Beef Cutlets
- ASH
- Mar 15, 2020
- 3 min read
This is yet another staple and show-stopper in Sri Lankan cuisine. We love a good cutlet and this is one dish that is available throughout the day at all bakeries and stores. Sri Lankans are known for their little tea-time snacks or ‘Short eats’, as it is fondly called. This signature short-eat makes its way into every party and gathering. I have pics of cousins’ birthdays with a stacked pile of cutlets (like a two-tier birthday cake) next to the birthday cake. Yes, it’s that important. Cutlets are usually made of beef or canned tuna fish (commonly called tin fish). There are several ways of making these cutlets and I personally follow three different recipes, depending on my mood and ingredients available. This one is a classic Jaffna style cutlet recipe that I learned from my mom. It’s very simple and makes use of simple ingredients that are readily available at home. We make an instant cutlet roast powder for this recipe that you can also make in larger quantities and save for later.
Soft-cooked meat and potatoes, mixed with roast spices, rolled over bread crumbs and fried to golden brown perfection!
Ingredients
Beef – ½ kg
Potatoes – 3 large (boiled and peeled)
Onions – 2
Ginger Garlic paste – 1 tbsp
Chilli powder – ½ tsp
Ceylon Cinnamon (surul pattai) – 2-inch bark
Tumeric powder – ½ tsp
Lemon – 1
Green chilly - 1
Curry leaves – 1 sprigs
Oil – for frying
Bread crumbs – 1 packet
Eggs - 2
Salt – as required
Cutlet powder
Pepper corns – 1 tbsp
Fennel seeds/sombu/saunf – 1 tbsp
Ceylon Cinnamon (surul pattai) – 2-inch bark
Cloves – 4
Cardamom – 4
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Method
Clean and drain beef and cut into small pieces.
Add cleaned beef, salt, turmeric powder, chilli powder, ginger garlic paste and 1 cinnamon piece into a pressure cooker with 2 cups of water.
Pressure cook for 15 mins on medium flame or as per your cookers standards. Cook until soft. Drain excess water. Let it cool.
Cutlet powder: Heat a pan and add all the ingredients for cutlet powder preparation (including curry leaves) and dry roast on low flame for 5 mins. It will turn very aromatic and you’ll see the color slowly change. Remove from heat and let cool. Grind into a fine powder using a small mixer jar. Store in air-tight container.
Grind cooked meat pieces in a blender in small batches until they break and form tiny thread-like pieces.
In a big bowl combine mashed potatoes, finely chopped onions and green chillies, chopped curry leaves, groung meat, salt, 2 tsps of cutlet powder and one lemon. Combine well.
Form small balls, the size of lemons, and line them in a plate.
On another plate, take bread crumbs.
In a bowl beat 2 eggs with a pinch of salt.
Now start coating the meatballs. Gently press down each meatball to form a patty. Dip the patty in egg wash and then roll in breadcrumbs, to evenly coat on all sides. Line them on a plate.
At this stage, you can store them in zip-lock pouches or tight containers in the freezer for upto 2 weeks.
Heat oil in a pan. When heated, drop in the cutlets and deef fry on both sides. Cook on medium heat.
Drain on paper towels and serve hot.
*Notes
Instead of bread crumbs you can also use store brought panko crumbs or buy a pack of rusk and crush them in a motor and pestle or using a rolling pin. Alternatively, you can also use plain flour (maida) for coating.
You can double coat the cutlets for an extra thick and crispy crumb-shell. Repeat the coating process twice. Patty into egg wash, then into crumbs, back into egg wash and another roll on the bread crumbs.
Dry pat the cutlets before dropping them into the oil for frying, to remove any excess crumbs. Excess crumbs burn in the oil and the oil turns black in a while.
I usually add whole potatoes along with the meat in pressure cooking for cooking. You can then remove them, peel and mash for further use.
Amount of cutlet powder can be altered according to taste.
Frozen cutlets can be thawed and deep fried when required.
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