Chhana Koraishutir cutlet

Course: Snacks/Appetizers                         

Cuisine: Bengali (Indian)

Preparation time: 10 minutes              

Cook time: 45 minutes 

Servings: 6 big cutlets

Ingredients

For the filling

• 1 cup of  green peas
• 1½ ” ginger
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• ¼ cup chopped coriander leaves
• 2 chopped green chilies
• A generous pinch of asafoetida
• 2 tablespoons of broken cashew nuts
• 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 red chilies
• 2-3 green chilies
• 200 gms of chhana/ chhena (from 1 litre of milk)
• Salt To Taste
• oil for deep frying

For the batter

• 3 cups  of bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup Flour
• 2 tbsp corn flour
• 1/2 cup water

Directions

1. In a blender, blitz the green peas, ginger and green chilies to prepare a mushy paste. Do not use any water for this or puree them completely.
2. Dry roast 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds, coriander seeds, bay leaf and red chilies and grind them to a fine powder. Keep the powder aside.
3. In a kadai, add 2 tablespoons of oil and heat it. Fry the cashew nuts and keep them aside.
4. Temper the remaining hot oil with cumin seeds and asafoetida.
5. Add the paste of the peas to the kadai.
6. Add salt followed by the chopped coriander leaves and the fried cashew nuts and continue cooking till the peas are cooked completely and water has completely evaporated.
7. It takes about eight to ten minutes on medium flame. Turn off the flame and let the mixture cool.
8. To the chhana, add salt and the masala powder and knead the chhana to a smooth dough.
9. On a flat surface brush some oil.and then spread out the chhana into an even layer. (See Notes)
10. Then spread the motorshuti paste evenly on this layer.
11. Now, cut out these bi layers into shape of your choice. (I have shaped them into diamond shapes)
12. Meanwhile, prepare a thick slurry of cornflour, wheat flour, salt and water.
13. Coat these bi-layers with bread crumbs.
14. In a bowl, make a thick slurry of flour and corn flour and semolina. Also add salt to this slurry (See Notes)
15. Drop the chhana koraishuti in this slurry and coat it evenly.
16. Now. using another hand, coat the cutlets with bread crumbs.
17. Drop the cutlet again in the slurry and coat them again with bread crumbs.
18. Prepare all the cutlets similarly and keep them aside.
19. Heat oil and deep fry them till golden brown. Make sure that the oil is not to hot or else it will burn the outer later.
20. Serve it with some tomato ketchup, sliced onions and kasundi.

Notes

1. The cutlets should be slightly thicker. Making them very thin will cause them to break. Also, they should be no bigger than 10 cm in length.
2. The slurry should not be thin else it will not be able to coat the cutlets. Add water little by little to prepare the slurry.