Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Potato, zucchini and cheese tikki (patty)


Last weekend I had to make a mid-morning snack for my 2-year old. As usual, the opportunistic mom in me started thinking about incorporating vegetables in some form. I opened the refrigerator and found a zucchini.

I have had zucchini-cheese fritters at restaurants before and while I loved the taste, my only complaint was that they absorb a lot of oil. I decided to introduce some Indian flavors and how I fare as per my 2-year old judge.

Ingredients:

Mashed potato mix – 1 cup
Zucchini – 1 (grated)
Red onions – chopped (one-fourth of a large one)
Cilantro – 2tbsp (chopped)
Swiss flavored snack cheese – 1 triangle
Salt and paprika to taste
Water as needed
Oil

I started by grating the zucchini – this had to be done to ensure it mixed well in the dough. The grating also gave a nice uniform light green color to the patties. To this I added the mashed potato mix, chopped onions and cilantro, roughly chopped cheese chunks, salt, paprika and just about enough water to make little round and flattened patties. Then each one was shallow fried in heated canola oil.

As a kid, I always looked at the way food was presented to me before deciding whether I should eat it. Any edible jungle on my plate would not end up in my stomach. So, naturally I cannot blame my daughter if she wants to see and choose what she is eating. Being a mom has also taught me that a toddler is actually a little person with likes and dislikes -- give them well presented appetizing food and they will gobble it up if it tastes good and they are hungry. Yes, this is quite unlike us adults, who can eat even if we are not hungry ☺

So, I decorated a plate with some fresh lettuce leaves and served the snack on them. It was fun seeing dad and daughter enjoy the tikkies together. I sneaked a few in as well ;)

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