Baked Potato Paneer Tikki

Baked Potato Paneer Tikki, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

This was just an experimental trial I had where I baked these Tikkis (Cutlets) instead of frying them and I must say they did come out much better than I had anticipitated. The whole recipe was not just these tikkis but it was Paneer Tikki Chaat which I followed from Tarla Dalal's Book "Chaat". But I could not take any pics of the entire dish put together as I was busy playing hostess when my friends were gorging on it. But fortunately I had some unfried tikkis left which I baked the next day instead of frying them. So I thought I would post these at least.You can find the entire recipe for Paneer Tikki Chaat on Tarla Dalal's site. I'll just share with you the way I made the tikkis which are a little different than her's .

Ingredients for around 12 tikkis:

4 large potatoes

100 gms paneer grated or crumbled (indian cottage cheese)

1/2 cup green peas boiled and coarsely mashed

3 tblspns cornflour

2 slices of bread (soaked in water ,squeezed and then crumbled)

1/2 cup fresh coriander finely chopped,

5 cloves garlic crushed,

2 to 3 tspns red chiily powder,

juice of one lemon,

2 tspn sugar ,

salt to taste.

To coat the cutlets you need:

1 cup semolina.

3tspn dry celery/mint/coriander (if easily available)

1 tspn salt

What you do:

• Boil the potatoes in a pressure cooker.
• While the potatoes and cooking, collect all the other ingredients and keep them ready.
• As soon as the potatoes are done, peel them while they are still hot and mash them.
• Mix all the other ingredients in the potato mash while it is still hot . (This is important because once the potatoes cool down they will get awfuly sticky and it gets very difficult to make the cutlets. I can tell you because I have been through it)
• What you have now is a nice non-sticky and easy to handle mixture of potato and all the other ingredients.
• You can now shape them into cutlets
• Coat each cutlet in the semolina and celery mixture.

To bake them: Lay a sheet of aluminium foil onto your baking sheet and lightly brush it with oil. Arrange all the cutlets on to the sheet. Spray the cutlets with oil. In case you do not have a spray. Spoon 1/2 a tspn of oil over each cutlet and bake at 200 deg c until golden. Turn them over once . Use more oil only if required. Your Tikkis(cutlets) are ready.

Eat them according to the Chaat recipe or simply with a sauce and chutney of your choice. They are great when sandwiched between 2 slices of bread too.