Sri Lankan cutlets - fish and vegetarian versions!

🍠🐟These cutlets (Sri Lankan croquettes!) are probably the most popular snack in Sri Lanka. They are normally prepared using tuna, salmon, or any fresh or canned fished. The tuna version happens to be my favourite as my mum always made them this way. It is definitely a snack I look forward to whenever I visit Sri Lanka, or any big Sri Lankan gathering! You may see them at teatime, lunch or dinner. They also tend to dissapear very fast!!! 

I´ve recently updated with a tasty vegetarian version you can see at the end.

If you prefer a non-spicy version you get omit the green chilli, or use less black pepper.

They can be served with a chilli sauce or ketchup.

Tuna Fish cutlets

Ingredients
2 large potatoes
3 small tins of tuna

1 onion

salt

pepper (we add loads in Sri Lanka!)

cinnamon sticks (or sprinkle of ground cinnamon)

cardamom

curry leaves

1 or 1/2 green chilli

1-2 eggs

breadcrumbs

sunflower oil for frying

lemon juice

garlic (optional)

turmeric - 1/3 teaspoon

1. Peel, cut and boil the potatoes for approximately 25-30 mins until soft. Drain and set aside.

2. Slice the onion and mince the green chilli.

3.Heat oil in a pan and brown the onions. Add the curry leaves, cardamom, cinnamon sticks (or a sprinkle of ground cinnamon).

4. Add the drained potatoes, mashing them as you mix them in with the the onions.

5. Drain out the excess oil in the tuna cans, add the tuna in and mix.

6. Season with salt and pepper, ground garlic (optional) and turmeric. In Sri Lanka we tend to add a lot of pepper, but adjust to your taste.

7. Leave the mixture to cool, sprinkling some lemon on top.

8. Once cooled, remove the solid pieces (cinammon stick, cardamom, curry leaves),  and form bite-sized cutlet balls.

9. Soak each cutlet at a time in beaten egg and then coat in breadcrumbs.

10. Heat oil in a saucepan, and deep-fry the cutlets for a few minutes at a time until golden.  You may need to turn the side half way through. Be careful not to overcrowd the frying pan.

11.Ideally, serve immeditely whilst nice and crispy!

Vegetarian  cutlet version !!!!!!!

A great vegetarian version you could try is to substitute tuna for jackfruit. In Sri Lanka, you can buy  fresh jackfruit, and boil it in a pressure cooker. In the UK you can buy either fresh or tinned cooked jackfruit from a South Asian store (or Amazon if your country doesn´t sell them). I am using tinned cooked jackfruit and the recipe is based on pre-cooked jackfruit.

Finding jackfruit!

If you don´t have an Asian store nearby click here to see an online example

These versions have the skin peeled off and boiled. Remember to remove the thick green skin if you purchase a non skin peeled version!

Ingredients 

350g potatoes 

283g jackfruit (tinned and pre-cooked, this is how much my tin weighed)

1-2  tbsp breadcrumbs (might need a tbsp more)

4-5  cloves

a few curry leaves

4-5 cardamom seeds

1 small cinnamon stick

2 medium sized red onions

green chillies - depending on your prefence, usually 1, but more if you like it hotter

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

Salt 

 pepper (in Sri Lanka we usually add lots of pepper! maybe 1tsp but add as preferred)

1 teaspoon curry powder

1-2 eggs

breadcrumbs

sunflower oil 

(Produced approx 21 cutlets)

Steps 7 and 8 are optional, you can add chopped pieces of cinnamon, with cardamom and cloves straight into the mix without grinding, but remove them before forming the balls of cutlets. But grinding fresh spices will give you added flavour.

1. Peel, cut and boil the potatoes for approximately  25-30 mins until soft. Drain and set aside.

2. Chop the jackfruit into small peices and place in a food processor. Process maybe 4-5 times, do not over process. You may need to process in batches depending on the size of your food processor.

3. Cut the curry leaves into tiny pieces and cut the cinnamon stick into 3-4 pieces. 

4. Mince the green chillies (or cut into tiny pieces which could be easier to remove after if you prefer).

5. Slice and cut the onions into small pieces, and set aside.

6. Mash the boiled potatoes well.

7. Place the cardamom, cinnamon and cloves in a frying pan and heat on low heat whilst mixing to brown slightly, but be careful not to burn. As mentioned above, you can add full pieces of these straight into the cooking mix (instead of heating and grinding), so steps 7 and 8  are optional.

8. Remove the green cardamom pod and add the cardamom seeds into a mortar and pestle. Also add the cinnamon and cloves into the  mortar and pestle and grind until a fine powder is produced. You can also use the food processor to do this. 

9. Heat oil in a frying pan. Once the oil is hot, add the onions, curry leaves and green chilies and mix. 

10. Once the onions are golden, add the jackfruit into the mix  and stir well.

11. Add either the cinnamon, cardamom and cloves either in full piece form or grounded form (steps 7 & 8 ) and mix.

12. Add  the turmeric and curry powders and continue stirring for a few minutes.

13. And finally add the mashed potatoes with salt and black pepper and mix well.

14. Turn off the heat and adjust salt levels if required.

15. Add 1-2 tbsp of breadcrumbs, mixing well. This will help to absorb any excess moisture, making it easier to form cutlet balls later on. After adding the breadcrumbs, the feeling of moisture should be reduced. The mixture should feel semi-solid and firm. Add a little more breadcrumbs if the consistency hasn´t been reached.

16. Leave the mixture to cool. You can  continue with the next stage once cooled, or leave overnight in the fridge.

17. Once cooled, remove the solid spice pieces if you used them (cinammon stick, cardamom, curry leaves) and green chillies if you prefer without them, and continue from step 8 of the original fish cutlet recipe above.

Enjoy!!!!!