Malai Methi Matar Panneer

A rich and nutritious gravy recipe of cottage cheese and fenugreek leaves which makes a perfect combination for hot phulkas, rotis and paranthas. 

So lets get ready to make this yummy and delicious gravy.

Ingredients:

Panneer/Cottage cheese : 150 gms 

For marination :

Cracked pepper - 1/2 tsp

Red Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - as per taste

For the gravy:

Peas - 50 gms

Kasoori methi - 20 gms

Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp.

Bay leaf - 1 big leaf

Fennel seeds - 1/4 tsp

Star anise - 1

Clove - 2

Green cardamom - 1

Cinnamon - 1 small piece

Green chillies - 2 slit lengthwise

Tomato - 1 big 

Onion - 1 medium

Ginger - 1 tsp

Garlic - 1 tsp

Yogurt - 1/2 cup

Oil - 2 tsp

Salt to taste

Marinate the panneer which is cut into small cubes and set it aside for about ten minutes.

Also soak the Kasoori methi in hot water.

Meanwhile finely chop onions and grate the tomato into a puree. Also fine chop ginger and garlic. Slit the green chillies. Use chillies based on the spice levels accepted in your family.

Take a pan and add 1 tbsp. oil,

When it is hot shallow fry the marinated panneer. Toss it slowly so that it doesn't break and evenly cooks on all sides. remove it once it browns evenly on all sides.

In the same pan roast the bay leaf, cinnamon, cardamom, fennel seeds, clove , after about a minute add the garlic and ginger and sauté till they all cooked well. Then add the chopped onions and sauté till they turn translucent. Then add the grated tomatoes and cook. Add a little salt as it makes the cooking faster. After everything has cooked well, transfer these ingredients into a blender jar and allow to cool. When cooled blend it to a fine paste. 

In the meantime toss the fresh peas into the pan so they get cooked and turn tender. Also add the soaked methi/fenugreek leaves to the pan after draining the water. You can use the fresh methi leaves as well but when out of season use the soaking method. After the peas are cooked and when they turn soft add the blended masala mixture to the pan. You can omit the bay leaf and star anise while blending if you want the gravy to be less spicy. Cook until the water is evaporated. Then switch off the flame and allow the mixture to cool a bit before you add yogurt which is in room temperature. Ensure you follow this step as there are chances of the gravy to split otherwise. After you mix in the yogurt/curd add the panneer cubes and cook on a low flame for about 3-5 min .  Mix gently so that the panneer cubes hold their shape. Garnish this with fresh coriander. Serve with hot phulkas , naans, rotis , puris or paranthas.

Restaurant style veg makhani

Restaurant style veg makhani!

Ingredients:
Carrot diced - 1/2 cup
Tomatoes 3 medium siced
Cashews 8 to 10
Beans chopped fine 1/2 cup
Capsicum diced 1/4 cup
Panneer diced 1/2 cup
Green peas 1/4 cup
Potato diced 1/4 cup
Elachi 1
Saunf 1/4 tsp
Butter 2 tsp
Red chilli powder 1 tsp
Garam Masala 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon stick 1 inch
Pilaf leaf 1
Cloves 3
Fresh Cream 1 tbsp

Method:
1. In a heavy bottomed pan boil about half a cup of water. once it comes to a boil add in the chopped deseeded tomatoes and cashews. Cook uncovered until the water evaporates. Then add chilli powder, garam masala, colves, elachi, cinnamon  and pilaf leaf. Give a good mix and Cook for another 3 - 4 min. Switch the flame off.

2. Meanwhile in a separate pan par boil the veggies -carrot, beans peas and potato with a pinch of
salt.

3. Next once the tomato masala mix has cooled down to room temperature ground it into a fine paste.

4. In a kadai, melt butter, add saunf and then add the capsicum and panneer cubes. Cook for a couple min until they are cooked, add in the remaining boiled veggies and stir Fry for a few more min. Add salt pier taste.

5 Add the ground masala and cook for another five min.

6. A dash of fresh cream enhances the taste to it's supreme level.

7 Garnish with fresh coriander and serve hot with Roti's/ phulkas/ naan.

Palak mushroom panneer with pasta(my style)

When it's a lazy Sunday and you need to wip up something really very quick that's when I get all the crazy ideas of fusion of combining the typical Indian cuisine with the Italian pasta. Sounds really very crazy,well that's me. And my family deals with it too. :)

Palak mushroom panneer gravy

Ingredients :
1. Palak chopped - 2 cups
2. Panneer - 100 gms
3. Garam masala - 1 tsp
4. Onion 1 medium size
5. Tomato 1 medium size
6. Oil 2 tsp
7. Salt to taste
8. Red chilli powder 1 tsp
9. Jeera 1/2
10. Mushroom (button type) about 8
11. Ginger garlic paste 1/2 tsp


Method:
Blanch palak and purée it with half  a tomato.
Cut the mushroom into four pieces each.
Cube the panneer into half inch each piece.
In a heavy bottomed pan heat a tsp of oil and fry jeera and ginger garlic paste for about 30 sec , next add the diced onions and turmeric powder. Sauté until onions turn transperant. Later add the remaining half tomato diced and fry till the mushiness goes.
In a separate pan fry the cubed panneer in a tsp of oil until sides are crisp. 
Add the mushroom to the onion tomato mix and continue cooking on low flame until they are cooked.
To this add the red chilli powder , garam masala and the palak puree. Cook on low flame until the raw smell of Palak goes away.
Season with salt as needed per your taste.
Finally add the crisp panneer to the gravy and stir slowly to avoid breaking of panneer.
Optional: you can add some fresh cream to enhance the taste in the end to the gravy before serving.


Enjoy this gravy with hot phulkas or rotis.

Next note the ingredients required for pasta -my style

Pasta(my style)

Ingredients:
1. Pasta (fusili) - 75 to 100 gms
2. Capsicum - all 3 varieties (green,yellow and red) total - 1 cup diced small
3. Olive oil - 3 tsp
4. Pepper powder - 1 tsp
5. Tomato sauce - 2 tbsp
6. Pasta seasoning - 1/2 tsp (optional)
7. Onion - chopped small 


Boil the pasta in water with a pinch of salt and a tsp of oil. Once cooked run the pasta under cold water to avoid further cooking.
In a wok/pan heat oil and add the onion, capsicum . Sauté until the are crisp on the outer edges, do not overcook, keep them crunchy. Next toss in some salt and the tomato sauce.
Next pop in the cooked pasta into the pan and toss over gently adding the 2tbsp of tomato sauce.
Sprinkle a generous pinch or two of black pepper powder and some pasta seasoning powder if you have. It works well without the pasta seasoning too.

Optional : if you want that Chinese touch to this pasta add a tsp of soya sauce and a tsp of vinegar along with the tomato sauce.

Raw Mango Instant Pickle

A lip smacking pickle for the heat of summer. Its just another granny adopted recipe running down the generations.

Ingredients:

1. One raw mango
2. Oil - 3-4 tsp
3. Salt - 1 tsp
4. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
5. Asefoetida/Hing - A pinch
6. Chilli powder - 1 tsp( If you love more spice add another 1/2 tsp)
7. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp









Method.

1. Chop the mango to small pieces and place in a bowl.(Ensure complete dry surroundings, so that the pickle lasts longer).
2. Add chilli powder. turmeric and salt to the chopped mango.Mix well.
3. In a small pan heat oil, add mustard seeds , asefoetida and pour it to the mango mix.
4. Serve with curd rice or plain dal.

Note: You can store this for a couple of days in an air tight container.

Tofu Panneer Dry - Starter

Here is some fresh starter for your boring lunch/Dinner. One long exhausting day as I opened the refrigerator and peeped into the dairy section I saw a packet of panneer and a packet of hard tofu. I had about 20 min time to prepare something out of it and so this dish described below evolved.

Ingredients:
1, Tofu - 150 gms (cubed into 1" each piece)
2. Panneer - 150 gms (cubed into 1" each piece)
3. Red Chilli powder - 1 tsp
4. Garam Masala - 1 tsp
5. Amchur/Dry Mango Powder - 1/2 tsp
6. Oil - 1 tbsp
7. Tomato sauce - 1 tsp
8. Soya sauce - 1/4 tsp
9. Salt to taste.







Method:

1. In a bowl marinate cubed tofu and Panneer with all the spices - Chilli powder, Garam Masala, Mango powder, salt and oil. Keep this aside for 10 min,

2. Heat a heavy bottomed non stick pan and transfer the marinated mix into it.(Low - medium flame). Toss the mix every minute to ensure even cooking on all sides of the cubes. Do not use a spatula as the tender panneer and tofu tend to break.

3. After about 5 min add the sauces - Tomato and soya sauce to coat all the cubes evenly. Keep tossing for another 5 min so that the caramelization of the sauces happen to give you a crisp outer layered cubes.

4. Serve hot with a sprinkle of chat masala(Optional). I actually ran out of chat masala , still the dish was yummy. You can also taste it with mint chutney.

Mango chatni

I had a couple of these half-raw mangoes. They were sweetishy tangy mangoes and so I decided to make this tangy spicy chatni that can be served as a pickle in a regular thali.

Ingredients:

1. Half -raw mangoes - 4 (Small sized)
2. Jaggery - 25 grams ( adjust it as per the sweetness required)
3. Salt to taste
4. Mustard seeds
5. Green chilli - chopped - 1 tsp
6. Curry Leaves - 8 to 10
7. Coriander leaves - 1 tsp chopped
8. Asefoetida - 1 pinch
9. Oil - 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Peel and pulp out the mangoes into a bowl. Add the jaggery to this and mix till it dissolves.You can add about 3-4 tbsp of water if the pulp is very thick.
2. In a kadai heat oil and add in the mustard seeds . Once they splatter, add the green chilli , curry leaves and asefoetida. Fry for about half a minute and pour the mango pulp.
3. Cook covered for 5 min on medium flame.
4. Garnish with chopped coriander.

Facts: This can be stored in fridge in an air tight container good to go for about a week.

Simple Drumstick - Aloo - Brinjal curry

Drumsticks are once such vegetable that people avoid cooking because of the tediousness in eating it.  I love this super vegetable that is rich in nutrients. So I love to add it into various dishes in different forms. One such curry/gravy that goes well with Chapatis/rotis/phulkas or even rotis is what I prepared last weekend.

Here is how I went about it.

Ingredients:

1. Drumsticks - 2 sticks (Medium sized)

2. Potatoes - 2 medium sized.

3. Brinjal( Green small Variety) - 3 medium sized.

4. Onion - 1 small

5. Tomato - 1 medium

6. Grated coconut - 2 tbsp

7. Garlic - 8 to 10 cloves

8. Ginger  grated - 1 tsp

9. Coriander leaves - 5 tsp chopped 

10. Oil - 1 tbsp

11. Salt to taste

12. Turmeric Powder - a pinch

13. Red Chilli powder - 1 to 2 tsp (according to your taste on spice levels)

Method:

1. Peel the hard part of the drumsticks( not completely but on a scaling level). Cut them into long pieces about 1.5 inches each.

2. Cube the Potatoes and boil them with the drumsticks for about 5 min.[ I add a little salt to the vegetables while boiling so that they absorb the right amount of salt in them. This enhances the taste of the dish.]

3.Meanwhile grind coconut, garlic coriander leaves and ginger into a fine paste.

4. Dice tomatoes, onions and cut Brinjal into almost same size of potatoes.

5. In a heavy bottomed pan heat oil and add mustard seeds, once they splutter add the onions and fry for a minute.

6. Next add the turmeric, red chilli powder and the ground paste. Fry for about 2 minutes to which yo later add the brinjal.
7. Next add in the boiled drumsticks and potatoes with the diced tomatoes.

8. Add about one cup of water and cook the curry on low flame covered for about 8 minutes or until the potatoes are until everything comes together.

9. Add salt if required.

This is an awesome dish for rotis/chapatis/phulkas . It goes well with rice too.

Mango Banana Bread

The season you get mangoes I go nuts making the various stuff one can using raw mangoes to the over ripe ones. Here is one of those new attempts I tried out using ripe mangoes and the bananas.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup Mango pulp
1/2 cup Banana pulp
1/2 tsp Cinnamon powder
Jaggery - 1/4 cup(this quantity needs to be adjusted as per the mango sweetness. The mangoes I used were sugary sweet)
Wheat flour - 11/2 Cup
Maida/All purpose flour - 1 Cup
Walnuts - chopped - 1/2 cup.
Baking powder - 1 tsp
1/4 cup butter

Method:

Mix all the dry ingredients. To this add all the wet ingredients to the dry flour slowly without forming lumps. The consistency of the batter should be like that of any cake batter (not very thick neither thin).

Grease a loaf tin with butter and dust with All purpose flour. Pour the batter and bake @180 degree  centigrade for about 25 minutes. Check at every five minute interval so that you avoid burning of the sides of the bread.

Serve with a mango compost for enhancing the mango flavor.