Juicy Lucy Cutlet Pao

Move over vada pav. If you are non vegetarian, cutlet pav is way to go. If you ever walked the streets of Goa, cutlet pav was never far away. When it's too late for lunch and too early for dinner, cutlet pav is your best bet to satiate that hunger. Crisp on the outside, juicy on the inside meat cutlets, slathered with spicy chutney on toasted pao...can it get any better?! I've humbly tried to endeavour.

I really wanted to add my own zing with this Goan staple. Ever heard of a juicy lucy? If you've never been to Dunkin Dounuts or Minneapolis (where it was 'invented'), it's a burger with cheese inside. As simple as that sounds, the suprising pop of melting cheese when you take a bite into the burger is just pure heaven.



So what happens when you mix a Goan street food with Minneapolis' contribution to the world? Look at the beauty below to find out.



Makes 4 servings

For the cutlet:
250gms minced beef (you can use chicken but I can't promise you the same result)
1tsp garlic paste
1tbsp vinegar or lime juice
1 egg
2 tbsp breadcrumbs
Salt & pepper according to taste

8 slices of cheese*
Oil for frying

For the green chutney:
1/4 cup mint leaves
1/2 cup coriander leaves
1/2 onion
1/2 tomato
1/2 inch ginger
3 cloves of garlic
2-3 green chillis
Salt

4 Ladi pav buns + 4 slices of cheese

*Cheddar or mozzerella is the best cheese to use for this recipe. I had quite a bit of left over blue cheese which I've used instead. If you do end up using blue cheese ensure you use less than a teaspoon serving per patty. Blue cheese has a very strong flavour and it's not everyone's cup of tea. Plus your core won't be molten as evident in the pictures.



In a bowl, mix all the cutlet ingredients together with your hands. Ensure all ingredients are well incorporated. Roll this mixture into small balls and flatten with the palm of your hands to form cutlets. If the mixture is too wet and not holding its shape, add some more breadcrumbs. Ensure the size of these cutlets is just enough to fill your pav. Make 8 thin cutlets for 4 cutlet paos

Cut each slice of cheese into 4 equal slices and stack the pieces. Sandwich one stack of cheese between 2 cutlets. Press down on the edges to tightly seal the cheese within the cutlet. Cook the cutlets on a medium heat in a heavy bottomed skillet. Cook till cutlets are well browned on both sides (approx 5mins). It is common for the meat to puff up due to steam from the melting cheese. Incase you notice this, prick the top of each cutlet to allow steam to escape.

For the chutney:
In a blender, add all ingredients with 2-3 tbsp of water.Blend till a smooth puree. You can bottle excess chutney and refriderate for upto 10days or freeze for upto 1 month. You can use this chutney in any concieveable dish, right from sanwiches to dips to kebab mariandes to even curry.

To serve, toast ladi paos and slather with greenchutney. Add the cutlet and top with another slice of cheese. Top with a fried egg and some more green chutney.

Shepherd's Pie Stuffed Peppers

My mom recently went crazy at the butchers. She got some fantastic beef in 3 versions: minced, cubed & steak sliced. And obviously I am going to tell you what to do with each cut. Right now I'm focusing on minced meat. For a brilliant steak recipe, check out my previous post.

I didn't want to make the same old cutlet or potato chops that most pav households make. I wanted my minced meat to stand out. Which is why I opted for this recipe. For those of you who don't know, Shepherd's Pie is a traditional British dish of baked mince meat with a mashed potato 'crust' on top. You can obviously ask me why the peppers and why I decided to stuff this in it? Because I can, and because there were two massive peppers lying waste in my fridge. And it looks so pretty! All my recipes are born out of me peering into my fridge and checking which ingredients will expire soon and which I think I can throw together.



Don't eat beef? No problem. All my dishes can be substituted with chicken.

2 large Bell Peppers
2 Potatoes
200gms Beef
2 onions chopped
1 bay leaf
1 cinnamon stick (whole)
1tbsp butter
1tsp Worcestershire sauce
1tsp Vinegar
1 tsp chopped ginger
1tsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp coarsely ground pepper
1 cup grated cheese (optional)
Salt to taste

Note: 1 tbsp of pepper might seem a little too much to most. Baking or grilling bell peppers brings out its inherent sweetness and hence the hit of peppered beef to balance out the flavours. Incase this is too much, sprinkle chilli or pepper to the beef according to your taste and preference.

Melt some butter in a large pan. Add the onions, ginger and garlic and sauté till onions are translucent. Now add the beef and reduce heat to a simmer. Add the bay leaf & cinnamon stick. Make sure these are whole spices as we will be removing them once the beef is cooked. You don't wanna chew a big bark of cinnamon with minced meat.

Add the worcestershire sauce, pepper and vinegar. Let the meat cook in its own juices. Once cooked, increase the heat on the gas. Stir often to prevent it from sticking to the base of the pan. Once all the liquid has evaporated and the meat is completely dry, remove the bay leaf and cinnamon stick.

In another pan boil potatoes in salted water. Once cooked, peel and mash.

Cut off the tops of the peppers and scoop up the seeds inside. You should be left with a hollow pepper mould. Stuff one teaspoon of the beef mixture. Press down to flatten it with the back of your spoon. It should give you a nice even layer. Now spoon in a teaspoon of the mashed potatoes. Again flatten surface with the back of the spoon to even it out. Repeat this process till the peppers are 90% stuffed.



The peppers will contract little with heat, which is why its important to not over stuff them or your stuffing will spill out.  Bake in the oven for 15 mins at 130 degrees Celsius. The peppers should start wrinkling up but still hold its shape. Now add grated cheese to the top and fill the remaining 10% space that you left. Grill for 10 mins or until the cheese on top melts or gives a nice golden crust.

Asian Style Beef Steak

Steaks are effortless cooking. All you need is an all star marinade and around 5-10 mins of cooking time. But when you say the word steak, your mind immediately associates it with America & Texas style barbecues. So today I'm going to break away from the stereotype. I am not going for a traditional American marinade. Instead, I'm looking the other way, I'm looking eastward. My steak today is Asian inspired, the ingredients I've used are very yin and yang. I'm using soy sauce which is salty, sugar which is sweet, orange juice which is tart, cinnamon and cloves give a liquorice flavour, and finally BBQ sauce which is tangy. So as you can see its a combination of different flavours that come together beautifully, to make a steak that is finger licking good!

Makes enough for 4 slices of steak

For the marinade:

2 tbsp Black bean paste
2 tbsp BBQ sauce
2 tbsp Soy sauce
1 tbsp orange juice or Tang powder
1 tsp brown sugar (regular sugar will do, but brown sugar gives a nice colour)
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Finely chopped ginger (approx 3" root)
3 Cloves
1 stick of cinnamon
1 tsp Peanut or Sesame (til) oil
A pinch of pepper
Note: Salt is omitted on purpose as soy sauce is naturally salty

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and mix to combine. Toss in the meat and using your hands ensure that the marinade is equally slathered on all meat slices. Leave to rest overnight or for a minimum of four hours before use.

Cook meat on a skillet at high heat according to doneness. Be careful as since the marinade is a little runny, it might start splattering will the heat. Below is a basic time reference for cooking an inch thick slice of beef. Ofcourse if you are using chicken instead, you don't have to worry about this as you cook the chicken through and through.

Thickness	Rare	Medium	Well
1"	6-8	8-10	10-14

I like my steak medium-well so I cooked it for approx 9-10mins.

Serve piping hot off the grill with some mashed potatoes. Since I was going for oriental flavours, I've added some spring onions to my potato mash.

Meatballs

These meatballs with my marinara sauce...are a match made in Spaghetti heaven. Details below:

Ingredients:

1 cup minced meat. I used beef but pork would do just fine.
1 Onion diced
3 cloves of Garlic preferably grated
1 cup Breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients except the breadcrumbs. Now slowly add the breadcrumbs, little by little, mixing till all the ingredients come together to form a ball. Now roll the meat mixture to bite size balls and fry till golden brown.

Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon

I never really understood what the fuss is about Beef Bourguignon....until I tried it myself!! On a recent girlfriend getaway to Paris, a local and a friend recommended that me and the girls try out the Beef Bourguignon at this quaint Parisienne place called Le Petit Saint Benoit. And since then, I just cannot get the flavour out of my head.

So one day after watching Julie & Julia, I finally mustered up the courage to try this rich beef stew. And who better to guide me that Julia Child. Now unfortunately, she doesn't have her own official site or a collection of recipes online. So I've used this BLOG and followed it to a T. She herself claims to have copied it from the original Julia Child recipe, and it does make a mean stew. So today I'm not going to type out the recipe, just going to rant out how good it is.

Beef Bourguignon is a labour of love. It will take you all day (and a whole bottle of wine!) to make this one dish wonder, but when you try it for the first time, you won't believe your mouth. So please have patience, it is definitely worth toiling for. It is also a dish that tastes better when shared, so make sure you have a dinner party to celebrate. Traditionally served with fresh, warm crusty Baguette (Oh how I wish I was back in Paris), but I've used mashed potatoes instead.

Served best with a glass of the best red wine and the movie Julie & Julia. Bon Appetite!!!