Tradition with a twist- Fish cutlets of Isha Bhavan

Hi Peeps!!!

Sorry for being away for so long..but this is a food post..YAY!!When we got married, we were invited(virunnu) for dinner/lunch to relatives' and friends homes... what a wonderful delight!!!Its quite a tradition to invite newly weds to give them a warm welcome to the family... so this was more of zain being welcomed into my gelf malayali family :D

We were super excited for the first few invites, but seeing our expanding waist lines, and lack of time to actually spend with each other (we both had full time jobs in dubai, and ended up going during weekends,would spend a considerable time at relatives places as it would be rude to walk out after food!) we dreaded them..I still liked meeting all of them and had loads of fun!!! Once while getting ready to another party, Mr Z asks..whats with the Fish cutlets and your family??? I was like- "So whats with it.."Thats when i realised that every home we went to from my side, fish cutlets were a permanent fixture...be it in different sizes, shapes,colours...these crunchy delicasy actually defined us....

I even introduced it to my in laws who still ask me to make it for them when we visit!!! It is delicious and a MUST TRY!!!Hence this recipe is a tribute to my sister(who makes the best of em all), my mum who taught us this and my aunts and cousins...who all have perfected their various forms of the FISH CUTLETand excelled in it..

I also have my own version and of course a healthier option to the original too!!!

Here goes:

Ingredients:

Tinned Tuna in water/ oil(white tuna better, in low sodium water option for the health consious)-2

Potatoes-1 medium boiled and mashed

Green chillies-2 medium chopped

Onion- 1 medium chopped thin

Ginger paste- half teaspoon

Oil- 2Tbspn, 300ml for deep frying
Bread crumbs 1 cup

Egg beaten- 1

Salt to taste

Method:

open tuna tin and drain water/oil and keep aside.In a non stick frying pan, pour 1 tbspn of oil, saute onions till pink, add ginger and green chillies mix well.lower flame and add potatoes that are mashed well, add tuna to this mix and stir, it form a warm dough.Check salt..only add more if necessary as the tuna is usually salted. Take vessel from flame and stir in the mix well that they look homogeneous. This where the fine chopping actually pays off. Let this cool dwon completely.make them to small patties makes around 8-10 with above quantities.

dip in beated eggs and roll over bread crumbs so that they are evenly coated, keep aside. You can leave the patties plain without egg and bread crumBs and grill them(with a tbspn of oil) for the healthy option..turns out equally yummm..

Picture of the healthier option above! In a kadai, heat the oil and deep fry the coated ones till golden brown!!!Tomato ketchup is an ideal accompaniment!

Happy munching