Recipe contributed by: Yours Truly
N for Nutty Pattice
Every Parsi loves their cutlets, kebabs and pattice. Sometimes though, it is hard to share this love with our vegetarian counterparts as almost all of these recipes are made with chicken or mutton mince. The first time I came across these Nutty Pattice was at a monthly home-chef potluck hosted at Rushina’s studio by my friend Manisha Talim (also known as The Sassy Fork) organises.
They were brought to the event by Zenobia Shroff who is most popular for her line of Shroff’s pickles but also makes a mean Berry Pulao. In the lead up to the event, she had mentioned that she would be bringing a vegetarian pattice and I just presumed that it would be the usual Parsi uninspired stuffing of peas, cauliflower and carrots. What she brought instead were these delicious things called ‘Nutty Pattice’.
Each bite of the pattice brought with it a different taste in my mouth. First I bit into some crunchy cashews. Then, I got some of the chewy sweet raisins which superbly complimented the crispy fried onion that was also inside! Right there and then, I convinced her that I simply must share this idea with all of you on the blog here. However, even though we have met a handful of times since, I keep forgetting to get the recipe from her.
Fast forward to the past month where we introduced a range of pulao’s on my menu. Suddenly, my fridge was overflowing with small boxes of fried onions and assorted nuts that would be left over from each of our pulao orders and that we didn’t know what to do with. I was on cooking duty a couple of weeks ago when I decided that I would try making the Nutty Pattice to accompany the Masoor we were having for dinner.
I was so happy when they came out very similar to the ones I had the first time. I simply added whatever nuts I had in the fridge but I believe that the original recipe calls for atleast fried onions, cashews and raisins. Thank you Zenobia for the inspiration – this is a new favourite in my household.
Note: I say these are vegetarian but they do require an egg-wash before deep frying. You could always bake these as smaller tikki’s in which case you could skip the egg wash. I have not tried the latter though so do try at your own risk!
Nutty Pattice
Ingredients
- 1 onion, sliced finely
- 100 gram seedless raisins
- 100 gram cashew pieces
- 25 gram chironji seeds (optional)
- 4 big potatoes
- Handful of coriander
- Handful of mint
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Warm up some ghee in a pan. One after another, fry the onions, raisins, cashews and chironji seeds. Mix all of these together along with the chopped mint.
- Pressure cook the potatoes until they are soft. Peel and mash completely.
- Mix in the salt, pepper and coriander into the mashed potatoes and form 12 balls.
- Take one potato ball and flatten it to form a small cup. Stuff this with the onion & nut mixture. Flatten another potato ball and put it over the cup to form a round closed pattice.
- Repeat the above step to form six pattice. Coat each with semolina and set aside.
- Heat up the oil. When the oil is hot, dip each pattice into the whisked egg and then deep fry until golden brown.
- Serve hot by itself with chappati or with a lentil dish of your choice such as a Dhansak or Masoor.
This post is part of my ongoing series on the blog, the A to Z of Parsi Food which has been curated in collaboration with Parsi food enthusiasts globally. For more interesting recipes follow the hashtag #AtoZChallenge mentioned below.