Millet and carrot cutlets: no meat, and they don't fall apart in the pan
Millet cooked soft binds itself, with no grinding and no beans: one egg, a handful of breadcrumbs and half an hour in the fridge is all it takes. The grain has to be scalded with boiling water first, or it carries a bitterness no seasoning will hide. Ten cutlets from one cup of millet, with a yogurt and dill sauce.
Your own work in that: 35 min.
- Millet cooking 25 min
- Mixture 15 min
- Mixture firming up 30 min
- Frying 20 min
Step by step
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Scald and cook the millet
Rinse the millet in a sieve under cold water, then pour boiling water over it and drain at once. Tip into a pot, add 500 ml boiling water and a level teaspoon of salt, bring to the boil, cover and cook over the lowest heat 15 minutes, until it has absorbed the water and softened. Take off the heat and leave covered 10 minutes.
Ingredients: 200 g millet · 500 ml water · 2 pcs carrots · 1 pcs onion · 2 cloves garlic · 2 tbsp oil · 1 pcs egg · 4 tbsp breadcrumbs · ½ bunch flat-leaf parsley · 1 tsp dried marjoram · 1 tsp sweet paprika · 1½ tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
TipScalding washes off the surface fat that goes rancid in air and gives millet its characteristic bitterness. It costs thirty seconds, and the difference in taste is clear. There is more water than for fluffy millet, because for cutlets the grain should be soft and sticky.
Boiling water through the sieve, then fifteen minutes covered
Fry the carrot and onion
Grate the carrots finely and dice the onion. Fry in the oil over medium heat 10 minutes, until the carrot softens and loses its raw smell and the onion turns golden. Add the crushed garlic for the last minute. Cool.
TipRaw carrot stays hard in a cutlet and releases water while it fries. Ten minutes of frying drives that water off early rather than later, inside the cutlet.
Ten minutes, carrot soft, onion golden
Mix
Add the vegetables, egg, 4 spoons of breadcrumbs, chopped parsley, marjoram crushed between your palms, paprika, the rest of the salt (half a teaspoon) and pepper to the lukewarm millet. Mix vigorously with a spoon: crushed as you stir, millet releases starch and becomes its own binder. Taste and season more boldly than seems necessary.
Mixed vigorously, the grain releasing starch
Chill for half an hour
Cover the bowl and refrigerate 30 minutes. In that time the breadcrumbs absorb the last of the moisture and the starch from the millet sets and binds the mixture.
TipThis is the one step that cannot be skipped. Warm, the mixture is loose and the cutlets break up in the pan; the same mixture after half an hour in the fridge shapes like modelling clay.
Half an hour in the fridge, the mixture firms up
Shape and coat
With wet hands form 10 patties 1.5 cm thick, pressing firmly so no air is trapped inside. Coat in breadcrumbs.
Ingredients: 80 g breadcrumbs · 80 ml oil
Wet hands, pressed firmly, breadcrumbs
Fry
Heat a thin layer of oil (about 2 mm) in a pan over medium heat; top it up between batches. Fry the cutlets in two batches, 4 minutes a side, until golden brown (about 16 minutes in all). Turn only once, with a wide spatula. Drain on paper towel.
Medium heat, four minutes a side, one turn
Make the sauce and serve
Stir the yogurt with the chopped dill, the garlic crushed to a paste with salt, and the lemon juice. Serve the cutlets hot, with the sauce and potatoes or a salad. They keep 3 days in the fridge; reheat in a pan, not a microwave.
Ingredients: 250 g Greek yogurt · ½ bunch dill · 1 clove garlic · ½ pcs lemon, juice · ½ tsp salt
Yogurt and dill sauce, cutlets hot
Before you start
Baked instead of fried
On a lined tray, brushed with oil, 25 minutes at 200 °C, turned halfway. Less fat, a less crisp crust, and less standing at the stove.
Vegan
Instead of the egg, 3 spoons of aquafaba (chickpea brine) whisked to a foam, or 1 spoon of ground linseed soaked in 3 spoons of water for 10 minutes. Chill the mixture 45 minutes rather than 30.
They fall apart
Too wet a mixture, or the chilling was skipped. Add a spoon of breadcrumbs, give it another 20 minutes in the fridge and shape smaller, thicker cutlets: the smaller they are, the easier they turn in one piece.
Nutrition
per 100 gStep photos are computer-generated from the recipe.
