Scrappy cooking: It makes sense to get smart about food

NT Features

Nobody likes to waste good food.Yet when cooking, especially for a crowd, one cannot measure and constrict the amount of food being cooked. Rice and chapati are two constant staples available in our houses - yet not every day you’re in the mood for dal chawal. So the casualty in most cases is leftover rice and chappatis.

Hang on, don’t bin it, if you don’t have someone to give it to. Here are a few simple recipes that can turn your everyday regulars into something special dishes.

Rice Cutlet

Ingredients

• 1 cup tightly packed cooked rice
• ½ cup tightly packed mashed potatoes or 1 medium to large potato – boiled, peeled and mashed
• 1 medium onion finely chopped or ? cup chopped onion
• 1 green chili chopped
• 2 tablespoons coriander leaves
• 1 pinch turmeric powder (ground turmeric)
• ¼ teaspoon red chili powder (or cayenne pepper or paprika)
• ½ teaspoon cumin powder (ground cumin)
• ½ teaspoon Coriander Powder (ground coriander)
• ¼ to ½ teaspoon Garam Masala Powder
• 3 tablespoon besan (gram flour)
• salt as required
• 3 tablespoons oil for shallow frying

Method
1. Take all the ingredients in a mixing bowl, except oil.
2. Mix very well. Check the taste and add more spice powders or salt if required.
3. Mix everything very well. When you are mixing, the rice will also get mashed.
4. Shape the mixture into small to medium-sized patties or tikkis.
5. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan or tawa. Keep the heat to medium-low to medium-hot.
6. When the oil becomes medium hot, place the rice cutlets on the tawa.
7. When the base is lightly browned, flip them using a spatula and fry the other side.
8. Flip again and fry till they are crisp and golden. You will have to flip them a couple of times for even cooking.
9. When nicely crisp and golden, remove them and place them on a kitchen paper towel so that any extra oil is absorbed if any.
10. Serve rice cutlets hot with coriander chutney or mint chutney or tomato ketchup.

Chapati chip and dip

For the chips:

• 4 whole leftover chappatis
• 2 – 3 tablespoons olive oil for brushing on the chapatis
• Various Indian Spices, as much or little as you want you could use any combination of the following: ground ginger, coriander powder, chilli powder, cumin powder, allspice, fennel seed, garlic powder, onion powder)
• salt or salt substitute to taste

For the dip:

• cups plain fat-free yogurt
• 1/2 a medium cucumber, peeled and seeded
• 1/2 a medium onion, grated a few tablespoons grated carrot
• 2 tomatoes chopped (try to squish as much juice out of them as you can)
• 2 – 3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• salt or salt substitute to taste

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and get out a cookie sheet.
2. One by one, brush both sides of each chapati lightly with olive oil and then sprinkle them with spices and seasonings.
3. Cut them into wedges or strips, and arrange them in a single layer on the cookie sheet.
4. Bake them for about eight minutes, or until they start to brown and get crispy. No need to tur n them halfway through baking.
5. Get those out of the oven, and whip up your dip while they cool.
6. Just mix the yogurt with all the other ingredients, and, you’re done. If you want to take your dip to the next level, cook the coriander and cumin in about a teaspoon of hot olive oil before adding them. This will make their flavours much richer, and your dip will taste incredible. Before you serve, snip a little extra cilantro over the dip to make it look totally fresh and tasty.