Beef Cutlets

by Trisha Vaz
This is another treat, thats really tasty, very moreish and can be served as a side at a meal or coupled with some homemade fries or mashed potatoes and a salad, is a meal in itself. Whenever I make these, I always like having a few extra, which I simply refrigerate and keep for another day. It stays good for about 3-4 days, it may last longer, but we always manage to finish it off by then. You simply bring it to room temperature and heat it in a skillet, covered, and you’re good to go.

P.S. I won’t be posting for the next few days, since I’m headed out of town for a week. See you when I get back. I have so many recipes lined up to share with you guys, I can’t wait to get those posted. So make sure you come back. 🙂

Beef Cutlets
(Makes about 10 depending on size)

250g ground beef (beef mince)
1 large or 2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 green chillies, finely chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2″ ginger, finely chopped
1 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped
1 egg
1/4 tsp black pepper powder
1/4-1/3 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp red chilly powder
Salt, to taste
2 slices of bread
Bread crumbs, to coat the cutlets
Vegetable oil, for frying

Soak the slices of bread in water for a few seconds, drain out all the liquid and crumble. Mix together all the ingredients except the bread crumbs and vegetable oil.

Make sure all the ingredients are well mixed and evenly distributed.

Shape into cutlets.

Coat with bread crumbs.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan. Carefully place the cutlets in the pan and let it cook on a medium heat till its done to your liking. Turn over and cook the other side as well.

Repeat till you’re done with the meat mix, adding more oil to the pan as and when you need to.

Serve hot with some fries and a salad, and some spicy tomato ketchup.

Enjoy!!!

This recipe is linked to –
What’s Cooking Thursdays
Full Plate Thursdays
Thrilling Thursday
It’s a Keeper Thursday

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Beef, Goan Recipes, Mains, Recipes, Sides, Starters / Appetizers

Fish Cakes or Fish Cutlets

by Trisha Vaz
Its been really long since I last posted here. Believe me, I missed it and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t because we were getting ready for Easter, then after the family get together I was recovering from Easter and yesterday my computer decided that it wanted the day off. So there was nothing much I could do about it. But I’m glad to be here today. I will be busy through this week with a wedding order and then on Saturday I’m off on a holiday for a week. Golly gee, I’m so excited, I can hardly wait for the weekend. But before I go I’d like to share something really yummy with you guys – fish cakes or what we call fish cutlets.

I love these cutlets. We don’t make them too often, and I’ve always wondered why. We love them, they’re crunchy little treats, and the flavors are to die for. It goes so well with a humble meal of rice and lentils, more commonly known as dal-rice and turns it to something quite extra-ordinary. If that doesn’t float your boat, how about using it to make yourself a yummy fish burger?

Whatever you decide to do with it, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. I mean, whats not to? For this recipe I used Kingfish slices. You can use any other white fleshy fish, but try and avoid the smaller varieties. Also, I’ve never really paid too much attention to quantities with any cutlets, its more about the mix feeling right to the touch. However, I have tried to give you an idea of the quantities I used. Feel free to adjust them as you like.

Fish Cutlets


4-5 large slices of fish
3-4 cloves of garlic
A pinch of turmeric powder
1 onion, finely chopped
2 green chillies, finely chopped
Salt to taste
1 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, chopped
1″ ginger
1 egg
1-2 slices of bread
Bread crumbs
Vegetable oil, for frying

In a vessel, boil the slices of fish with a pinch of turmeric powder, salt, whole cloves of garlic and a little water. The fish needs to be cooked through. Let it cool.

While this is happening, chop up the onions, ginger, chillies and the coriander leaves and keep aside.

De-bone the fish, making sure that no bones are left behind. Its rather unpleasant to find a fish bone in a cutlet.

Add the chopped onions, chillies, ginger and coriander leaves.

Crack into this 1 egg.

Soak 1-2 slices of bread in water for a minute and squeeze out all the liquid and add one slice, crumbled to the mix. Using your fingers, make sure that all the ingredients are mixed well. Try and form a cutlet, if it holds well, you’re good to go. If the mix is too moist, crumble the other slice of bread into it and mix well.

Check for seasoning and adjust if needed.

Shape little portions of the mix into tightly formed cakes or cutlets. Coat with bread crumbs.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large flat pan and fry the cutlets on a medium flame till they are golden brown. Turn over and brown the other side as well. The fish is already cooked, all you want to do is let the cutlets get a nice brown color and in the meanwhile heat right through.

Serve hot.

This recipe is linked to –
My Meatless Mondays
Just Another Meatless Monday
Meatless Monday
Mangia Mondays
Mouthwatering Monday
Tuesdays At The Table
Delectable Tuesday
Tuesday Night Supper Club
A Little Birdie Told Me

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Goan Recipes, Mains, Recipes, Seafood, Sides, Starters / Appetizers

Potato Chops

by Trisha Vaz
Most of you have heard of lamb chops, pork chops etc. but I’m pretty sure you’re wondering what on earth is a Potato Chop. Its one of my favorite little treats. I usually make these at quite a few dinners and parties. My mum used to make these for our birthday parties and other gatherings and I tell you these are simply the best. To give you a gist of it, its like a cottage / shepherd’s pie that you can almost call finger food, except that its a little larger than finger food but you get the picture. It is also the perfect way to use up any leftover beef mince (only you might want to make sure you don’t use any pieces of potatoes that may be in the mince). If I’m making some mince just to make the chops, I leave out the potatoes, because the mince is stuffed in a pocket of mashed potato anyway.

They taste best if served hot with some tomato ketchup. They also keep well, refrigerated. All you do, is pop them in a pan, cover and let it heat through on a low flame before serving. These chops are a good option to consider as travel food for a road trip.The crumb coating gives this a nice crunchy exterior.

Potato Chops


1/2 a recipe of Beef Mince (You can substitute mutton mince, if you don’t eat beef)
4-5 medium potatoes, boiled, peeled and mashed
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp cumin powder
A pinch of turmeric powder (optional)
1 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, chopped
1 egg
Bread crumbs
Vegetable oil, for frying

Make half a portion of beef mince and keep aside. This should come down to room temperature before you proceed with this recipe.

Boil the potatoes only when you are ready to make the chops you need to work when the potatoes are still warm. Cold potatoes make handling difficult.

Peel and mash the potatoes well. Make sure there are no lumps. Add salt to taste, cumin powder, turmeric powder and coriander leaves and using your hands mix well to ensure all the spices and herbs are evenly distributed. Feel free to adjust the quantities of the spices and herbs used to suit your taste.

Take a portion of the mashed potato, the size of a tennis ball, roll into a ball and flatten to form a thick disc on the palm of your hand. Place a spoon of the mince in the center and bring the sides of the potato disc up and over the filling to cover it well. Make sure that no mince is sticking out. If you feel the need to add more potato to it, feel free to do so. The mashed potato merges well. Shape it to form a patty and keep aside. Continue till you’ve used up all the mashed potato.

Crack an egg in a shallow bowl, wide enough to fit the chops. Beat well to incorporate the white and the yolk.

Pour some bread crumbs onto a plate and keep it ready. I have a little assembly line going for this, starting with the chops at one end, followed by the bowl with the beaten egg, the bread crumbs and a plate lined with some absorbent kitchen paper at the other end.

Heat some oil in a pan.

Briefly dip a chop in the egg and turn over, making sure it coats the chop well.

Dredge it through the bread crumbs making sure the potato chop is well coated. This is what will give it a good crunch.

Carefully place in the pan with the heated oil and shallow fry till it takes on a nice golden brown color. Turn and let the other side fry as well till it gets golden brown.

Carefully take it off the pan and place on some kitchen paper to drain out any excess oil.

NOTE: You don’t need to fry these one at a time, place as many as your pan can accommodate, making sure theres a little space between them to help you turn these over.  


Here’s what it looks like on the inside –

Enjoy!!!

This recipe is linked to –
What’s Cookin’ in the Kitchen
Feed Me Tweet Me Follow Me Home
Friday Potluck
Fat Camp Friday

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Beef, Goan Recipes, Mains, Recipes, Sides, Starters / Appetizers

Homemade Nachos with a bunch of stuff – All made from scratch

by Trisha Vaz
UPDATE: I’ve found an easier recipe for homemade tortilla chips. Check it out here.

I’ve always wanted to try making nachos at home and yes, from scratch. Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about this amazing plate of Nachos that I had while I was in Goa for a few days. I knew that if I wanted it like that, I’d have to make it myself. The only thing I had a recipe guide me with was the corn tortillas for the homemade tortilla chips, which I took from Nita Mehta’s “Multi-cuisine Cookbook”. I didn’t spend time looking for recipes for the rest of the stuff, but just threw a few things together from memory.  It really was quite funny, me, roaming in circles in my kitchen, trying to remember what was on the plate and what the flavors were and then checking to see if I had what was needed to put together a plate of Nachos. Crazy visual, anyway back to food.

Being my first attempt, I was very pleased with the way it turned out, the textures and flavors were nice. However, when I make this next, I’m definitely going to up the cheese. I think I will look around on the internet for a few ideas to pretty this up. I’d be glad if I could get a little input from you wonderful bloggers out there. I know a lot of you have made Nachos at home and have some tricks up your sleeves. I’d love to hear from you. For those of you who haven’t tried making these before, I suggest you do it, soon, if you love Mexican food that is, and only if you want to be able to dish out some yummy stuff right out of your kitchen. Here’s my humble take on it – 
Nachos – 

For the homemade tortilla chips – 
(Makes 10-12)
1 1/2 cups corn meal 
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt
Warm water, to knead the dough
Oil, for deep frying
Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Knead it into a dough using enough warm water to make it a pliable dough.
Cover with a damp cloth and let it rest for an hour.
Divide the dough into portions. Roll out to form a thin disc. 
Heat a griddle. Place the rolled tortilla on the griddle and let it cook for about a minute on a medium flame.
Turn over and cook the other side till a few brown specs start appearing. Don’t let them crisp up.
When the tortillas are ready, cut into 8 wedges each and deep fry in hot oil.
Drain on some kitchen paper.
For the Pico de Gallo – 

1 onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1-2 green chillies, chopped
1 tbsp. fresh coriander leaves, chopped
Salt, to taste
Lime juice, to taste
Toss all the veggies in a bowl. Add the salt and lime juice. Toss well. Check for seasoning.
For the assembly –  

I didn’t want to switch the oven on for this, so I just used the stove top and improvised.
Place the tortilla chips on a griddle. Grate some cheese over it. You can use whatever variant of cheese you enjoy, or have at hand. Don’t skimp on the cheese if you want some really deliciously cheesy nachos. 
Carefully tip the nachos with the cheesy top on a plate, trying not to disturb the layer of cheese on top.
Serve up with sides of your choice. I served it with some sour cream and some pico de gallo.
You can also serve it with some guacamole and salsa if you’d like.
This recipe is linked to –
Delectable Tuesday
Tasty Tuesdays
Rook No.17
Hearth and Soul
Tuesdays at the Table
Tuesday Night Supper Club
Tasty Tuesday

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Recipes, Snacks, Starters / Appetizers