Kadai Paneer

For a person who wasn't fond of paneer much, the last one year has made such a big change. If I go too long without having paneer curry, I start longing and dreaming for it. But considering the heavy fat content in it, we have to restrict ourselves to only once a month or so.  Kadai Paneer is one of my favorite among the various paneer dishes, I think the mix of freshly grounded spice, capsicum and paneer just sing along so well. I am sharing a quick version of kadai Paneer today, there are a couple of more elaborate methods to make this -- I shall reserve that for another time. :)

Kadai Paneer

Ingredients

Serves - 3
Spice Level - Moderately spicy
Prep time - 15 min
Cook time - 10 min

Paneer -  150 gm , cubed
Onion - 1 sliced thinly
Tomatoes - 1 1/2 [to grind] , 1 chopped well
Capsicum - 1 chopped into medium sized pieces
Coriander seeds - 2 tsp
Dry Red chilli - 1
Green chilli - 1
Cashews - 5-6
Garam Masala - 1 Tsp
Kasoori Methi - 1 Tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Oil - 3 Tbsp
Water - 1/3 cup
Fresh Cream - 3 Tbsp [optional] .


How do you do it

Dry roast the coriander seeds and red chilli for a minute or two in low flame until you get a good aroma and grind it into a coarse powder. Take 1 1/2 tomatoes, green chilli , cashews and grind along with this coarse powder to form a puree . Keep aside.

Heat a pan, add a tbsp of oil. Arrange the cubed paneer pieces on the pan and let it roast until it starts to brown, flip the paneer cubes to slightly brown the other side too. Transfer the pieces to a tissue paper, and pat it with another tissue paper to remove the oil. Now put these paneer pieces in about a cup of lukewarm water for 15 minutes [This is done to keep the paneer pieces soft yet firm] . Drain again and remove water with tissue paper and keep aside. We saute the paneer pieces to firm them up and make sure they don't get squashed when finally added into the curry. [This step is optional, you may add in fresh paneer if you like it that way].

Now in the same pan, add 2 Tbsp oil. Add onions , saute till translucent. Add the chopped tomato , little salt and cook till tomatoes become soft . Now add the puree made initially and let it cook for 1-2 minutes. Add in the chilli powder, garam masala,kasoori methi and mix well with puree. Add 1/3 cup water , add the capsicum too now. Let the capsicum cook in the gravy for 2-3 minutes, let it be crunchy. Simmer flame and you can add a few tbsp of cream at this stage for a richer texture and taste, I dint use it though. Add remaining salt and when the gravy starts to thicken ,add paneer pieces and  wrap well with the gravy. Let it cook for a couple of more minutes.Switch off flame.


Serve with pulkas and some lassi on the side. Makes for a delicious dinner. :)

 
Print this Post

Continue Reading >>

Blueberry muffins with Lemon zest

Right from the time I started baking muffins, i have been looking for fresh blueberries everywhere.Blueberries are such a rarity here in India. In-fact I have never seen them before, even in those specialty stores. But I guess it makes sense not to import them , nobody would buy them, they cost a bomb here. I have made these blueberry muffins once, a couple of years back for a family get together using dry blueberries, this time was a repeat of the same recipe but with FRESH blueberries. All the way from Netherlands :-) .

Every time I shop at Godrej Natures basket, I am like a kid in a candy store, wanting to just take it all in, trying to look at so many racks all at the same time! :D. So many ingredients I have heard/seen in cooking shows but haven't had the chance to explore yet!  This time when I went in , they had a huge board saying the exotic fruits like blueberries/passion/peaches were available and the joy that bought me, ah!!. Immediately without a second thought I picked up the only box of blueberries left and continued shopping debating all the time if I should leave the box back. Four hundred forty Rs for 150 gm of blueberries was oh so too much!. S convinced me that I should buy it and the blueberries came home with me. :) After I baked the muffins and tasted them I would definitely have to say Paisa Vasool ;). They were brilliant, soft/moist muffins with the sweet-sour blueberries bursting in your mouth every bite. Heaven!

Blueberry muffins

Ingredients

Serves - makes 9 muffins
Prep Time - 15 min
Cook time - 30 min

All purpose flour - 1 1/4 cup
Salt - 1/2 + 1/4 tsp
Baking powder - 1 + 1/4 tsp
Unsalted Butter - 90gm [ room temperature]
Castor Sugar - 3/4 cup
Sour milk/Buttermilk - 1/2 cup [at room temp]
Vanilla - 1 Tsp
Lemon zest - of one lemon
Fresh blueberries - 3/4 cup
Eggs - 2 [ at room temp]
Normal sugar -  2 Tbsp

How do you do it.

Mix the flour,salt and baking powder well sift/sieve it once and keep aside. Take 2 Tbsp of the sifted flour and add it to the blueberries and toss it so that they get wrapped in flour. This is to prevent the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the muffin while baking.

Pre-heat oven to 180 deg C. Line the muffin tray with muffin liners.

Cream the butter and castor sugar together until smooth and creamy. Break in the eggs and mix until its incorporated well with butter-sugar.Add the vanilla essence, lemon zest ,sour milk  and mix until you get a smooth/creamy mix. Now add in the flour fully and mix gently until the flour is fully mixed. DO NOT OVER-MIX. Over-mixing will ruin the muffins. It should take you 10-12 strokes to fully mix the flour. Then fold in the blueberries with this batter , take care not to mash it.

Scoop this batter and fill each muffin cup with the batter such that its 3/4 full. Use the normal sugar and sprinkle on top of each muffin. This gives  a nice crunch to the muffins. Bake at 180 deg C for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean. Grill for 3-4 min at 180 deg C to get the golden browning on top.

Once done, remove the tray out of the oven. Cool it on a wire rack for about 15-20 minutes. Enjoy with a hot cup of cappuccino. :)

Notes

1. Do not over-mix the batter. Over-mixing will cause the muffins to be hard.

2. Always use muffin liners , you don't have to grease the muffin tray in this case. And they come out of the pan without any drama. Much easier.

3. Fill up-to 3/4 [recommended] , if you fill them up-to the brim, they might peak and you might get flying saucer like muffin tops which we don't want. Some like the head to be really jumbo, if thats the case, you can fill them up-to the full level.


4. Always start with ingredients at room temperature.

 

Print this Post

Continue Reading >>

Aloo Palak/Potatoes in Spinach gravy

After the success of palak paneer, I am more comfortable trying palak based dishes with the confidence that they can actually taste quite nice. Never made aloo palak before, neither have I tasted it elsewhere, I thought it would be a good match - aloo and palak and it was!. It makes a good side dish for roti as well as rice.  Whenever palak dishes become a hit at home, it makes me very happy because healthy delicious dishes are the way to go!  :)

Aloo Palak

Ingredients

Serves - 4
Spice Level - Moderately spicy and falvorful
Prep Time - 20 min
Cook time -  20 min

Potato - 2 large chopped into medium sized pieces
Palak - 1 bunch [ 250 - 300 gm]
Tomato - 2 Large [ chop one tomato into small pieces, cut the other tomato into two halves]
Cashews - 8
Onion - 1 Large finely shopped
Green chilli - 3
Chilli/Masala powder - 1 Tsp + 1 Tbsp
Mustard - 1 Tsp
Jeera - 1 Tsp
Garlic cloves - 4 large , chopped well
Oil - 1 Tbsp + 2 Tbsp + 1 Tbsp
Sugar - 1 Tsp
Salt - as per need

How do you do it

1. Firstly heat 2 Tbsp oil in a kadai , add the chopped potato pieces, a tsp salt and 1 Tbsp chilli/masala powder and saute till it has a slight golden color and is cooked well. Drizzle water in between to make the potatoes cook faster.Keep aside.

2. Wash and chop the palak leaves roughly [ remove stem]. Bring a cup of water to boil, add in palak leaves, cashews , a Tsp of sugar, green chillies and cut one tomato in half and drop it in. Let it boil for 3-5 minutes until the palak leaves are tender and tomato is blanched well. Remove from flame, drain the water but reserve it.Cool it for 10 minutes and blend all of it to form a puree along with reserved water. Keep aside.

3. Heat  1 Tbsp oil in a kadai, add chopped onion , saute till translucent. Add in the chopped tomato pieces and saute well until the tomatoes are soft. Add a tsp of salt and a pinch of turmeric for the tomatoes to cook faster. Add a tsp of chilli/masala powder and let it cook until the raw smell of the powder vanishes.Now add in the palak puree prepared in step 2 , remaining salt and bring to boil. Simmer flame, Add in the potato pieces from step 1 and let it boil slowly. Adjust consistency at this stage - add more water if needed if the gravy is too thick

4. Heat 1 Tbsp oil in another small pan, add mustard, jeera, let them roast. Add in the chopped garlic pieces and let it brown slightly. Pour this tempering on to the boiling palak curry , mix well and switch off flame.

Serve with soft and hot pulkas

Notes

1. Since the tempering in step 4 has garlic in it, the garlic flavour comes out well in the curry. If you prefer the garlic flavor to be very mild, I would suggest you add the garlic in step 3 while sauting along with onions.

2. Instead of sauteing potatoes, you may also just boil the potatoes with little salt and keep aside and later add to gravy in step 3.


3. Once palak is cooked it needs to be removed from the hot water to retain color, and adding 1/2 tsp sugar while cooking palak is also for the same reason.

Continue Reading >>