Bengali Vegetable Chop

Although there is no official menu card for the local fritters shops of Kolkata (except the very famous and large outlets like Kalika, Laxmiram Shau, Putiram and so on), the available items are more or less same throughout the year. The Singara, Kachori, and Potato Fritter make the rounds every damn evening and morning, but others are seasonal and are deeply dependent on their availability!! Like, capsicum er chop, aam er chop, vegetable chop...they are the seasonal varieties.

Vegetbable Chop is a crumb coated deep fried fritter where the stuffing is made of mashed beetroots, carrots, potatoes and green peas. These chops are more on the side of sweet and have a crunch from the peanuts. Pink in colour, these chops worked like siren, silently announcing that winter has finally arrived in Kolkata.

Vegetable Chop

Serves 10-12

Ingredients:

1 large beetroot – peeled and cut into cubes

2 medium carrots – peeled and cut into cubes

2 medium potatoes – peeled and cut into cubes

1 tsp cumin seeds

A handful of peanuts

A handful of raisins

A handful of green peas

1 and ½ tsp bhaja mosla (dry roast same amount of cumin seeds, coriander seeds, black peppercorns and dry red chillies for a minute or two on low flame on a tawa, before grinding them into a fine powder.)

1 tsp red chilli powder

½ inch ginger root

A little fresh coriander leaves – finely chopped

Salt & sugar

2 cups of breadcrumbs

2 eggs

1 cup of all purpose flour

Enough oil to deep fry

Method:

In a pressure cooker put together the cubed beetroots, carrots, potatoes, salt and enough water to submerge all the veggies.

Close the lid and cook on pressure for about 15 minutes or until the cooker blows 4-6 whistles. After 4-6 whistles, switch off the flame and wait until the pressure settles down.

Open the lid and drain all the water. Do not throw away the water, you can use that as a vegetable stock, it’s full of good nutrients.

Get all your veggies in a bowl and mash them with the help of a fork. I don’t use food processor because I like the chunky bits of the vegetable chop. But if you feel like you can a make a smooth paste of it as well.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a kadai and lightly fry the peanuts until they become lightly browned. Transfer them to a bowl after frying.

In the same oil shallow fry the raisins in it until they puff up. Transfer them to a bowl and add the cumin seeds to the remaining oil.

Then add the ginger paste and sauté for half a minute.

Throw in the mashed veggies into the kadai with the red chilli powder and start stirring.

You need to stir and cook the mashed veggies inside the kadai until the veggies form a lump and they start to come off pan / kadai.

When you see the lump has started to form, add the green peas and the sugar into it.

Stir and cook until the lump is formed. Remember there should not be any moisture left once the lump if formed or otherwise it will be very hard to form the balls.

Add the bhaja mosla, toasted peanuts and raisins to it. Mix and transfer the mix to a bowl to cool down.

When the mixture is cool enough handle, make 10-12 small balls out of that mix. Give them smooth cylindrical shape and keep them aside in a separate clean plate.

Break the eggs in a bowl and season it with salt and pepper.

In the seconds bowl put the flour and season that with salt and pepper as well.

Fill the third bowl with the breadcrumbs and season that with ¼ tsp of turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt and pepper.

Heat enough oil in a kadai to deep fry and let it come to medium hot temperature.

Roll the veggi balls on the flour and then dip them inside the eggs, before rolling them over the breadcrumbs.

Deep fry the chops until the crusts become golden brown.

Take them out of the oil and place on a kitchen towel for a minute, to soak off the excess oil.

Serve them immediately with kasundi, ketchup and sliced onion rings and lime wedges.