Paneer... Kadai Paneer

The most favoured accompaniment to almost every kind of roti. I am ALL for shortcuts. However, there are some things you should take time for. One of them is this dish. By time, I mean 5 minutes. Before you cook, get this powder ready. Here's the recipe.

Jeera : 1 teaspoon
Peppercorn : 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek Seeds: 1/4 tsp
Corriander Seeds : 1 tablespoon
Red Chilli : 2 [More if you prefer heat]

Put the whole lot onto a pan, dry roast them on a medium heat until the spices release its fragrance.
Cool the mix, powder it and store it.

This is Kadai Masala that can be used for Paneer and vegetables. I usually make this for twice the quantity and store it. Saves me a lot of time. Now, onto the paneer gravy.

Paneer: 250 grams
Onion: 1 small finely chopped
Tomatoes: 2 medium finely chopped
Garlic: 4 cloves finely chopped
Green Chillies: 2 finely chopped.
Kadai Masala:  2 tsp
Salt: To taste
Kasuri Methi/dried fenugreek leaves: 1 tsp.
Oil: 2 tablespoons

Heat Oil and sautee the onions until they are almost done.
Now add the garlic and green chillies and stir for a minute.
Add the tomatoes, kadai masala and stir well.
Cook this until the tomatoes are done and you can see the oil leaving the sides of the pan.
Add the paneer at this point and cover it and cook for about 5-8 minutes.
Stir in between to ensure the paneer/gravy is not burning or sticking to the pan.
Garnish with corriander and serve hot with rotis.

Time Out and back now...

Had been a hectic month and now back to some regular blogging. Lemme start with something simple. How about some Pickle? The green mango one! Here's the recipe.

Raw sour green mango - 1 large or 2 medium Chopped finely.
Salt: a teaspoon [This could be more or less depending on your salt and the mango. So fix it.]
Red Chilli Powder: 1.5 tsp
Ground Fenugreek Seeds: 1 tsp
Asafoetida/hing: 1/2 tsp
Gingelly Oil : 2 tablespoons [If you dont have this, go buy some! Not worth making the pickle without this]

Add salt to the chopped mangoes and leave it to soak it all up for an hour.
Now Heat the oil, and when it is at a high temperature, add the powders and take it off the flame.
Pour the oil mix into the mangoes.
Taste to fix the hing/salt. Your pickle is ready.

This pickle is great with Idli/dosa/curd rice and even bread! If you know my brother, you are nodding your head :-)

P.S: I have absolutely no idea how to tell if a mango is raw or slighly ripe. Trust your shopkeeper or ring up S and ask him!

Penne in White Sauce.

The easiest way to get this dish done is to use the bottled white sauce. The trouble though, is the presence of eggs in the sauce and a general lack of flavour! Here's what I do to make a nice penne in white sauce.

Penne: 2 cups, Boiled al dente/ just a little under done.
Butter : 2 tablespoons
Flour: 2 tablespoons
Milk: 1.5 cups
Garlic: 2 pods, finely chopped.
Italian Mixed Herbs: 1 tsp
Pepper: 1 tsp

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees
Heat the butter in a pan, add the garlic and fry for a few seconds.
Now add the pepper, herbs mix well.
Add the flour and fry for 20 seconds.
Now pour the milk all at once and stir well, until smooth and without lumps.
Bring this to a nice thick consistency.
Put the pasta in this sauce, mix well and move to an ovenproof dish.

You can top this pasta with some sauteed carrots, beans, capsicum and peas.
Again, top with some nice cheese and parmesan.
Bake this for about 15 minutes, until the cheese is golden and delicious.

Spring Onions

We found some really fresh Spring Onions and couldn't wait to cook with it. However, I wanted to make something really quick and uncomplicated. Here's what I did.

Spring Onions : 3 bunches chopped
Onion: 1/2 sliced thin
Fenugreek Seeds/methi: 1 tsp
Red Chillies: 2 broken
Oil: to fry
Sambar powder: 2-3 tsp
Hing: a small pinch
Besan: 2 tablespoons.

Heat oil in a pan, add the methi and red chilli when the oil is hot.
Now add the sliced onions and fry for a few minutes.
Now add the spring onions and saute for 2-3 minutes.
Add the Sambar powder and saute for a minute.
Add the Besan and stir well. fry for a few minutes.
Now, add some water until you get some gravy.
Allow it to boil for 2 minutes. Add salt to taste.
This is great with Rotis.

Aloo Methi

This is Sukriti's recipe. The way they make it at her home. I have been a fan of this mild, fragrant dish since day 1. Here's the recipe:

Potatoes: 2-3 medium: Chopped into small cubes
Methi Leaves: Cleaned and chopped roughly/Frozen methi - 2 cubes
Whole Corriander Seeds: 1-1.5 tablespoons
Red Chilli: 2 - Broken into small pieces.
Salt: To taste
Oil: 3-4 Tablespoons

Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan.
Add the red chilli flakes and corriander seeds. Fry for a minute.
Now add the chopped potato and cook until they are almost done.
Finally, add the methi leaves, salt and mix well.
Dont cook the methi leaves too much.

This is a great accompaniment for Rotis. I know that there are many recipes out there that need soooooooo many ingredients. And I have tried most of them. This one is my favorite. :-)

Kadala Curry

This dish is the ultimate kerala/mallu food experience. I mean, Nothing can possibly be tastier than this curry with Puttu. I make this quite often for S and I am always thinking of Anna. He loves this dish and I cant wait to cook this for him. Anyway, I should be taking pictures of all the dishes. Unfortunately, S is not patient enough to wait for photography. Sigh! So, here goes the recipe.

P.S If you are living in the UK or the US where canned Garbanzo/chickpeas are available, go grab a few cans. Its dirt cheap and saves you a a lot of trouble.

Canned Chickpeas : 2 cans or 500 grams (cooked)
Red Onions: 2 medium - Chopped Fine/sliced fine.
Tomatoes: 2 medium - Chopped.
Jeera
Mustard
Curry Leaves
Turmeric
Red Chilli Powder/Paprika:

To Grind:
Small red onions/Pearl Onions/Shallots: 6-7 Peeled
Curry Leaves- 2 sprigs
Dried Red Chillies: 5-6
Corriander Seeds: 1-2 tablespoons
Coconut, grated- 1 cup (fresh/frozen. NO dessicated stuff!)

1) To make the paste:
Heat oil in a pan, add the chillies, curry leaves and small onions and fry for a minute.
Now, add the corriander seeds, fry for about 4-5 seconds.
Add the coconut and fry for 2-3 minutes.
Blend the mix in a blender with some water. This should be a fairly thick paste.

2) In a large pan, heat oil and crackle the mustard, jeera and curry leaves
Now add the onions and fry with a little salt.
Once cooked, add turmeric and paprika and the tomatoes.
Cook until the tomatoes are pulpy and oil leaves the sides.
Add the chickpeas- One can drained and another one drained halfway. This water is tasty
Once the mix boils, add the ground paste.
Cook for a minute or two.
Garnish with some corriander leaves.


This is a really tasty accompaniment for - Dosa, Idli, Puttu, Appam, Idiappam.

Parippu Podi - Dal Powder

My mother in law makes the best Parippu Podi in the world. Seriously. And we brought some with us to London. It was over in a month. What do I do? I was given the recipe, and I made this stuff here. Took me 10 minutes!!!

Toor Dal : 1 Cup
Urad Dal: 1/4 cup
Red Chillies: 4-5
Jeera: 1 tablespoon
Pepper: 1 tablespoon.
Hing: A generous Pinch
Salt : To taste.

Dry roast the dals separately, add to the blender.
Dry roast the red chillies and add to the blender.
Now blend them until mixed. This should be a rough blend.
Dry roast the jeera and pepper.
Blend the Jeera and Pepper and mix in the dal blend.
Blend them together for 2-3 seconds.
Season with salt and hing.

Mix this powder with hot rice and ghee. :-)