Vegetable Cutlet (Vegan)

  As you will know from my previous post, I just received an awesome Bangladeshi Curry Cookbook in the mail from my awesome friend, and I wanted to make something from it. I suppose this dish isn’t typically Bengal, but with globalization I bet it’s served up in Dhaka now as I type. One of my favourite meals is Tonkatsu. (Pork cutlet with Panko Breading) I LOVE IT.

I could probably eat it every day and not get sick of it, but we all know the harmful side affects would be of doing that every day. I have fond memories of my childhood in Korea (Yes, SOUTH Korea) where my parents took me to the driving range with them, and then took us to a college bar near by where my dad would order my sister and I a GIGANTIC plate (probably wasn’t really that big, but to a 5 year old it was) of Tonkatsu with rice and coleslaw and a side order of fries.

I don’t know what it is with Koreans and Golf…they don’t even golf on a course, they just like to go to the driving range… Somehow I vaguely remember that the fries looked like the waffle (lattice) fries that you sometimes get at the Fair during the summer. Am I remembering this correctly? I don’t know but anyway I do remember that the whole meal would cost merely $2. Crazy, huh?

Okay, so the whole point to this post was to say how much I love Tonkatsu, but I have experimented with an alternative Vegan version of it. It’s also baked, not fried…so I guess there’s a little bit of good for you points there… It tastes good! How ‘bout that? What does it taste like? (I know, I often forget to describe what the things I make taste like, because I generally think that you’ve all tasted the same things I’ve tasted, or I could just walk on over and give you some…yeah not the case usually) It’s crunchy on the outside, characteristic of Panko breaded things… it’s salty, peppery, spicy, with curry-like spices… but eaten with rice and some Tonkatsu sauce… it’s pretty good! Tonkatsu sauce tastes tangy, like Worcestershire sauce with ketchup/fruit chutney in one. Yeah that’s the best I can do to describe it. Okay, so this Vegetable Cutlet is pretty easy to make. I know the picture has egg in it because I originally planned on using egg in the battering process, but decided last minute to opt out and use a Dijon mustard concoction instead to make it Vegan. Hope you try it!

Ingredients:

• 1kg of Any variety of vegetables you feel is starchy and tasty the book recommends potato, cauliflower, carrot, green peas, papaya, beans, green banana, etc are suitable for making cutlet.

I used:

• 4 small to medium sized Yams
• 1/4 head of Cauliflower
• A few carrots
• 2 Indian Eggplants (they hold up better than any other kind)
• 3 potatoes
• 1 Onion (red or white, I used a bit of both because that’s what I had on hand)
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• 1 tsp ground Cumin
• 1 tsp Paprika
• Juice of half a Lemon
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1/2 tsp of pepper
• 1 Red chilli
• 1 Bay leaf
• 1 Tbsp Corn Starch
• 2 Tbsp of Coriander Leaves
• Vegetable Oil
• 1/4 Dijon Mustard
• PAM- vegetable spray OR olive oil in a spray bottle
• Panko Bread Crumbs
• 1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
• Tonkatsu sauce to serve, or Ketchup, Chutney, Raita, anything you want.

Equipment: Masher or hand held blender.

  1. Get a large pot of water on the stove to boil. Salt the water with 1 tsp of salt. Cover with a lid to expedite the boiling process.

2. Cut up all your vegetables so that they are more or less the same size. Put it all in a bowl.
    
(Hey, they would be a nice collage to do up…)
3. Dice an onion. (or in my case, 1/4 a white onion and one smallish red onion)

4. Heat up one Tbsp of vegetable oil and sauté the onions until golden brown. Then add chilli, ginger, spices and bay leaf. Fry until spices are toasted and onion is cooked through. Set aside to cool.
             
5. When the water is boiling. Add all the vegetables in a bowl. Once it’s done (poke the potato and if it’s fork tender, it’s cooked through) drain it then put it back in the pot. You can choose to drain it with a colander over a bowl to save the veggie stock for something else later. You can also just throw it away too.

6. IMPORTANT STEP!! You must. MUST put the vegetables back in the pot and put it on low heat to evaporate any excess water. Leave the lid off, carefully monitor it, so that the veggies lose all their extra moisture. If the veggies are too wet, it will be a pain in the butt later when you try to form them. It’ll be like trying to form thick porridge into balls….yeah, not fun.

7. Add the juice of 1/2 lemon and add the onion spice mixture to the pot. (Take out the bay leaf) Blend it up with a hand held blender without any added water or anything. Or use a potato masher or potato mill or anything to make it a pulverized puree.

8. Add the 1 Tbsp of corn starch. You can choose to sift it in if you’d like. Stir and adjust seasonings.
 
9. At this point, you can do one of two things. You can carry on and form these suckers into cutlets OR… if you feel like it’s still too runny (maybe you were too impatient like me in the evaporating water process), you can add some breadcrumbs into the mix.

10. Add cilantro. Make Dijon mixture: Dijon Mustard with 2 Tbsp of Lemon juice and 1 Tbsp of oil.

11.. Set up your stations. Get a ice cream scoop or two spoons. Dijon mixture, a tapered plate with seasoned Panko bread crumbs (seasoned with a pinch of each salt and pepper), bowl of flour, and a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

12. Steps to coating: Flour your non-dominant hand, scoop a bit of vegetable mixture into the flour bowl and cover with flour. Pick it up and put it in the mustard mixture and using a fork, coat the ball. Scoop the ball out of the Mustard mixture on to the Panko bread crumbs plate and coat and flatten with a spatula, place on the baking sheet.
 
13. Repeat process until all the veggie mixture is used up. Replenish any flour, Panko or Dijon mix as you need it. If you want to store this or freeze this for baking off later, line each layer with plastic wrap so that they don’t stick together.

14. Place these on a baking sheet and spray with PAM vegetable spray or any type of oil in a spray bottle. This is to evenly distribute some oil on to the bread crumbs, but if you try to drizzle it on… it will only absorb into the breading right away. You can also choose to pan fry these, but due to the absorbent nature of the veggie mix and the bread crumbs, you will end up with a greasy mess. Not healthy. Bake in a 350 oven for 20-30 minutes or until the breading is golden brown.
 
See? This is what happened when I tried to pan fry them. Gross!

Serve with Tonkatsu sauce or Raita or  whatever else you’d like. Verdict? I really like this, it’s a delicious alternative to pork, but I’m going to have to say that the traditional pork Tonkatsu is still my favourite.