerate them for an hour or 2 or overnight. (This step prevents the patties from breaking apart while frying)

Heat oil on high flame and shallow fry them until brown on both the sides

Serve with sliced onions and minced green chilies soaked in vinegar  with a dash of salt.