Not pictured: adrak (ginger) chai on buffalo milk.

This is a very common breakfast when we get leftover rice.

This was today's version:

For one cup mixed rice, add about 1/2 a cup of boiled grated or mashed potatoes, 1/2 inch of ginger and 3 garlic cloves mashed, ground or grated, a chopped green chili or two, a small chopped onion, a small finely grated carrot and about 4 tbsp of besan (gram flour, or semolina, rice flour, breadcrumbs - anything to bind the mix really).

As for spices, you can keep it simple with just some salt, turmeric and maybe some kashmiri chili powder, but I also added chaat masala (a tangy, lovely Indian blend that we use almost daily here), and a pinch of garam masala.

Shape into little cutlets with wet hands, and shallow fry on medium heat until the cutlets have gotten a nice colour.

For sauce you can use anyting from ketchup to green chutney, or just eat them plain.

This might not look like much, but this is incredibly tasty stuff.