Paneer 50-50

Parthiv loves paneer. He makes awesome paneer tikkas and the likes, so when he says he is going to dish out something with paneer, I never think twice and assist him happily :)

The other day, we wanted to make something easy and simple. I thought of kadhai paneer (a little on the dry side with chopped onions/tomatoes etc). But he was more in the mood for the matar-paneer kind (made with onion/tomato paste). So he declared he'll make me happy and make 50-50 paneer. Here's how he made it.

Ingredients:
1. About 2 cups paneer - thawed to room temperature and cubed. We used frozen paneer bought from an Indian store ("Nanak" brand).
2. 1/2 cup green peas
3. 1 onion (medium-large). Chop half of it it very fine in a chopper and slice the other half lengthwise.
4. 2-3 tomatoes made into a paste (we put the onions and tomatoes in the chopper together, so they were chopped very fine). 1 tomato, sliced lengthwise.
5. 1 tsp grated ginger
3. Half a green bellpepper, sliced thin lengthwise.
4. Red chilli, turmeric, coriander powder and salt to taste.
5. 2 tblsp of milk (use fat free if you like, worked for us).
6. 1.5 tbsp cooking oil.

Method:
1. Heat half the oil in a non-stick pan, as it heats add ginger followed by finely chopped onions and tomatoes. Saute till oil separates, should take 7-10 minutes on medium flame. You may need to add a little more oil to actually see the oil separating :) If you don't want to use too much oil, just ensure that the color gets darker (you may have to keep sprinkling water once in a while to make sure the paste doesn't burn). We added peas also somewhere in between to make sure they get cooked (when to add them will depend on how long it normally takes your peas to cook).
2. In the meanwhile, in a frying pan heat the remaining oil. Add sliced onions and saute, followed by tomatoes and bellpeppers and a little salt. The onions should become translucent but should not cook too much.
3. Add paneer and toss on high flame. Doing this pan-fries the paneer, making it crispier on the outside and eliminating the need for any deep frying.
4. If your tomato/onion paste is done by now, add red chilli, turmeric and coriander powder and salt and saute for a few seconds.
5. Add the sliced-sauteed veggies with paneer to this and mix well, so that the masala coats the paneer.
6. Add half a cup of water and let it simmer for 5 minutes or so, water will almost dry out.
7. When almost done, add milk and let cook for a minute or two.
8. Sprinkle fresh cilantro and serve with hot thick rotis.



As easy as that! :) To increase the flavor, you can sprinkle some kasuri methi at the end. Or if you want it spicier you can sprinkle some garam masala.

We turned up cooking our sliced veggies more than we would have liked, but it was delicious anyways :)



The leftovers had soaked the gravy completely making it a great candidate for kati rolls (there wasn't much left though!). While packing for lunch, I added some sliced onions and lemon juice to it. At lunchtime, I heated a roti and wrapped warm sabzi in it to make a quick, tasty kati roll!

Aloo poori

Anita's call to make poori-bhaji is how I got in the craving mode for pooris! I saw her invitation, and then these golden wonders started puffing up all over the blogosphere. I knew I had to make them!

The taste of poori soaked in tari-wale (tari = rassa = gravy) aloo always takes me back to my grandma's dining table. When we would visit her, the days would start at 8 am on the breakfast table with some yummy treat. Different types of parathas, poori-aloo, sandwiches etc. and a glass of milk are the clearest in my memory. By the time the table was cleared out, everyone was given a say in what we wanted for lunch. More often than not, lunch would be some kind of tari wali sabzi like rajma, chole, kaale chane, lobia, kadhi etc along with one dry side like bhindi, alu-gobhi, baigan ka bharta, dahi and rotis. We almost always had a tea time snack. You would think we didn't need dinner after all that! But we always had dinner!! And that would be some kind of whole grain lentil like ma ki daal, chana, urad, masoor and tuar occasionally and a vegetable. It's funny how I love talking about these things!

Poori aloo would always remain my favorite lunch item. My wonder-mom used to make it so fast I can hardly believe it! She would slice raw potato. Heat oil, add jeera, red chilli and turmeric, add potatoes and salt. Cover and let them cook and added a pinch of amchur (dry mango powder) when they were done. In the meanwhile she would fry 4-5 pooris in 4-5 minutes and there it was! My favorite lunch. A slice of pickled mango always went in with the aloos in my sectioned lunch box. So by the time I ate my lunch the oil from the pickle would be soaked by the aloos. Yum yum yum, those were the days when excess oil was a delicacy :p My dad would never eat pooris, may be that's why they hardly showed up outside of my lunch box. Except for the end of navratri when we would eat pooris with very lightly spiced kaale chane and sooji ka halwa. And yea, sometimes she would make them when papa was on a tour :p Those would be tari wale aloo that we would eat for dinner with pooris. That is the recipe I used this time. I can remember this one time when mom made this sabzi and it was sweet! We couldn't figure out what happened... finally we blamed it on the extra sweet tomatoes and somewhat sweet potatoes. The mystery was solved when I took a gulp of water from the same water bottle that mom had used to make the sabzi. It so turned out that my little brother who was sugar crazy had made this discrete sugar syrup that he could sip on without anyone noticing. Ha ha we still laugh about it!! Specially when I see how my brother avoids excess sugar now :)

That's a little too much rambling now.... Here's the recipe.

For tari-wale aloo -

1. Boil/microwave 2-3 large potatoes. Cool, peel and dice them.

2. For the tari/gravy - Heat a little oil. When hot, add some mustard and cumin seeds. As they begin to splutter, add a pinch of heeng (asafoetida), 2-3 curry leaves and a green chili slit into 4 parts (seeds et al.).

3. Add pureed tomatoes (about 2 cups of puree if using fresh tomatoes). Half of that should be sufficient if you are using concentrated puree.

4. Saute and let the tomato puree cook well till it begins to leave sides.

5. Add a pinch of turmeric, a tsp of red chili powder, a tsp of coriander powder and salt to taste.

6. Add boiled potatoes and mix well.

7. Add 1.5 cups water and simmer till you get the desired consistency.

8. Add a tsp of dried methi (kasuri methi).

9. You might need to add a pinch of sugar if your tomatoes are too tart.

10. Garnish with fresh cilantro.

For the pooris - This is not the first time I made pooris but I did experiment a little bit. Here's my lesson for what not to do :)

1. Take 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour and 0.5 cup of rava (sooji/semolina/cream of wheat). Knead into a firm dough with some oil and salt.

2. Roll into small circles and deep fry in hot oil.

3. Result - great looking pooris but they were too crispy to be eaten with a curry. I like my pooris softer than that!

4. Lesson learnt - Do not add rava if you are planning to eat them rightaway. And if you want to add rava, don't add so much!

We had our aloo-poori dinner with boondi ka raita and while we were in the mood to indulge, Parthiv fried some papad too :)

Malai Koftas and Memories

First time I made malai koftas was on a special demand from our dear friend R's mom (who we lovingly call Masi). Masi thought that being a Punjabi kudi I would know how to make malai koftas. Sadly enough, I didn't! Malai koftas may sound very Punjabi but I doubt they are cooked commonly in Punjabi homes (not in my home at least!). But I couldn't let her know right (specially when I was just beginning to know this sweet lady)? So Parthiv and I made them just like this! And funnily enough I still think thats the tastiest thing we ever made :) And thankfully masi agrees!

We have made these koftas multiple times since then. Making them in large batches and getting together with a group of friends has been the norm! Too bad I don't have a picture to share. I will upload it the next time I make these creamy koftas.

I would certainly not classify these koftas as exactly healthy, but if you don't mind eating greasy restaurant made pseudo malai koftas once in a while, you surely won't mind these!

They do take some effort and time. Though the list of ingredients and steps look daunting, they are pretty easy to make. You can always make some extra koftas and deep freeze them. They are as good as new when added to fresh gravy!

I am not great with my measurements as I am taste-till-you-get-it-right kind of person. Make adjustments as you think appropriate.

For Koftas (makes around 8 koftas) you need -

Boiled potatoes - 2 large
Grated paneer - about 1 cup
Green chilli paste - 2 tsp
Green cardmom powder - 1/4tsp
Ginger paste - 1 tsp
Bread slices - 2
Coriander (dhania) powder - 1 tsp
A few raisins
sugar and salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Directions for koftas:
1. Mash the potatoes and bread, mix salt and half of green chilly paste, keep aside.
2. Grate paneer (microwave it for a few seconds to make it real soft), add ginger paste, rest of green chilli paste, salt, a little bit of sugar, green cardmom powder, dhania powder and mix well.
3. To assemble koftas - make a ball of the potato mixture, flatten it and fill the paneer mixture in it, top with a raisin and make a ball again. So it would be a potato ball with paneer inside.
4. Heat oil in a kadahi or wok. Deep fry the koftas on medium flame till the koftas turn golden and crisp. keep aside.

Ingredients for gravy:
Oil - 1 tblsp
Cloves - 2
A small stick of cinnamon
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Ginger paste - 2tsp
Garlic paste - 1 tsp
Tomato paste - 1/2 cup or pureed tomatoes - 1 cup
Cashew powder/paste - about 8 cashews
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 2 tsp
Creme - 1/2 cup or Half n half 1 cup
sugar and salt to taste

Directions for gravy:
1. Heat oil, add cumin seeds, a few cloves, some cinnamon sticks, let them crackle. Then add ginger paste and a little garlic paste. Saute for a few seconds.
2. Add tomato paste or tomato puree. If you are using store bought tomato paste you might want to dilute it a little.
3. Saute well till tomatoes begin to leave the sides.
4. Add finely ground cashew paste. Mix well, you can add poppy seed paste also if you prefer.
5. Add turmeric, red chilli powder and dhania powder, mix well.
6. Add creme/half n half. Add a little water accordingly.
7. Stir on medium heat till gravy reaches the right consitency. You don't want it to be too thick as the koftas absorb a lot of gravy.
8. Add sugar to taste and stir.
9. Add salt right at the end and stir.

To serve:
1. If your gravy has gotten cold, heat it well.
2. Add koftas and heat
3. Don't stir too much or the koftas will break.
4. Garnish with fresh coriander and creme or grated paneer.

Serve with sirke wale or nimbu wale pyaaz (onions soaked in vinegar or lime), naan or parathas or jeera rice.

This can easily be converted into a Jain recipe if you use raw plaintain instead of potatoes and skip the garlic.