Tuna Cutlets

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.