Hasselback Potatoes (Indian style)

Hasselback potatoes are Swedish version of baked potatoes. The restaurant named "Hasselbacken" , in Stockholm, Sweden is famous for this dish and hence it is named "Hasselback" potatoes.

This, a very fancy looking dish is delicious which is crispy outside and soft inside. As we bake, the slices fan out slightly and can be presented in a beautiful way. This is an unique way to serve the potatoes and tastes very good. 

It can be served in  any breakfast or dinner party. You can make yogurt or sour cream herbed dip which will go very well with these baked potatoes. The way I served was very different. I Indianised it a little bit. Myself and my hubby like this way. Adding Indian spices to this gives a very good taste along with the garlic flavor.

When I saw the recipe in the internet, I thought it is difficult to make. But after I made, I realized it was much simple..

Here's the recipe

Ingredients

• Potatoes - 4 nos
• Olive oil - 4 tsp
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Freshly crushed pepper - a few

For spiced butter

• Butter - 2 tblspn
• Garlic - 6 or 7, finely chopped
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1 tsp
• Chilly powder - 1 tsp
• Fennel powder - 1/2 tsp
• Crushed pepper powder - 1 tsp

For herbed yoghurt dip

• Yogurt - 1 cup
• Mixed Italian herbs - few
• Salt - a pinch
• Pepper - 1 tsp
• Spiced Butter - 1 tsp (Along with some garlic)

 

Method

For spiced butter

• Melt butter in a saucepan. Add garlic and saute for a minute. Turn off the heat. The butter would have got the aroma of garlic.
• Now add salt and all the spice powders; Cumin powder, Chilly powder, Fennel Powder and Crushed pepper powder.
• Keep this aside. Allow it to cool

For herbed yogurt dip

• Mix all the ingredients under "For herbed yogurt dip" in the ingredients list, in a bowl. Mix everything well. Your herbed yoghurt dip is now ready

How to Proceed?

• Using a knife, slice each potato very thinly, from one end to other, making sure you don't cut it all the way through. The pieces of potatoes are still joint at the base.
• Brush some olive oil on the potatoes. Sprinkle some salt and pepper. 
• Bake in the preheated oven @200 deg C for 20 minutes.
• After 20 minutes, take them out of the oven. Brush some spiced butter all over each potato and between each slice. Put back in to the oven and bake for 15 minutes @ 200 deg C
• After 15 minutes, again take out from the oven and brush some spiced butter again all over each potatoes and between each slice. Put back in to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes @200 deg C
• Take out from the oven and again the same process continues. You have to repeat this 3 times in total. Brush the spiced butter over the potatoes. Put back in to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes. Make sure you use a sharp knife to separate each slices, each time you take out from the oven.
• Now the baking part is done. Bush some more spiced butter and by now the potatoes would have become really crispy from outside and soft from inside.
• Your heavenly delicious hasselback potatoes are now ready.

• Transfer it to a plat and pour a tblspn of herbed yogurt dip on top of the potatoes. I had some garlic pieces from the spiced butter. So, I topped it with that too.
• Enjoy!!

 

Stuffed Cutlets

Hii all!!

Today, I am here with my hubby's favorite recipe, stuffed cutlets. I have a lot of bread crumbs at home and have to finish it completely before I leave this place. So, I keep experimenting a lot of cutlets and tikkis for evening snacks. One such snack is what we are going to see today.
We first make the dough using potato and bread crumbs by adding few spice powders and then make the beetroot stuffing. Then the potato dough is stuffed with beetroot filling and shallow fried in less oil. If you wish to deep fry, you can do that.
Here's is the detailed recipe

For Potato Dough

• Boiled and mashed potatoes - 3 nos
• Bread crumbs - 1/2 cup
• Salt - to taste
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Coriander powder - 1 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1 tsp

For the stuffing

• Carrot - 2, grated
• Beetroot - 1 grated
• Onion - 1, chopped finely
• Turmeric powder - a pinch
• Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tblspn
• Green chillies- 2, finely chopped
• Coriander powder - 2 tsp
• Cumin powder- 1 tsp
• Garam masala - 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Salt - to taste
• Caswes - 1 tblspn, chopped
• Almonds - 1 tblspn, chopped
• Raisins - 1 tblspn, chopped
• Sugar - 2 tsp
• Coriander leaves - 1 tblspn, chopped finely
• Oil - 2 tsp

Other ingredients

• Cornflour mixed in water - 1/2 cup
• Bread crumbs - 1/2 cup
• Oil - to shallow fry

Method

For Potato Dough

• Combine boiled and mashed potato along with some salt, cumin powder, coriander powder and chilli powder and bread crumbs.
• Mix everything well and make a dough which will be more or less like chapathy dough. Keep it aside

For the Stuffing

• Heat oil in a pan and crackle cumin seeds.
• Add onions, ginger garlic paste, cashews, almonds, raisins and green chillies and saute until onions are translucent.
• Now add the grated carrot and beetroot. Keep stirring until it is cooked. Sprinkle some water and keep it closed if it is burning.
• Now add salt, sugar, turmeric powder, garam masala, coriander powder and cumin powder. Keep stirring for a minute and then turn off the heat. Add some coriander leaves and mix again. Your sutuffing is now ready.

How to Proceed?

• Make a thin slurry of cornflour by mixing some water. Keep your bread crumbs ready in a plate.
• Grease your palm and take a lemon sized portion from the potato dough and slightly flatten it.

• Place some stuffing 

• Seal from all the sides and flaten it to form like a cutlet. 

• Dip the patties in the corn flour slurry and them roll them in the bread crumbs. Keep it aside.

• Repeat the same for all. You can even Refrigerate it if you are going to use it the next day.
• Heat few teaspoons of oil in a non-stick or ceramic pan and shallow fry these patties. Make sure you get even cooking. 

• Cook till it is golden brown and crispy from both the sides

• Drain any excess oil in kitchen towel or paper tissue and have it hot with ketch up

Potato basket chaat

These are baskets which are made of grated starch free potatoes and are filled with tawa fried chick peas, onion, tomato, chutneys and well beaten yoghurt. If you are looking for a chaat item for a party, this is one good option. 

Making filling for these baskets are all your choice. You can add paneer / Sprouts / cheese etc, according to your taste. I have seasoned the potatoes with pepper, tandoori masala and cumin powder. But the choice is again up to you. You can season them or just keep it plain.

Always try to use starch free potatoes / old potatoes in order to make it crispy.

You can store this in room temperature for about 1 or 2 days prior or you can store it in an air tight container and freeze it for about a week. 

I will show you the baked version of potato baskets. There is another option also to make these baskets by frying them

Ingredients

For tawa channa

• Channa / Garbanzo beans - 1/2 cup
• Oil- 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Onion - 1/2 no, finely chopped
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Tomato / Tomato puree - 1/4 no / 3 tsp
• Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Coriander powder - 2 tsp
• Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
• Coriander leaves - to garnish
• Salt - to taste

For Potato Basket

• Potato - 2 cups , Grated
• Salt - 2 tsp
• Water - 2 cups
• Corn flour / All purpose flour - 1 tblspn
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Pepper powder - 1 tsp
• Tandoori masala powder - 1 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1 tsp
• Oil - to sprat on muffin trays

Other Ingredients

• Onions - 1/2 cup, finely chopped
• Tomatoes - 1/4 cup , finely chopped
• Chaat masala powder - 2 tsp
• Dry mango powder - 1 tsp
• Cumin powder - 2 tsp
• Yoghurt - 1/2 cup, well beaten
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Sugar - 1 tsp
• Sweet chutney - 1 tblspn
• Chaat green chutney - 1 tblspn
• Coriander leaves - few, finely chopped
• Lemon juice - 1 tblspn

Method

For Tawa Channa

• Soak chick peas over night or for about 6 hours minimum. Pressure cook until soft.
• In a tawa, heat oil and crackle the cumin seeds. Add ginger garlic paste and chopped onions and salt. Fry till onions become transparent and raw smell of ginger and garlic is gone completely.

• Sprinkle some chilli powder , garam masala powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder

• Add tomatoes and cook till mushy.

• Now add the garbanzo beans and cook for a minute. Mix everything well and turn off the heat.

• Garnish with coriander leaves and keep aside.

For Potato Baskets

• Preheat the oven @ 200 deg
• Grate the potatoes and soak them in warm water for about half an hour. Squeeze out the water completely from them. You can use either the fine grater or medium ones. But make sure to squeeze out as much water as possible to get crispy potato cups

 

• Add cornflour, pepper powder, chilli powder, cumin powder and tandoori masala powder. Mix everything really well

 

• Grease your muffin tray with some oil

 

• Place the potato filling in each muffin mold. With the help of your fingers, move them to sides and make the shape of a basket. Spread hem as evenly as possible.

 

• Bake them in the preheated ovenfor about 25 to 30 minutes or until it becomes crispy.
• Remove from the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes.
• With the help of the fork, carefully take out the potato baskets from each muffin molds.

• Let it cool completely before you tranfer them to air tight containers.
• You can freeze it up to a week. When you are ready to make the chaat, preheat your oven @ 200 deg, and bake for about 10 minutes or until it is crispy again.

 How to Proceed?

• In a bowl, whisk the curds well. Add salt, sugar, cumin powder, chat masala powder and dry mango powder. Mix well.
• Take 1 potato basket. Start by filling the tawa fried garbanzo beans. Place 2 or 3 garbazo beans. Then add chopped onions and tomatoes
• Top them with chaat green chutney, sweet chutney, coriander leaves, yoghurt and sev. 
• Finally sprinkle some chaat masala, salt, dry mango powder, cumin powder and chilli powder. Squeeze some fresh lime juice on top

• Repeat the same for all and serve

Stuffed Gulab Jamun Subzi

I don't know how this idea popped up in my mind!! I wasn't even sure how it would turn out at the end..!! But to my surprise, my hubby totally loved it and he asked me to prepare this often hereafter. I was so happy that my experiment was not a failure this time.. lol!!

These are simply stuffed gulab jamuns immersed in onion tomato gravy. I used ready made MTR Gulab jamun mix. They are stuffed with boiled potato, peas and peanuts along with some spice powders. I shallow fried them after stuffing in a pan. You have totally 4 options here;
 1. Shallow fry it, as it did
 2. Deep fry in oil (very low heat)
 3. Bake them in the oven (@ 200 deg C until its brown)
 4. In appe pan - Fill the cavities of appe pan with 1/4 tsp oil and cook them on all sides.

Here I will explain in detail, the way I did this time.

Ingredients

For stuffing the jamuns

• Any ready made gulab jamun mix - 200 g
• Water - to knead the dough
• Salt - 1 to 2 tsp
• Boiled and mashed potato - 1 cup
• Onion -  big, chopeed finely
• Garlic - 3 cloves , chopped finely
• Green peas - 1/4 cp (boiled or frozen or canned)
• Peanuts (fried) - 1/4 cup , roasted
• Chilli powder - 2 tsp
• Coriander powder - 3 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1 tsp
• Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
• Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup chopped finely
• Oil for shallow frying

To be ground

• Onion - 1 big , roughly chopped
• Tomato - 2 , roughly chopped
• Ginger - 1 inch piece
• Garlic - 3 cloves
• Cinnamon -  1 small piece
• Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Red chillies - 3 (or according to your spice level)
• Cashew - 1 tblspn (You can also substitute with melon seeds with equal quantity)
• Water - 2.5 cups

Other Ingredients

• Oil - 2 tsp
• Cardamon - 1 no
• Star anise - 1/2
• Bay leaf - 1 , broken
• Salt - to taste
• Sugar - 1 tsp
• Coriander powder- 2 tsp
• Garam masala/ kitchen king masala - 1 tsp
• Dried fenugreek leaves - 1 tsp
• Curds - 1 tblspn, well beaten
• Cream - 2 tsp (Optional)
• Coriander leaves - finely chopped to garnish

Method

 For stuffing the jamuns

• In a bowl, add the ready made jamun mix, salt, water and knead them well to form a smooth dough (as you do normally for making the jamuns).

• Keep it aside for 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, lets work on the stuffing. Heat oil in a pan and add finely chopped garlic and onions. Add salt. Saute till they are brown.
• Add all the spice powders ; Chilli powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and garam masala. Now add the boiled green peas and boiled and mashed potatoes. Give it a good mix and mash them again using the back of your spoon. 
• Let everything get combined. If you feel the mixture is too watery, add some bread crumbs and mix well.
• Turn off the heat and let it cool.

 

• Divide them in to equal portions and make a small gooseberry sized ball out of them. Keep aside

• Take a portion from the jamun mix and make a lime sized ball. Flatten it with the help of your fingers.

• Place 1 potato ball on it and seal from all the sides to make a ball.

• Repeat the same for all.

 

• Heat oil in a pan and shallow fry these jamuns

 

• Keep turning the sides for every 30 seconds to avoid burning and to get even cooking on all the sides.

 

• Drain using kitchen towel and keep aside
• Cut in to halves (if you prefer) after it cools down completely.

 

 For the paste

• Combine everything under "To be ground" heading in the ingredients list in a vessel over a medium heat. 
• Let it simmer for around 15 to 20 minutes.
• Turn off the heat and allow it to cool completely and grind it to a smooth paste. Keep aside

How to proceed

• Heat oil in a pan and add star anise and cardamom. Fry for few seconds and add the ground onion tomato paste.
• Add 1/2 cup water, cover the lid and cook for another 5 minutes. Add coriander powder salt and sugar.
• Crush the fenugreek leaves and add to this. Add garam masala powder, curds and cream.
•  Bring this to just one boil and then turn off the heat. 

While Serving

• Do this just before serving. Fill your serving dish with the gravy. Make your own design on it using a teaspoon of curd / cream.
• Place the stuffed jamuns on it and garnish with coriander leaves. 
• Your jamuns will remain crispy if you do this step just a moment before you serve the dish.

 
Try this and let me know your feedback.