It was easy to zero in on Paneer Aloo Tikki as a vrat recipe post for the upcoming Mahashivratri. Mahashivratri in 2017 is on 24th February, which is now a week away. Devansh had been asking me to give Carrot Aloo Cheese Patties to him in tiffin. I had not made them for quite some time now because of cheese. Kiddo’s been having cough on and off past couple of months due to the weather. So have been avoiding giving him cheese, which I felt would trigger cough. So when searching for vrat recipes I came across some aloo tikki recipes, I knew it would solve two purposes–farali tikki for us, and patties for kiddo’s tiffin.
Adding paneer in potato patties sounded like a good idea. Why pass up on extra calcium along with yummy taste when paneer fits into the list of food that we can consume on upvas days? I didn’t want to deep fry the patties however. I don’t know when and how people thought deep frying food while fasting was a good idea; it kind of beats the very purpose of upvas. So I decided to make the patties in appam pan.
After making the sabudana vada in the appam pan, I started making even the carrot aloo cheese patties in the appam pan instead of shallow frying them. I feel appam pan cooks them more evenly from all sides. Luckily the experiment worked. “I want exactly this in my tiffin tomorrow.” the kiddo announced. The rest of us liked the paneer aloo tikki as well. Hope you like this fasting recipe, which can be used on any upvas days like Maha Shivratri, Navratri, or Ekadashi…works as a tiffin recipe too.
Paneer Aloo Tikki Recipe Video
Recipe of Farali Paneer Aloo Tikki Made in Appam Pan
Ingredients
- 200 gms fresh paneer cottage cheese
- 3 medium-sized potatoes
- 1 green chili deseeded and finely chopped
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 1-2 tbsp finely chopped coriander
- 1 tbsp lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 1/4th tsp black pepper powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds powder jeera powder
- 3-4 tbsp rajgira atta amaranth flour
- salt to taste
- 2-3 tsp oil
Instructions
- Pressure cook potatoes, peel, and then mash them. (Don’t overcook the potatoes. They should be just tender enough such that they can be mashed properly.)
- Crumble paneer, put it in a clean cotton or muslin cloth, make a small potli (round pouch), and then squeeze to drain out water/moisture.
- Take mashed potatoes and crumbled paneer in a mixing bowl. (Mashed potato should be slightly more than crumbled paneer.)
- Add grated ginger, chopped coriander, black pepper powder, jeera powder, salt, and rajgira atta. (Initially add only 3 tbsp of rajgira atta.)
- Knead for a couple of minutes. (If you feel the mixture is moist and is not coming together properly add 1 or 2 tbsp of rajgira atta more.)
- When the mixture thickens enough to shape balls out of it, add chopped chili and knead once more to mix properly. (I add chili in the end to minimize its contact with hand. You can also grease your palm with a little oil if you like.)
- Now make small balls of the mixture and press them gently to flatten them a bit. (The size of each patty/tikki should be such that it can fit in the appam pan section.)
- Heat an appam pan and then add little oil in each section.
- After oil becomes hot, add patties in the pan one after another, and flatten them a bit.
- Cover the pan with a lid, and cook on low flame for 2-3 minutes.
- Take off the lid and turn over the patties. (Don’t worry if the patties don’t hold perfect shape at this stage. They will get their proper round shape when you cook without the lid later.)
- Again cover the pan with a lid, and cook the other side on low flame for 2-3 minutes.
- Take off the lid and turn over the patties.
- Now cook without the lid for 4-5 minutes more. You will need to keep turning over the patties in between to ensure they don’t overcook and turn dark brown.
- Turn off heat when the patties turn golden brown in colour.
- Serve with farali green chutney or curd.
Video
Notes
- You can use sendha namak (rock salt) if you don’t use regular salt in vrat food.
- Food that can be eaten while observing a fast (vrat/upvas) differs from region to region. Please check the ingredients list to make sure it fits the norms you follow.
- The portion in the middle of the appam pan tends to heat up fast. So add the patties in the outer sections first and then go on adding inwards.
- Grease the spoon used to turn over the patties with a little oil so they don’t stick to it.
- Patties in the middle section will get cooked first. You can take them out of the pan first and move the outer ones in the middle sections till they also get cooked properly.