Recipe : Brain Cutlets

On my recent review of Daddy's Deli, Bangalore, I had described their wonderful brain cutlets, so a friend asked if I knew how to make them.

There was a time when we made these cutlets quite frequently at home, but nowadays, its really tough to get clean mutton brains in a quantity large enough to make these cutlets, especially in Ahmedabad. You will normally find these cutlets (if available) in a Parsi restaurant / cafe.

Its pretty easy to make at home, if you get brains that are completely cleaned.

Method :
Clean the mutton brains and cook in water salt and pepper.

Drain the brains, mash them and mix finely chopped onions, green chillies, fresh coriander and salt & pepper to taste.
(proportion - mashed brain 80-90% and 10-20% cuttings)

Form into cutlets.
Dip in a beaten egg and fry. (deep fry is better, but shallow frying works too and is healthier)

Serve hot with tomato sauce or green chutney.

The creamy flavour with the kick of green chilli is delightful.

Roohafza - A Cooling Summer Sherbet/Sharbath

My husband absolutely loves this drink. Its something that brings back memories of carefree childhood summer days playing in the sun and coming home to an ice cold glass of cooling sherbet/sharbath.

For me, I much prefer the regular rose syrup /sherbet to Roohafza. On our last trip to my inlaws place, his mum had made ice candies with the syrup (add syrup to water and freeze). It tasted much better than the drink which is made by just the syrup mixed with ice cold water and ice cubes.

The packaging of the bottle hasn't changed much since I was a kid. I still can't drink the sharbath made from the syrup, but I do like it in the ice candy / ice lolly form. I think it will be quite good in chuski / gola (syrup poured over crushed ice on a stick - kind of like granita on a stick) form too. I also don't mind a very weak mix with milk.


Hamdard Laboratories, the maker of Rooh Afza makes it products based on herbal secrets of the Unani (Greek traditon) The company has over 600 products in its portfolio and Rooh Afza is over a century old. Rooh Hafza has a number of strange ingredients in its composition including palak (spinach) but the sum of its parts are supposed to be excellent for its cooling properties.


Currently Hamdard, is repositioning its brand Rooh Afza as an all seasons drink rather than just a summer cooler.