Palak Paneer

Palak paneer is a dish which can be made in thousands of ways. I have two recipes for this delicious dish. The only difference is that in one I cut spinach, onions and tomatos and in other I put everything in food processor. Believe me it makes a difference and both tastes great. My DH likes the food processor one more. So I will give the recipe for food processor but give the picture of the one with cut spinach.

Ingredients:
2 bunches palak (spinach)
1/2 lb Paneer cut in cubes
1 big onion
1 garlic
1/2 inch ginger
2 big tomatos
3-4 green chillies
2 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp red chilli (optional)
salt as per taste
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 tsp all purpose flour
few roasted cashews cut in pieces (optional)
1/4 cup water

Boil spinach in a big pan for 3-4 minutes. Shallow fry paneer in a pan and keep aside. Drain water and leave spinach for cooling. In a food processor, process garlic, ginger and green chilli. Take this mixture out and in the same processor, process onion. Heat oip in a pan. Add cumin seeds. First add ginger, garlic and chilli paste. After a minute add opnion paste. While this mixture is being fried, process tomatos in the processor. Once the mixture is fried, add turmeric powder, coriander powder, galaram masala and salt and red chilli. Now add tomatos and let it cook. In the mean time process the spinach in food processor. Once the mixture in the pan is cooked, add spinach. Now take the all purpose flour and mix it well in the water. Add this mixture in pan and let it cook for 2 minutes. Now add whipping cream. Add paneer and roasted cashews. Cover with lid and let it cook on sim for 10 minutes. Keep stirring it few times. Your Palak paneer is ready. It goes best with Naan.

Creamy Paneer Cashew

Well, this is my own recipe which I initially started making with 'Khoya' in India. When I came to US, khoya was not easily available and I started making it with whipping cream. One day I did not have whipping cream and I used evaporated milk and every time this recipe came out fantastic. In fact, if you have none of the above, then you can just use milk instead of water and you will still have great taste.

Ingredients:

1 lb Paneer cut in rectangular pieces
handful of cashews soaked in water
1/4 cup whipping cream/evaporated milk/ khoya
1 onion
1 tomato
2 tbsp oil
1/2 inch ginger
1/2 cup green peas.
2-3 green chillies
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
salt as per taste
coriander leaves to garnish

In a blender grind onion, tomato, green chilli and ginger. Keep aside. In the same blender grind soaked cashews, keep them aside.
In a pan heat oil. Add cumin seeds. Put grind onion, tomato, chiili, ginger paste.
When it is well fried, add turmeric powder, coriander powder, salt and garam masala.
Now add Cashews and whipping cream. Add water and green peas. When boiling add Paneer. Keep on sim for 5-8 minutes and paneer is ready. This goes best with garlic naan.

some good recipes from various blogs

While browsing internet, I came across some good recipes on various blogs. Thanks to all of you for posting such yummy recipes...here are some of them....

Puran Poli

Thali peeth

Dal Dhokli

Falafal bowl

Pita Pizza

Hara Bhara Kabab

Chicken Tikka

Matthi

Gobi manchurian and hakka noodles

Pickled mango

Dry Chicken

Dhokla

Samosa

Chhole Bhature

Bisi bele bhath

Caramal Custard

Paneer paratha

Mushroom

Roast Chicken

Paneer kabab

Sabudana Khichdee

Pizza

I love pizza. They are so cheesy, yummy....

My good friend Soni told me a recipe for pizza. And when I bought pizza pan, there was a recipe on that pan. Combining these two recipes and after 3-4 trials, I developed my own recipe for a perfect pizza. And here is what you need.

Perforated pizza pan (and not the usual one. The reason is that normal pizza pan has no holes and thus the moisture is trapped in and the base becomes soggy). See picture of my pizza pan. Note: finally I bought pizza stone and my pizzas are better than ever.



1 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
some warm water (less than 1/2 cup)
1 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
pizza sauce (I use the spicy pizza sauce available in Walmart)
tex mex cheeze (mixture of mozerella, cheddar and monterey jack)
Stuff for toppings (such as onion, bell peppers, jalapeno, mushrooms, sun-dried tomato etc.)



In a big bowl, put some warm water, sugar and yeast. Leave it for 10 minutes for yeast to get activated. Now add salt and olive oil and mix well. Add wheat flour and all purpose flour and knead with hands. Add more water if you need to. Put this dough in oiled bowl and cover with a cloth for and keep aside for 1 hour.

After one hour, punch the dough, make a big ball and let it rest for a minute.

Switch on the oven. Set it at 425F degrees.

Now roll the ball to make pizza base of the size of your pan. Oil the pizza pan and put the rolled base on the pan and let it rest for 15-20 minutes.
Add a layer of pizza sauce and then a layer of tex mes cheese. Add your favorite toppings. Put the pizza in oven and pizza is ready in 20-25 minutes.

Note: I give it my pizza Indian touch. I marinate paneer in tandoori masala, salt and yogurt and then put that paneer as topping. This paneer topping along with onions taste great.

My another favorite topping is cooked spinach topping with onion and bell peppers. I cook spinach in oil, garlic, crushed red chilli and salt and then use as topping.

Bengun ka Bhurta

I am starting my blog with bengun ka bhurta (mashed eggplant/brinjal) because thats what I cooked today. With extremely busy days with my DS, I did a real quick job of making it but my DH liked it a lot. I was always afraid to order bengun ka bhurta in restaurants. Once Ravali packed bengun ka bhurta from Milan restaurant in Charlottesville and I loved it.  tried to duplicate their recipe and the result is pretty cool!

Ingredients:

1 big eggplant (brinjal)
1 big onion (finely chopped)
1 big tomato (finely chopped)
3-4 green chillies (finely cut)
1/2 mashed boiled potato (optional)
handful of frozen green peas
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp amchur powder
salt (as per taste)
red chilli powder (as per taste)
1-2 tbsp roasted peanuts, coarsely crushed
chopped cilantro or coriander leaves

Bake the eggplant in oven at 375 F for about 45 minutes. Once baked peel off the skin. Mash it and keep aside.

In a large skillet, heat oil and add cumin seeds. Add finely chopped onion and finely cut green chillies. Fry it until onion turns light brown. Add garlic paste and fry it for 30 more seconds. Now add turmeric powder, coriander powder, garam masala and salt. Add chopped tomatoes and peas. Once tomatoes are soft add mashed potato and mashed eggplant and stir it well. Add amchur powder and crushed peanuts (this gives it a good texture, you can replace crushed peanuts with crushed almonds too) and cook at low flame for 5-8 minutes. Finally add chopped cilantro.

Yummy bengun ka bhurta is ready. Red tomatoes and green peas make bengun ka bhurta look very colorful.