Paneer Parathas

The kids are home. It is the summer vacation - One is sick, the other volunteering and the third chilling with me! I am on FB and checking out my updates as I hear "amma, what's for dinner" queries brewing in the background. I lay my eyes on some mouth watering paneer parathas that our blogger friend Divya or ChefinYou has posted. She is a versatile chef and has many interesting tips on her page, as I did find out clicking on to her blog. I was making karela subzi anyway and I thought this would make a great combo! It does not take beyond 15 minutes for prep time (she was not kidding) and beyond 20 to make about 10 of these delightful parathas. My kids, mother-in-law and hubby loved it. Will be blogging the Karela subzi next.

For about 10 partathas

Ingredients

2 cups of chakki atta (stone ground wheat flour)

11/4 cups of warm water

1 tsp of salt

2 tsp of oil

(I used my mixer to make the dough)

For the stuffing

1 cup of cubed paneer

3 green chilies finely chopped

1tbsp of fresh cilantro

Method

I did as Divya suggested

I Soaked store bought paneer in hot water, drain after a few minutes and proceeded to crumble it 

Knead or use mixer to make the dough soft, yet firm 

Keep covered until you get the paneer crumbled, salted, and chilies and cilantro added

Make lemon sized balls of the dough

Roll out into rounds bigger than your palm, as Divya puts it

Make a smaller ball of the paneer and place in the center of the rolled out dough

Fold the dough over the paneer ball and pinch out any extra dough

Dust the rolling area with flour and roll out the paratha to the size of a tea saucer

Heat pan and add a smidgen of butter

Place the paratha on the melting butter and cook - repeat on both sides and with each

Serve hot with sides of your choice - In my case I made some incredibly tasty Bitter gourd masala subzi - heavenly!!!

Sneak peak of next post

Enjoy and thanks Divya :)

I will leave you also with this wonderful declaration made by my little one

Jalapeño -Paneer in Orange Juice

There are few Indians and non Indians who dislike Paneer - Not only is it a favorite cheese, but is also versatile in its ability to soak in any and all flavors that it's infused with. Of course, I would like to try something different with it. So I decide I will marinade in deliciously sweet and sour tangerine juice - I proceed to make fresh juice, dice up some onions, tomatoes, some paneer, and fresh jalapeños. Using a small amount of oil (olive or mazola) I stir fry the tomatoes, onions and jalapeños. I drizzle a tad bit of oil on the paneer and take a table spoon of bread crumbs in a plate and roll the oiled paneer in it, just to keep it from crumbling (ironic to use crumbs to prevent crumbling lol)  Anyhow, I add the paneer to the  stir fry along with salt. Then when everything is browning, I add the orange juice and allow the sizzling to happen. The bread crumbs facilitates the soaking of the juice.
Garnish with cilantro and fresh cut jalapeños  - Voila and Ta-dah!  This takes all of 15 minutes to make, cutting veggies included. Enjoy the tantalizing flavors of this dish - they dance on your tongue long after you're done eating - And that is a promise :)

Your ingredients

Orange Juice

Cilantro Pilaf (HarDaniya Pulao/Kothamali Pulao)

Happy Happy NAVARATHRI to all my friends and followers. Wish you much prosperity in health, happiness and of course wealth. So Golu is up and the first of the Sundals I made was a green split moong dal (pacha paasiparuppu sundal) and it was a happy success with all. I will blog this soon. But today I present to you my cilantro pulao which I made several weeks ago and has been languishing in my notes waiting for its turn to be blogged. I had to make some Kothamali chutney the wet thick kind and steamed some veggies and sauteed them like a curry. I added paneer to make it more "fancy" then made some steaming hot basmati rice and mixed in the chutney and the veggies and sauteed once more with onions and cashews. This is a one-pot meal and is a perfect Sunday brunch idea. You can avoid the onions and still have it taste amazing during this festival time.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of basmati rice (rice cooker cooked)
• your choice of veggies
• 1 cup of cubed paneer
• 3tbsp cilantro chutney

Method

1. Add chutney to rice and mix in well with a fork
2. Cook the veggies with desired spice and salt in a separate wok
3. Add to the rice and chutney mix
4. Garnish with cashews or more fresh cilantro

Cilantro Chutney recipe
Ingredients

• 2-3 lbs of cilantro fresh washed thoroughly, ends of stalks trimmed
• 5-8 red chilies (depending on how spicy your red chilies are)
• Urad Dal 1/4 cup
• 1tsp asafetida
• 1tsp soft tamarind paste
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• Salt

Method 

1. Heat oil add the urad dal, chilies, asafetida and tamarind paste
2. Then add the cilantro and stir until cilantro softens and the urad is roasted brown.
3. Cool and grind coarse in a food processor

Mix the rice with the chutney

The veggies with paneer

In a bowl

In a cool copper pot

on your plate

Rainbow Chard & Veggie Casserole With Paneer

This was a pleasurable dish to make. I had this super colorful Swiss Chard that I’d bought at Whole Foods. And I had all my garden veggies and was planning on some really interesting dish. It was the same morning that Radhika emailed me the secret ingredient for our Avant Garde Cookies posting and it was Paneer… I had made some a few days before and this seemed like the perfect garnish/addition to this veggie medley.  What’s more I even had my béchamel sauce that I’d blogged the day before and I thought it would make a perfect addition to the dish.

Here is my recipe.

Ingredients

• Basically this can be done with any veggies or greens of your choice
• I used Rainbow Swiss chard, cherry tomatoes, onions, orange and yellow bell peppers, green chilies (optional) – I also had some snake gourd I chopped up and used.
• 1tbsp olive oil
• 1cup of béchamel sauce (use any other sauce of your choice)
• 1tsp curry powder (optional)

Method

1. Stir-fry the veggies in about ½ tbsp. of olive oil
2. Place this is a baking pan neatly
3. I used the béchamel sauce to top my stir-fried veggies (I sprinkled some curry ma powder on top)
4. Sautee the paneer in another 2 tsp of olive oil – I used some curry powder and salt to spice it up a bit
5. Arrange the paneer on the top
6. Add some cheddar if you like
7. Bake for about 25-30 minutes at 350 F
8. Garnish with Fresh Cilantro

The pictures are self-explanatory.

Enjoy with noodles or just by itself.

 

 This is off to Avant Garde Cookies

This is for the Avant Garde Cookies Group. In this venture with me are  Anusha, Jayanthi,Kavi, Priya Sreeram, Radhika Roshni and Veena

Cashew-Pistachio Coated Sweet Potato-Paneer Sandwiches

Ahhhh! I know the name is a mouthful!! sorry about that :(
This recipe came about by sheer chance - We've made a habit now of having steamed sweet potato dinners - they are the best kind of carbs to eat and are touted to be the healthiest veggie. We LOVE it, luckily and I have been trying to get my little one to like it too - but she is too smart for just steamed, so my sweet hubby, who I have mentioned on several occasions is a fabulous cook too. He decided to cut the sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch rounds and roast them with the smallest amount of olive oil - He added a dash of curry powder and some salt and it tasted outtsight - I had made some paneer for her and after she'd eaten most of it, she said enough - I popped the sweet potato and the paneer in my mouth - Oh boy was the combo deadly! I decided I had to make that for the rest of us - and that's exactly what I did - In my zeal, I made more than I should've - so the next day, I improvised some more - added some spinach, lima beans all leftovers from the previous day- added a dash of sambar powder and that made for another excellent self-contained meal - I will blog it next - So please try it and let me know how you like this combo -

Prep time 30 making time 30
This includes steaming the sweet potatoes and coating them in the cashew pistachio,masala.

4-6 steamed sweet potatoes
a fistful of cashews and pistachios
2tbsp curry ma powder
salt and pepper
3 roasted red chilies

Preparation
Grind all these into a coarse-fine powder
Cut the sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch circles
Put them in the powder mic and press and roll the sides and flip over and press down again to fully coat them
In a shallow pan, spray some olive oil spray and roast until both sides are a happy golden crisp - Some of mine got a bit darker, but they were remarkably tasty even so.
In the same pan, roast the paneer - you have cut these into 1/2 inch cubes as well - once they are a nice brown, remove from pan - I added some salt and curry powder -

Serve hot.