Well hello again... Yes, I’m back from the land of the
living dead and no, I wasn’t gone forever contrary to what you may have thought!
I know I’ve to get my act together and stop this disappearing nonsense once and
for all. But you’ll never believe how busy I’ve been the last month and my blog
has always been at the back of my mind, slowly gnawing its way in front until
the guilt of neglection could not be ignored any longer and so here I am J
Work has been particularly stressful the last month or so
and while I am glad that I’ve been given more responsibilities, it has almost
burnt me out completely. I could not be more relieved that the University will
be closed for the Christmas Holidays starting next week. Yay!
To add to that we have been a bit concerned lately of Kochu’s
slow weight gain over the past couple of months. I know what you’re thinking,
that I shouldn’t be so worried if he is happy and healthy, which he is (thank
God!) but it seems to be that as he grows his appetite seems to be diminishing.
Kochu has been a fussy & picky eater since Day one, but you’d think he
would have gotten better over time. So to put our minds at rest we were referred
to a Nutritionist. As far as she’s concerned Kochu is healthy but she did
recommend that we start including more calorie rich foods in his diet to help
with the weight gain. In other words, in the very little amount of food he
takes, we’ve to try and get as many calories in as we can.
So when usually all doctors recommend we stay away from
butter and margarine and deep fried foods, our nutritionist suggested that we
give these to Kochu (in moderate amounts, of course). So we’ve to try and add
1tsp butter into every meal he has and also make sure he has 5-6 meals a day.
And also in every meal he has we have to incorporate protein, carbs and
fruit/vegetable. It isn’t as easy as it
sounds, but she has given us some meal ideas to try and so I’ll be hopefully
adding more interesting recipes into here soon. J
So today’s recipe isn’t exactly a special toddler’s recipe.
It’s our all-time favourite tuna cutlet recipe. I wanted to add this in here
coz I did make this for Kochu to get him to eat his fish and also something
deep fried which the nutritionist recommended. I’ve adapted this from Marias
Menu to Kochu’s taste. It’s pretty simple to make and tastes delicious. Kochu will
have at least one full cutlet on his good days…sigh… J
Oh and sorry but Kochu kind of distracted me towards the end
of making the cutlets and so I totally forgot to take a pic of the end result.
Instead I've just added a general pic of a cutlet(photo courtesy - http://recipenewz.com), just to give you an idea, in
case you’re not familiar with cutlets. J
Tuna Cutlets
Recipe Source : Marias Menu
Ingredients
Canned Tuna in Oil – 2 cans (refer notes)
Carrot – ½, grated
Potato – 1 big, cubed
Onion – 2 medium, chopped
Ginger & garlic paste – 1 tbsp
Green chilli – 1
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Coriander powder –2 tsp
Fennel powder (perumjeerakam) – ½ tsp
Garam masala – 1 tsp
Pepper powder ½ tsp
Curry leaves
For coating
Egg whites – 2
Plain flour (maida) – 2 tbsp
Water – 1½ – 2 tbsp
Salt – a pinch
White Bread crumbs – 2-3 cups
Instructions
1.
Drain the oil from tuna.
2.
Cook the potatoes with salt till it is well
done. Let it cool completely.
3.
Heat oil in a pan & add chopped onions,
ginger & garlic, green chilli & curry leaves& salt. Cook till the onions
become soft & start changing the color Add the grated carrots. Cook till
the carrots are done. Add the masala powders & mix well. Cook for 2 mins.
Add tuna pieces & mix well. Cook for 5-7 mins, till everything is combined
well. Let the mixture cool down completely.
4.
Add the cooked potatoes to the tuna mixture
& mash them & combine the two. Make sure there are no lumps. Shape the
mixture as per your liking
5.
Make a thick paste with flour & water &
salt (a pinch). Add the beaten egg whites to this & whisk till you get a
smooth batter. Dip the shaped cutlets in this batter & roll in bread
crumbs. At this stage the cutlets are ready to freeze. You can store it in a zip lock bag & freeze it for 1-2 months. Keep the frozen cutlets at room
temp for 30-45 mins before frying.
6.
Heat oil in a pan on med – high flame. When the
oil is really hot (not smoking) add the cutlets & fry it till its golden in color. Drain on a paper towel & serve hot with ketchup.
Notes
You can use canned
tuna in spring water but I think the ones in oil taste better. Here I definitely
want more calories and so I used the ones in oil but the healthier low fat
version would be tuna in spring water if you’re watching your calories.
Also take care while
adding salt as the tuna is already salty and so add little amounts initially
and then adjust accordingly towards the end.