Malai Paneer.... Cottage cheese in a Milk Cream Gravy

An unplanned dish born out of laziness and leftovers.....a dish representing 'less is more'.

Suddenly remembered that paneer had to be cooked for dinner after cooking lunch items  while packing up the leftover chopped items like onion and tomato.

Was tired and lazy and was looking for shortcuts.

Used up the chopped onion & chopped tomatoes (1/2 each of medium sized onion and tomato).

Took note of the thick malai (milk cream) on the surface of the boiled and cooled milk , staring at me from the countertop :D 😋😉😉.

Ginger- Garlic paste is omnipresent in my fridge.

So here goes the simple malai paneer ....

Ingredients:

*Paneer 200 gms cut into small cubes 

* chopped onion - 1/2 medium sized onion

*chopped tomato - 1/2 medium sized tomato

*ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

*green chili - chopped 

*Pepper - 1 tsp

*Kashmiri Mirch powder- 1/2 tsp

*malai or fresh milk cream... 1 litre boiled milk yielded 1/2 bowl (150ml bowl) of malai (dudher shawr)

* kasuri Methi- 1 tbsp crushed 

* oil (used rice bran) - 1 tbsp 

Procedure:

1. Paneer to be cubed into size of choice.  Mine were <1 cm cubes.

2. In a kadhai, heat oil. Add the chopped onion, ginger garlic paste, chopped tomato, chopped green chili.  Fry on high heat till browned.

3. While frying above, add pepper powder, salt, Kashmiri red chili powder. 

4. Once the onion- tomato etc+ spice mix are well fried , pour the malai....keep stirring on medium to high heat to prevent burning. Add 1/2 bowl of warm water. 

5.Once the slurry starts bubbling, add the cubed paneer. Gently stir around in the gravy to coat the masala well.  Cover and bring to a boil on low to medium heat. 

6.Check the salt, sweetness and spice level. Adjust according to taste.

7. As a final garnish, crush kasuri Methi (dried Fenugreek leaves) between your palms and sprinkle on the bubbling paneer gravy. Swirl around to mix.

Serve with Roti,  Paratha, Jeera Rice. We had it with plain steamed rice.

Paneer with Posto (Poppy paste) and Capsicum

Had this delicious paneer dish at a cousin's place. Loved it.
She mentioned some ingredients she'd used, I guessed some she may have missed....the result was quite a refreshing tasting Paneer!

Ingredients:

Paneer – 500gm

Tej pata-2

Tomato chopped-1

Ginger paste -1 tbsp

Whole jeera

Whole Garam Masala

paste of 2 medium sized capsicum

paste of 2 tbsp posto

Dhone-jeera powder – ½ tsp each

Salt

Sugar

Green chili

Ghee at the end

Procedure:

1. Season the oil with Tej pata, Whole jeera, Whole garam masala, ginger paste/grated 

2. Add the tomato followed by Capsicum paste and let it cook till the oil separates.

3. Add the Posto/Poppy Paste followed by sugar, dhone - jeere paste.

4. Add the Paneer cubes and salt to taste 

5. Add some water...not too much...just a sprinkling

6. Cover and cook for a couple of minutes.

7. End it off with adding some slit green chilies and a liberal spoonful of ghee.

8. Eat it with steamed rice or roti.

PS: I'd added some diced potatoes which I'd sauted prior to adding to the gravy. Potato is totally optional....I added because I like potatoes with paneer 😉

Cheesy Vegetable Fritters

Fritters / Chops/Cutlets made of Chhana (Fresh & fluffy Paneer), grated Cheddar Cheese and any finely chopped vegetables

Simple, fast and delicious....that's the other name of this dish.

Ingredients :
Chhana / Paneer from 2.5 litres full cream milk
Grated processed cheese  (used Amul) - 4-5 cubes or as many as you want
Any finely chopped vegetables : I used carrot, beans, capsicum, finely sliced babycorn, sweet corn kernels, mushrooms
Chopped garlic
Chopped Onions
butter / oil
Tej pata
Crushed peppercorns
Salt
Pepper powder
Oregano powder
Cornflour
Bread crumbs
Oil for frying

Procedure :

1. Curdle boiling milk with lemon/vinegar to make Chhana/Chhena/Paneer/Cottage cheese. Drain away the whey and press it lightly to retain the softness and fluffiness of the Chhana.


2. In a kadai, heat the butter. Add tej pata & crushed pepper corns into the heated butter, followed by chopped garlic and onions. Fry till golden brown.

3. Now add the chopped vegetables in descending order of hardness.....carrot, beans, baby corns ...capsicum etc...all in medium to high heat. If using mushrooms, better to saute them separately as mushroom will give out loads of water and make the other veggies soggy. We want the veggies to retain their crunchiness


4. Mix the crunchy fried veggies with the soft paneer and toss the mix in the kadai to mix well.

5. In the hot mix, gradually add the grated cheese and keep stirring. The cheese will melt and assimilate into the rest of the chhana-veggie mix.


6. After cooling, shape the doh-like chhana-cheese-veggie mix into friiters. Dip into a thin batter of cornflour+water and then roll in bread crumbs.

8. Shallow fry and serve with sauce, chutney or as it is....

Pan(fried) Pseudo Pizza!!

It looks like a small sized pan pizza. Tastes quite like one....well, almost! But the difference doesnt make it any less tasty! Inspired by Indira Mukherjee, I have adapted to make it simpler and faster. This recipe suits me fine on the "Onno kichhu khaabo" (Something different from regular stuff!!) days.

Here goes the recipe :


Ingredients : yielded 4 nos. 1/2" thick 6" dia pseudo pizzas
All purpose Flour (Maida) & Milk in 1:1 ratio
Egg - 1 for 1 cup Maida:1cup milk (200ml cup)
Any Grated / finely chopped vegetables like carrot, bean, cabbage, capsicum, cauliflower/broccoli florets, babycorn etc
Garlic - 3-4 cloves - chopped
Salt
pepper
Chili flakes
Oregano & dried herbs-I used FabIndia's Chili-Oregano & Italian seasoning
Grated Mozzarella cheese - 1 bowl (200ml)
For topping -Boiled corn kernel /Chicken sausages/nuggets/mushroom/paneer cubes/soya chunks etc etc
Diced Onions - 1 medium

Procedure :

1. Mix Milk and Maida and add the egg, Salt & pepper Mix well with a hand blender. The batter is thick but of pouring consistency.

2. Add the chopped garlic and all the grated/chopped vegetables.

3. Keep the topping ready (the choice is yours...I used paneer cubes+diced onions on one occasion and chicken sausages+corn kernels+diced onions on another) stir fried or sauted.

4. A small pancake frying pan makes the base preparation a cake walk. Pour a ladle full of veggie mixed batter and spread it to cover the whole pan. Pour some more to increase the thickness of the base. Cook on minimum heat. While frying the base on gas stove top, keep the oven ready for next step by preheating oven (I used my OTG) at around 225-250 deg C.

5. Flip the pancake pizza or pseudo pizza base and let the other side cook.

6. Now on a flat ovenproof plate, place the (Pseudo) pizza base, arrange the toppings and sprinkle desired quantity of grated mozzarella. Sprinkle the italian seasoning and dried oregano and other herbs of choice.

 7.Place it in the preheated oven on Grill mode at 225-250 deg C for around 5-7 minutes or till the cheese melts and gets a golden colour!

Ready to serve!!

Paneer Bhurji .... Scrambled Cottage Cheese

No excuses, justification, prelude or small talk!

Just some oft made recipes.....

A simple, nutritious as well as delicious breakfast or tiffin which can be used as a filling in a wrap or a sandwich, OR eaten just as it is, with toast!

And Rush, if you mash the paneer to a smooth consistency, grate the veggies instead of dicing them and eliminate the salt, there you are, a tasty treat for your little one!!!

Ingredients :

Paneer - 1 litre

Lemon - 1

Vegetables of your choice-(bell peppers, onions, cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes, corn kernels, baby corns etc) - diced.

I used Capsicum, tomato and onion - 1 each

Green chilli - chopped fine

Coriander leaves-also chopped fine.

Salt to taste

Pepper corns, freshly crushed for better flavour & aroma

Butter /olive oil/white oil- 1 tbsp

Procedure -

1. Curdle the milk with the lemon to make fresh homemade paneer / cottage cheese

2. Just strain the whey but dont hang it in a cheese cloth to make it firm. We want the paneer soft and moist

3. In a wok, heat the oil/melt the butter

4. Throw in the crushed pepper corns followed by the diced onions, tomatoes and other veggies.

5. Saute in high heat for a minute or two but retain the crunch

6. Add the scrambled paneer. Stir around for a minute or two. Add salt.

7. Garnish with the chopped green chillies and coriander leaves.

This recipe is off to 'Fast & Quick Healthy Dishes - Guest hosted by Kalpana Sareesh of Life with Spices, on behalf of Priya of Priya's Versatile Recipes

Paneer Tandoori

( Cottage Cheese marinated in curd and grilled )

I had this paneer preparation at a friend's place. And upon asking her the recipe, she said, just marinate the paneer cubes in curd, mixed with ginger-garlic & all masalas...grill it for 5 minutes and the Paneer is ready! It sounded simply simple....

So when I bought Paneer this week, thought of making this preparation. The Paneer cubes were diced and I was about to mix the 'masalas' into the curd, when something just didnt feel right! It was quite late (as I had presumed it'll be a fast to cook recipe, I had started just about 1/2 hr prior to dinner time...), so couldnt really call her up to enquire about the detailed recipe....

Well, kept the paneer back into the fridge, placed the curd in a cheese cloth (I use a big, clean piece of Dhoti as a Cheese Cloth ;) ) and hung it overnight.

[As you realise, the paneer had to be postponed to the next day and for that night's dinner had to fry some sausages !]

Next evening resumed the process and thereafter it was quite simple indeed!

Ingredients :
A. Basic
* Paneer - 300 gm
* Hung Curd - around 500 gm (made from Curd made out of 1.5 litres milk approx)
* Capsicum diced - 1 big or 1 & 1/2 small
* Tomatoes diced - 1 big
* Onions - Diced - 2
* Green Chilli - 3-4 slit longitudinally

B. Spices
* Ginger - 1 tbsp
* Garlic - 1 tbsp
* Haldi/Turmeric - 1 tsp
* Dhania / Coriander powder - 1 tsp
* Jeera / Cumin powder - 1 tsp
* Red Chilli pwder- 1 tsp
* Kashmiri Chilli pwder - 1 tsp
* Black pepper pwder - 1/2 tsp
* Kasuri Methi - 1 tsp (soaked in warm water)
* Sugar - to taste
* Salt - to taste

Procedure

1. Prepare the hung curd by folding curd in a cheese cloth or thin muslin cloth and hanging it for 4-5 hrs for the water / whey to drip out. I placed the cheese cloth with curd folded in it on my bigh plastic strainer and placed the strainer on a tall steel container.

2. Mix all ingredients at 'B' with the hung curd and beat the curd-masala mix well with a spoon.

3. Marinate the paneer cubes in the above prepared Curd-masala mix for 2 hrs minimum (I kept for exactly 2 hrs for lack of time)

4. If you have a Tandoor Oven or an OTG, use either of these, for best results. I used my Microwave Oven with Grilling mode, as my OTG is out of order and I dont have the other one. (I'm seriously planning to buy the Tandoor Oven)

5. Spray some oil in an ovenproof container. Place half the quantity of diced capsicum, onion and tomatoes and sprinkle some salt and chilli powder. With a spoon turn them around in the container to coat them with the oil. I microwaved these using the Microwave + Grill mode, for 3-4 minutes.

6. Pour the marinated Paneer into the container. Garnish with the remaining capsicum, onion and tomatoes. Spray some oil on top. Again microwave using the Microwave + Grill mode, for 7-8 minutes. Then, again on ONLY Grill mode, let it cook for another 4-5 minutes.




Serve HOT with Parathas or Naan. We had them with Phulkas.

The Evergreen Palak Paneer

Cottage cheese in a spinach gravy


The forever favourite Paneer dish is what I made as the main course when a vegetarian couple came over for dinner last week. Without much ado, I'll get down to business and jot down the recipe.....

Ingredients :
A.For the Green paste :
*Palak : 12 small bunches
*Pudina - a small sprig (Optional....my vegetable vendor always gives me a complimentary sprig or Pudina ;))
*Green Chilli -1 or 2
*Salt - 1 tsp
*Sugar - 1/2 tsp

B.Other Ingredients :
*Paneer : 400 gms (cut into small cubes or any shape you desire)
*Kesuri Methi - 1 tbsp (Optional), soaked in 1/2 cup of warm water

*Whole garam masala - 2 elaichi; 1 medium stick of cinnamon; 2 cloves*Bay Leaf -1
*Onion paste - 1 bowl
*Tomato paste - 1 bowl
*Ginger past - 1 tsp
*Cumin (Jeera) powder - 1tsp
*Coriander (Dhaniya/Dhone) powder - 1tsp
*Fresh Cream - 2 tbsp (Since I did not have it, I substituted as given in 'C')
*Ghee - 2 tsp
*Roasted and powdered Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
*Flour :3-4 tbsp
* Oil - 4 tbsp

C.Fresh Cream Substitute :
*Fresh malai obtained after milk is boiled - 2tbsp
*Grate cheese : 1 cube
In a pan add the blended fresh malai and the grated cheese. Bring to a boil. Spinkle some water if to thick. Keep aside.

Procedure :
1. Blend all ingredients at 'A'. Keep aside.
2. In a wok, heat the Oil and throw in bay leaf, whole garam masala and whole jeera and a dash of sugar. Let them splutter and give off their lovely aroma
3. Add the onion paste and fry till it turns a light brown.
4. Add the ginger paste
5. Add the tomato paste and stir for sometime.
6. Add the masala paste made of jeera+dhaniya and cook the masala well.
7. Add the blended green paste. Add salt. Stir well to mix the masala and the palak paste for 3-5 minutes.
8. Add the cubed paneer and continue stirring slowly to ensure that the paneer does not break.
9. Add the soaked kasuri methi along with the water. Mix well
10. Cover the wok with a lid, lower the flame and let it cook till it comes to a boil. Check once in a while so that the gravy doesnt burn at the botton.
11. Mix the flour (ata) with some water to make a medium consistency past. Add to the boiling gravy and mix very well. This gives the gravy a smooth and creamy consistency.
12. In a small skillet, heat the ghee and add the roasted garam masala powder and add to the palak paneer gravy is it boils in the wok. Mix.
13. Take it off the flame and add the fresh cream or the substitute I made as at 'C'

Palak paneer tastes good with Paratha, Roti or Rice

This recipe is my entry to SWC-Cooking with Greens, an event hosted by Sowmya of Creative Saga. The logo of the event is....

Paneer Anamika!

The preparation of this paneer dish is actually a modification....the original recipe has been twisted a bit here, subtracted a bit there to arrive at whatever this Paneer dish you may want to call! I'd read the original recipe eons ago in a Fish (yes...fish!!) Special of the popular Bengali magazine Sananda - the main ingredient being Bhetki fillet. But as is usual with me, I had forgotten to note it down. But the simplicity of the ingredients (always available at anyone's kitchen) and easy preparation and most importantly, the superlative taste of the final product (yes I had tried it out immediately after reading the recipe) had probably helped me remember the procedure.

A couple of Sundays back, just after I had finished the day's cooking, my husband (SD) informed that a friend and his wife would be coming over for dinner....Fine I said, and just as I was cosying up amidst the cushions to read the Sunday special bulky newspaper filled with anything but the news, he casually mentioned.... "Oh...they're vegetarian. Dont go into any trouble...something simple would be fine!"

I sprang out of my Sunday reverie, cursing my luck that everything was non-vegetarian or had non-veg additives that day!!! Opened my fridge, racked my brain and found some paneer... THANK GOD, I said a silent prayer. But no palak, so palak paneer was ruled out. Steamed paneer with mustard and coconut may be a Bong delicacy but mustard may not do much for the north Indian palate. And that was when the brainwave struck....and I came up with this improvisation/modification of the fish recipe...subtracted the garlic and the marination part. The end result was surprisingly good!

So when I prepared it last Thursday (SD's latest fad being vegetarian food on Thursdays!), thought I'll click some pics and post the recipe on my blog!

So here goes the recipe...

Ingredients : (since I'd decided while assembling the ingredients that it'll be a blog entry, I took the trouble to use my kitchen scale for the very first time! Hence the accurate weight measurements!!!)


-Fresh & Soft Paneer : 400gms (cut into pieces..I cut them into triangles)

-Cashew paste : 100 gms

-Onion paste : 60 gms (paste of 1 medium sized onion)

-Tomato paste : 60 gms (paste of 1 medium sized tomato)

-Kasuri methi leaves (3 tsp) soaked in warm warm water for 1/2 hr prior to use

-Ginger paste : 1/2 tsp

-Whole garam masala : 2 cardamoms+1 stick cinnamon

-Bay leaf : 1 or 2

-Oil : 3-4 tbsp

-Masala paste (turmeric - 1 tspn; Coriander powder - 1 tsp; Cumin powder - 1 tsp; Red Chilli powder is optional and depending on your taste)

-Salt to taste

Procedure :-
1.Take Oil in a wok. When hot, add the whole garam masala followed by the onion paste. Stir well.
2.When onion is well fried, add ginger paste followed by tomato paste and again keep stirring.
3.Add the masala paste. Keep stirring and let the masala cook.
4. Now add the cashew paste. If the cashew paste is too thick, sprinkle some water and let it cook on low heat.
5.Add the paneer pieces. Turn them around in the wok and if the gravy is sticking to the wok sides, sprinkle some water. Let it simmer. Cover with a lid.
6.Once in a while stir so that the gravy doesnt stick to the wok bottom and get burnt.
7.Once it comes to a boil, add the soaked kesari methi along with the water and again let it come to a boil again.
8. The Paneer is ready.(What shall we call it ? Paneer Pasinda or Shaahi Paneer...or something else??)
9. This can be eaten with Roti or Rice.