Amit Kocharekar, Executive Chef, The Resort, Mumbai, comes up with healthier versions of three popular dishes to give you ‘freedom from fried’ this Independence Day.
Chef Amit Kocharekar recently took the helm as Executive Chef at The Resort, Mumbai. With over 17 years of culinary experience, Chef Amit brings a dynamic energy to The Resort’s varied culinary scene. His passion to continuously learn and explore his craft has resulted in an impressive career spanning stints at The Renaissance hotel, The Oberoi and JW Marriott. At The Resort, Mumbai, Chef Amit plans to introduce a range of new fares with local flavours and fresh ingredients to create the ultimate dining experience.
Used to thinking out of the box, for Independence Day, Chef Amit has come up with some recipes which will give you ‘freedom from fried’. These regular recipes with a twist will help you cut back on fried foods without compromising on taste. Air frying, baking and grilling are all healthier alternatives to deep frying your food. Fried foods can be heavy in calories and are often cooked in unhealthy oils. But with these smart ways to eat fried food, you can free yourself from unhealthy food in the freedom month (and beyond).
Hara Bhara Kabab
Ingredients
1 cup green peas
½ cup clean spinach
2 green chillies
½ inch ginger
¼ cup cottage cheese
2 potatoes
1 tsp chaat masala
½ tsp coriander powder
½ tsp cumin powder
1 tsp garam masala
2 tbsp chopped coriander
½ cup breadcrumbs
½ tsp salt
Method
- Take clean and boiled spinach as well as clean and boiled green peas.
- Take a mixie bowl, add spinach & green peas into it & coarsely grind.
- Then chop ginger, green chilli and coriander leaves.
- Peal and boil the potato and then grate.
- Grate the cottage cheese in a bowl.
- In the same bowl add grated potato, chopped chillies, ginger, cottage cheese, chaat masala, coriander powder, cumin powder, garam masala, chopped coriander, breadcrumbs and salt.
- Make dough out of the mixture and divide into 10 equal portions. Then make a tikki shape and place on a baking tray.
- Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 10-12 minutes or air fry in an air fryer till golden brown in colour.
- Serve with green chutney.
Fish & Chips
Ingredients
3 fillets of Pomfret fish
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
2 cup panko or breadcrumbs
¼ tbsp mustard paste
½ tsp lemon juice
Method
- Clean the fish fillet under running water.
- Make a marination with egg, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and all-purpose flour.
- Squeeze all the water from the fish fillet, and apply the marination on the fillet.
- Rest it for at least one hour. Take panko crumbs in one plate and crumb the fillet properly on both sides.
- Take a non-stick tray, place the crumbed fish on it and bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 10-12 minutes, or air fry till golden brown in an air fryer.
- Serve with baked potato chips & tartar sauce.
Samosa
Ingredients
¼ cup green peas
2 green chillies
1 cup refined flour
¼ cup ghee
3 potatoes
¼ cup broken cashew nuts
½ tsp coriander powder
½ tsp cumin powder
1 tsp garam masala
2 tbsp chopped coriander
½ tsp salt
½ cup oil
½ cup water
Method
- Peal & boil the potato, and make a paste of ginger and green chilli.
- Heat oil in a pan, put the ginger-chilli paste and all the ingredients and cook till it gets properly mixed.
- Remove mixture to a tray and cool it down.
- Make a dough by adding refined flour, ghee, salt & water.
- Make even portions from the dough and roll with a rolling pin. Stuff the mixture and make samosas.
- Bake in an oven at 180 degrees for 10-12 minutes or air fry till golden brown in an air fryer.
- Serve with green chutney.
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