Chilli Paneer

I had come across this recipe for chilli paneer somewhere a long time ago and since it sounded super easy to make, had registered it in my mind. I got to try it out today and my husband said it turned out well. It was super easy to make too, generally I avoid trying any Indo-Chinese dishes thinking it would take a long time to make them.

Ingredients (3 - 4 servings):

Paneer cubed - 3 cups using a measuring cup
Onion cubed - 1 cup using a measuring cup
Peppers (green, red and yellow) cubed - 2 cups using a measuring cup
Spring onions - 1 small bunch, washed and finely chopped
Pepper powder - 2 tablespoons
Garlic - 5 pods finely chopped
Ginger - 1/2 inch stick finely chopped
Green chillies - 5 slit along the length (you can vary this according to your taste)
Soy sauce - 5 teaspoons
Maggie hot and sweet tomato sauce - 5 tablespoons (you can use 2.5 tablespoons of hot sauce + 2.5 tablespoons of tomato sauce if you don't have this)
Corn flour - 4 teaspoons
Oil - 7 to 8 tablespoons
Salt to taste
Sugar - 1 tablespoon

Procedure:

1. In a wide bowl, add the cubed paneer pieces, a teaspoon of the corn flour, some black pepper powder, salt and mix well.
2. In a pan, add about 5 tablespoons of oil. Once the oil gets heated, fry the paneer pieces from step 1 until golden brown and set aside.
3. Add the remaining oil in the same pan, add green chillies, finely chopped ginger and garlic, about 1/3 of the finely chopped spring onions and fry for 30 seconds.
4. Add the cubed onions and peppers to step 3, a teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of sugar (this helps retain the color of the veggies) and sautee on high heat for about 2 minutes.
5. Mix a little water with the remaining corn flour and set aside.
6. Add the hot and sweet tomato sauce, soy sauce and pepper powder to step 4 and stir it in.
7. Now add the corn flour paste, fried paneer cubes, adjust salt and lower the flame. Mix everything in for about 30 seconds and turn off the stove.
8. Garnish with the remaining chopped green onions.

This can be served as an appetizer, as a side for rotis, fried rice or noodles of your choice. Enjoy! :-)

Capsicum Tomato Thokku

Instead of just making onion tomato thokku/gravy, adding capsicum to the mix was definitely a flavor enhancer. The whole dish seemed like a brand new one :-)

 

Ingredients (2-3 servings):

 

Onions - 1 big finely chopped

Tomatoes - 2 medium sized finely chopped

Capsicum/green pepper - 1 finely chopped (you can use any colored pepper)

Cooking oil - 3 tablespoons

Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

Split white urad dhal - 1 teaspoon

Curry leaves - a few

Green chillies - 2 slit length-wise

Asafoetida - a pinch

Turmeric powder - a pinch (optional)

Red chilli powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Salt to taste

Water - 1/2 cup

Cilantro/coriander - 2 teaspoons finely chopped (optional)

 

Procedure:

 

1. In a pan, heat the cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add the urad dhal, curry leaves, green chillies, asafetida, turmeric powder and fry until the dhal turns light golden brown in color.

2. Add the chopped onions to step 1 and fry until they become translucent.

3. Add the chopped tomatoes and capsicum to step 2 and fry until the tomatoes and capsicum are cooked.

4. Add the red chilli powder, salt and water. Mix everything well and bring it to a boil. You can add more red chilli powder if you like it spicy.

5. Adjust salt and turn off the stove and garnish with finely chopped cilantro/coriander.

 

This goes very well with all types of idlis, dosas and also rotis. You can make it as a wet dish instead of a gravy too.

Potato Masala

This potato masala is a very common side dish for masala dosas and also puris. I have tasted very many variations of this and most of them differ by only a couple of spices that are used yet taste different and great, but I like my Mom's slightly better than the rest :-).

Ingredients (3 - 4 servings):

Potatoes - 5 medium sized ones
Onions - 1 big cut into long thin slices Green chillies - 3 slit along the length (vary this to suit your taste) Dried red chillies - 2 broken into half
Cooking oil - 2 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Channa dhal - 1 teaspoon Asafoetida - a couple of pinches
Turmeric powder - a pinch or two
Curry leaves - a few
Salt to taste
Procedure:

1. Boil, peel, mash potatoes and set aside.
2. In a deep vessel, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add the urad dhal, channa dhal, curry leaves, slit green chillies, dried red chillies, asafoetida and turmeric powder and fry until the dhals turn light golden brown in color.
3. Add the onions to step 2 and fry until they turn golden brown in color. 4. Add the mashed potatoes from step 1 to step 3, add some salt mix everything well along with about 1/2 cup of water, bring it to a boil and turn off the stove.

You can vary the consistency by adjusting the amount of water that you add to step 4. If you are making it for masala dosas, you can probably make it less watery (or not) and stuff them inside the dosa. It can be a little watery for puris though, but it is totally up to you. The goal here is to enjoy a delicious meal :-).

Paav Bhaaji

After almost 5 years of hiding, I decided to revive my blog this year. A lot of things happened on the personal front in the last 5 years - marriage, our 3 year old son and now a second child along the way. A lot of role changes and responsibilities came along due to which blogging took the back burner. I'm ready to kick start 2017 with a post. I don't promise to post on a regular basis, but hoping that this post will help me get back to blogging even if it is slow :-).

This recipe for paav bhaji was inspired by a very dear friend of mine, Aarti Patel, while I lived in New Hampshire. I have been following only this recipe ever since I tasted her paav bhaji.

Ingredients (about 4 - 5 servings):

Potato - 1 peeled and cubed (I try to keep this to a minimum and incorporate other less favorite veggies)

Broccoli - 1 small cup

Cauliflower - 1 small cup

Carrots - 2 peeled and chopped into chunks

Green beans - a handful, roughly chopped

Capsicum/green pepper - 1 roughly chopped

Green peas - a handful

Onions - 1 big or 2 small finely chopped

MDH or Baadshah Paav Bhaji masala - 2 tablespoons (you can use any brand of paav bhaji masala if you don't have the ones mentioned)

Salt to taste

Cooking oil - 5 teaspoons

Butter - 2 tablespoons

To grind into a paste:

Tomatoes - 1.5 big or 2 small cut into chunks

Ginger - 1 inch stick cut into pieces

Green chillies - 3 (can vary this based on your taste)

For seasoning:

Coriander/cilantro - a handful, finely chopped

Lemon - 1, cut into small wedges

Onion - 1/4, julienned

Procedure:

1. Pressure cook all the veggies in the ingredients list except the onions. Mash them well and set aside.

2. Grind the tomatoes, ginger and green chillies into a paste and set aside.

3. In a wide pan, add the cooking oil and butter and let the butter melt and mix with the oil.

4. Once the oil is hot, add the finely chopped onions and fry until golden brown.

5. Now add the ground paste from step 2 to step 4 and fry until the raw smell of the tomatoes goes away. This will take about 10 minutes on medium heat.

6. Add salt, paav bhaji masala to step 5, fry for a few seconds and then add the mashed veggies. Adjust salt and paav bhaji masala if needed, mix everything well and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. You can put a lid on during this time.

7. Turn off the stove after 10 minutes and garnish with finely chopped cilantro.

8. Serve the gravy with any kind of toasted bread with a lemon wedge and some julienned onions on the side.

Enjoy your paav bhaji!!! :-)

Chow Chow (Chayote Squash) Koottu

A long time back, I had told a friend of mine how to make this koottu and the very next day he said he made it and liked it too. He asked me to post the recipe for the same so that he can refer to it whenever he wants to make it again. Since I was randomized a lot due to other things going on in my life last year, I had completely forgotten about it until last night when I saw this sitting in my drafts. Here you go Karthik, have at it! This post will also mark my return to blogging this year like I had promised in my previous post :-).

Ingredients (2 - 3 servings):

Chayote squash - 2 peeled and chopped
Sambar powder - 1 to 2 tablespoons (adjust this to suit your taste)
Channa dhal - 1/2 cup (using a measuring cup) fried in a drop of oil until it turns light golden brown in color

To grind in to a paste:

Grated/powdered coconut - 3 to 4 tablespoons
Rice flour - 1.5 to 2 tablespoons

For seasoning:

Cooking oil - 1 tablespoon
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 tablespoon
Asafoetida - a couple of pinches
Fresh curry leaves - a few

Procedure:

1. Grind coconut and rice flour into a fine paste and set aside.
2. In a deep vessel, cook the chopped chayote squash along with sambar powder and the fried channa dhal until the chayote squash turns soft such that it can be mashed with your fingers.
3. In a pan, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add urad dhal and asafoetida and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color. Add the curry leaves now and transfer the contents to step 2.
4. Add the paste from step 1 to step 2 and some salt, mix thoroughly, bring it to a boil and turn off the stove.

This will go well with vaththa kuzhambu, sambar, podi rice or tomato rasam.

Happy New Year!

The past year has been a very eventful one for me - sister's wedding, new job, shifted base from one coast of the US to another (and still settling in) etc. - due to which I've not been able to keep up with blogging since February last year. I hope this year will be as much fun, happening and challenging. I plan on resuming blogging as well this year :-). Although I didn't post much last year, I've enjoyed many of your mouth-watering dishes that have helped grow my recipe diary by a considerable amount. I thank all my blogger friends for their wonderful friendship, awesome recipes and passion for cooking. I wish you all a very happy, prosperous, lovely, eventful and delicious 2011!

North Indian Kichchadi - My Way

It was one of those "I don't want to cook; don't want to do any extensive cutting work; don't want to eat out (it had just stopped snowing, the roads were bad and snow ploughs just came out) either, but want a healthy, tasty and comforting home-cooked meal for dinner" days. And yes, agreed! I have way too many conditions, yet I managed to indulge in a very delicious and wholesome meal :-). Here goes my version of North Indian kichchadi...

Ingredients (2 - 3 servings):

Uncooked rice - 1 cup (using a measuring cup)
Masoor dhal - 1/4 cup (using a measuring cup)
Toor dhal - 1/4 cup (using a measuring cup)
Turmeric powder - a couple of pinches
Salt to taste

For seasoning:

Cooking oil - 2 to 3 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1/4 teaspoon
Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Asafoetida - a couple of pinches
Green chillies - 3 to 4 finely chopped (adjust this to suit your taste)
Freshly grated ginger - 1 tablespoon
Garlic - a couple of cloves finely chopped
Fresh cilanto - a few strands finely chopped

Procedure:

1. Pressure cook rice, masoor dhal, toor dhal and turmeric powder with about 5 - 6 cups (using a measuring cup) of water until the rice and dhals get absolutely soft and easy to mash. Add salt and mash them with the back of a ladle once they are done.
2. In a pan, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add asafoetida, cumin seeds, green chillies, grated ginger and garlic, mix everything well for a few seconds and transfer the contents to the pressure cooked rice and dhal from step 1 and mix well once again.
3. Garnish with chopped cilantro and enjoy with a side of plain yogurt.

Nothing could have beat this comforting meal that day!