Croquettes are referred to as fried snacks coated with breadcrumbs. The stuffing can be made of either vegetables, cheese, fish or meat. These kind of snacks are pretty popular among Bengalis and we usually call them ‘chop’ or ‘cutlets’. You will find a few cutlet recipes in my earlier posts, which are given here.

• Vegetable Chop or Vegetable Cutlet
• Egg Devil or “Dimer chop”
• Chicken Cutlet
• Fish Roll
• Prawn Cutlet
• Kolkata style Fish fry
• Fish Cutlets (Bengali Macher Chop)

In the current recipe, I have chosen paneer or the Indian Cottage Cheese  as the stuffing since it is extremely popular among vegetarians. I love the soft, crumbly texture of paneer in my mouth with each bite. Icing on the top is the flavour of coriander leaves in the stuffing, symbolizing the onset of winter. Without using variety of spices, the garam masala solely creates the magic.

While one has to be careful while frying the croquettes which is the only tricky part, however, with a few handful ingredients a tasty snack will be ready within minutes.

Ingredients for 6 pieces :

1. Paneer/ Indian Cottage Cheese – 150 gm.
2. Finely chopped onion – 1 (small)
3. Finely chopped green chilli – 2
4. Handful of fresh coriander leaves
5. Salt and sugar to taste
6. Garam masala pawder – ½ teaspoon
7. Black pepper powder – ¼ teaspoon
8. Plain flour – 2 tbspoon
9. Breadcrumbs to coat
10. Oil for deep frying

Procedure :

In a large bowl take the paneer and crumble it finely by hands.

Add onion, green chilli, coriander leaves, garam masala powder, salt and sugar to the paneer. Mix them very well.

Now divide the paneer mixture into six equal parts. Roll each part on a wooden surface by your palm and give a cylindrical or log shape to them.

Take the flour in a separate bowl. Add black pepper powder and pinch of salt to it. Add little water at a time to the flour mixture and turn it into a moderately thick batter.

Spread the breadcrumbs in a plate.

Now coat each paneer roll first with breadcrumbs, then with batter and at last again with the breadcrumbs.

Now heat sufficient amount of oil in a frying pan and deep fry the paneer rolls. Take them out on a paper towel to soak excess oil.

Best to enjoy it with puffed rice (murmura) and tea as an evening snack. 🙂 Also you can have it with tomato ketchup only.

Note :

1. Use sufficient amount of oil while frying the croquettes so that they can completely dip into the oil.
2. While making this type of snacks, make sure that the oil is very hot during the frying process otherwise the cutlets will break and filling will come out from it.
3. You can give the cutlets any shape according to your liking.
4. Though I have used ‘paneer’ available in market, you can also use home made one.