Cheese Cutlets

We are real fans of regular cutlets. However, we have to admit we love cheese cutlets even more.

If you’ve never had them before, they are very much like normal cutlets; a spicy tuna and potato filling enclosed in a crumb coating. But the difference is that when you bite into it there’s this cube of cheddar cheese just waiting to take it to the next level.

We used Kraft Cheddar Cheese in our cutlets and we got it from one of our partners S&O (Standard & Origin). The cheese tastes savoury with just a hint of tanginess and it melted into a deliciously soft creaminess when deep fried inside the tuna filling. 

Makes: around 20

Ingredients:

• 1 medium size onion
• ½ scotch bonnet
• 8 curry leaves
• ½ lime
• 2/3 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1 can tuna in oil (drained)
• 300g boiled and mashed potatoes (2 medium potatoes)
• 70g Kraft Cheddar Cheese (cut it into approximately 1-inch cubes)
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 tsp. ground black pepper (for the crumb)
• 1 cup dried bread crumbs
• 2 1/2 cups of oil

Instructions:

1. Slice the onion, scotch bonnet pepper and curry leaves thinly and place them in a bowl. Squeeze in the lime, add the salt and ground black pepper. Using your fingers squash and squeeze the ingredients together until the onion becomes soft and releases their juices. Then add the tuna and mix again. Then add the potatoes and give it one final good mix. Have a taste and make any adjustments you’d like.
2. Take around a tablespoon of the mixture and flatten it on the palm of your hand. Then place a cheese cube on top of it and then enclose the filling around the cheese. Roll it between your palms gently to make a smooth ball and then place it on a clean plate. Do this until you run out of the mixture. You should be able to make around 20. You can play around with the cheese to filling ratio if you’d like; we prefer it with more cheese.
3. Beat the eggs and 1/3 tsp. ground black pepper in a medium sized bowl. Add the dried breadcrumbs to another bowl. Set aside.
4. Gently place around 5 of the balls in the bowl with the eggs. Gently roll them in the eggs to get them coated evenly. You can use a spoon to do this.
5. Take them out of the eggs and then place them in the bread crumbs. Gently roll them around in the breadcrumbs to get them evenly coated.
6. Roll them in the eggs again and then in the breadcrumbs again so that they have a double coating.
7. Transfer them to a plate and set aside until it’s time to fry them.
8. Repeat steps 4, 5, 6 & 7 until you have all the tuna and cheese balls coated.
9. Heat the oil in a medium size pot. We used 2 ½ cups of oil. But the important thing to remember here is that the cutlets need to be at least halfway submerged in the oil when frying. So, you might need to use more oil depending on the size of the pot you are using.
10. Test the temperature of the oil by pinching off just a little teeny bit from a cutlet and dropping it into the oil. When it floats and you can see bubbles forming around it at a medium speed, that’s your cue to put the cutlets in the oil.
11. Rather than frying all of them at the same time, fry the cutlets in batches. We did ours in 5 batches. So, place the first batch of cutlets in the oil and then fry until they take on a deep golden-brown colour. You’ll have to turn the cutlets around so that they get fried evenly, however, remember to do this really gently.
12. Once fried, gently remove them from the oil and place them in a steel strainer or over some tissue papers to get rid of the excess oil.
13. Continue frying the cutlets in batches until it’s all done. Keep the temperature of the oil at medium heat throughout.

Note: If you can’t find Kraft Cheddar Cheese from a shop near you, contact 301 5533 or 301 5522.