Paneer Kurma

A simple and quick recipe with Paneer that will go well with both rice and chapathis/rotis.

Ingredients:

1. Paneer - 1 pack chopped into cubes

2. Onions - 1/2 cup (chopped thin slices)

3. Tomato - 1/2 cup (chopped finely)

4. Bay leaves - 2 to 3

5. Cinnamon - a small stick

6. Cloves - 3 to 4

7. Cardamom - 1

8. Coconut - 1/4 cup

9. Peppercorns - 5 to 6

10. Red chilly powder - 1 tablespoon

11. Salt - to taste

12. Oil - 2 tablespoon

13. Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon

14. Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tablespoon

Preparation:

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil and shallow fry the paneer cubes for 4 to 5 minutes in medium flame. 

2. Prepare hot water of 2 cups and once the paneer turns golden brown, drop it in the hot water. This process will keep the paneer soft

3. Add the remaining oil in the same pan and season with bay leaves and onions

4. Once the onions turn translucent, add ginger/garlic paste and fry well

5. When the raw smell leaves, add tomatoes and saute for another 2 to 3 minutes

6. Add all spices - turmeric powder, red chilly powder and salt and mix well

7. Saute for another 2 to 3 minutes and add the fried paneer and mix it with the masala

8. Add the hot water that the paneer was soaked in and bring it to boil for 5 minutes

9. Meanwhile prepare the paste with coconut, cloves, cinnamon, peppercorns and cardamon

10. Add this paste to the mixture and cook in low flame for 5 to 6 minutes 

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve it hot. 

Tips:

1. You can use poppy seeds/cashews to grind the paste thick

2. Add mint leaves while grinding or seasoning for additional flavor

3. Skip the frying process of Paneer if you like to avoid more oil

4. I used green peas as my son loves them, this is optional

Paneer Masala Dosa

Dosa is one of my favorite all time food and just love it with even a simpler chutney. But my husband is not a lover of dosa, until it has something special. So to make us both happy I decided to try some stuffed dosa, and with Paneer at home, how could I miss the scrumptious paneer dosa :) Dosas came out very well and crispy though I had used the store bought batter in this preparation. 


Preparation Time(for masala) - 30 minutes 

Ingredients:
For stuffing masala
1. Paneer (Cottage cheese) - 100 gms
2. Beans - 20
3. Carrot - 2
4. Onion - 1 medium size
5. Tomato - 1/2 medium size
6. Red chilly powder - 1 tablespoon
7. Garam Masala powder - 1/2 teaspoon
8. Turmeric powder - a pinch
9. Salt - to taste
10. Oil - 2 tablespoons
11. Coriander leaves - handful
For Dosa
1. Dosa batter
2. Oil -as required


Preparation:
This is a very simple and similar preparation to ordinary Masala dosa. 
How to prepare Masala?
1. Finely chop all vegetables (beans, carrot, onion and tomato).
2. Grate paneer into fine pieces.
3. Heat oil in a pan and when hot, add onions and fry until transparent.
4. Add tomato and saute until it is cooked fine.
5. Add beans and carrot and cook them for 5-6 minutes. Since we chop them finely, it cooks easily.
6. Now add the spice powders - turmeric, chilly and garam masala and cook until raw smell leaves.
7. Add required salt and the grated paneer and saute for not more than 3-4 minutes. Paneer will get cook fast as we have grated it finely. 
8. Garnish with coriander leaves.

How to prepare Dosa?
1. Heat dosa pan and use 2 ladles of batter and spread it thin (this will make your dosa crispy).
2. Spread 1/2 tablespoon of oil around the batter and close it with a lid to allow cooking for one minute.
3. By now the dosa would turn into golden brown.
4. Now spread the stuffing masala prepared earlier in middle of the dosa and start folding it. You can choose a shape of your choice :) 


You can serve it alone or with Chutney's or Sambar. I prepared a three chutney's to compliment the dosa and they came out yummy as well!!

Paneer Egg Masala

It was a Sunday afternoon with just egg and paneer at home. I wanted to make something different, yet tasty and simple and decided to marry the egg and paneer for a spicy dish :) Here is the recipe for the hot dish.

Preparation Time: 30 mins

Quantity for 4 servings

Ingredients:

1. Paneer - 250 gms

2. Egg - 4

3. Onions - 1 finely chopped

4. Tomato - 1 finely chopped

5. Red chilly powder - 1 tablespoon

6. Coriander powder - 1 1/2 tablespoon

7. Ginger/garlic paste - 1/2 tablespoon

8. Garam masala - 1 teaspoon (Optional)

9. Oil - 3 tablesoon

10. Salt - to taste

11. Coriander - for garnishing 

Preparation:
1. Chop onions and tomatoes into fine pieces and cut paneer into small cubes
2. Break the eggs in a bowl and beat it.
3. Heat oil in a pan, add onions and fry well. Add ginger garlic paste and fry well until raw smell goes
4. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook well.
5. Now add the powders one by one - red chilly powder, coriander powder, garam masala and salt and cook for 2 minutes. 
6. Add the egg mixture and mix well to form scrambled egg mixture for 2 minutes. 
7. Its time to add the paneer cubes to the pan and stir well to cook along with the spices in low flame for 5-7 minutes until paneer becomes soft. 
8. Hot and spicy paneer egg masala is ready. Garnish with coriander leaves.


I served it with hot  Simple Rasam  for the afternoon and it was a perfect combination. We also had it with roti for dinner. 

Paneer Pin Wheels

Bored on a saturday evening and wanting to try something different and tasty, I ended up with this recipe. I realized I had some pastry puff left over after the last time I made vegetable puffs for my guests at home and decided to try something with Paneer. I really wanted to post step by step pictures recipe for this, but unfortunately missed to take pictures :( I will manage to edit and repost this with the step by step pictures sooner. Enjoy the mouth watering pin wheels


Preparation Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:
1. Paneer - 100 gms
2. Pepperidge farm Puff pastry - 1
3. Onion - 1 meidum size
4. Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tablespoon
5. Red chilly powder - 1/2 tablespoon
6. Garam Masala powder - 1/4 teaspoon
7. Salt - to taste
8. Oil - 1 tablespoon
9. Butter - to coat the wheels
10. Coriander leaves - handful
For Mint Chutney
1. Mint leaves - 20-30 leaves
2. Green chillies - 1

Preparation:

Thaw the Puff pastry per the instructions given in the pack. I generally thaw it at room temperature as I start preparing my filling.

Filling
1. Grate paneer finely and chop onions into fine pieces
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan and when hot add cumin seeds, onions and fry them until onion turns golder brown.
3. Add the grated paneer, red chilly powder, salt, garam masala and cook it for 5- 6 minutes in low-medium flame. Since we have grated the paneer finely, it will cook quickly.

Mint Chutney:
Make a fine paste with mint leaves and green chillies with a pinch of salt.

Making Pin Wheels
By now, the pastry sheet would have thawed well and ready to use.

1. Roll the pastry sheet with little flour (AP flour/Maida flour).
2. Now spread the Mint chutney all over the sheet.
3. Spread the paneer mixture over the mint chutney and finely chopped coriander leaves.
4. Start rolling the pastry from one side. Use water to seal when closing on the other end
5. Slice into wheels of required size and brush it with melted butter.
6. Spread the baking sheet over the baking tray and place the wheels without touching one another.
7. Precook the oven at 350 degrees and bake it for 10-12 minutes. Check once or twice during the baking.


Hot and spicy paneer roll is ready to serve. Serve it with tomato ketchup


Tips:
1. Place the roll before slicing in freezer for 10 minutes to make the slicing easier
2. If you don't like it too spicy, you can reduce the amount of chilly powder.

Mint-Spinach Paneer/Chicken Kebab

It was heavily raining and we had a tornado warning that evening and I reached home early and both of us wanted to have something spicy and it was time for me to try this recipe and we also ended up naming it "Mint-Spinach Flavored Triple Tornado Grill". On our first camping trip with our friends, I repeated this with Chicken.

Preparation Time: 2 hours for marination; 20 minutes cooking time

Ingredients:

1. Paneer - 250 gms
2. Onion - 1
3. Bell Peppers (Capsicum) - All colors each one
4. Lemon Juice - 2 - 3 tablespoon
5. White pepper - for garnishing

6. Oil - to cook

Marinade:
1. Spinach leaves - 25-30
2. Mint leaves - 4 to 5
3. Coriander leaves - 4-5 stings
4. Green chillies - 2
5. Red chilly powder - 1 tablespoon
6. cloves - 3
7. Cinnamon - 2-3 small sticks
8. Cardamom - 1
9. Bay leaves - 1 small
10. Fennel seeds - 1/2 tablespoon
11. Pepper - 4-5
12. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tablespoon
13. Ginger Garlic paste - 1/2 tablespoon
14. Yoghurt - 3-4 tablespoon
15. Salt - to taste


Preparation:
1. Wash all greens and blend them along with the other ingredients given for marination into a fine paste.

2. Cut paneer,onions and bell peppers into cubes of 1 inch size and gently poke the pieces with a fork, add the paste and mix it well.

3. Keep it refrigerated for 1 - 2 hours.

4. Heat a pan and 2 tables spoons of oil and shallow fry the paneer pieces few at a time for not more than 2-3 minutes. Repeat the process until all the paneer pieces and keep it aside.

5. Pre heat the oven at 350 degrees.

6. Apply oil on the skewers and skew the fried paneers, bell peppers, onoins alternatively as a colorful combination.

7. Place a baking sheet on a tray, place the skewers and cook it in the oven for 7-8 minutes rotating sides at half time.

8. Remove it from the oven, squeze lime juice and sprinkle some white pepper and serve it hot.

Tips:

1. You can try this recipe with Chicken or any other vegetables.

2. If you are planning to try this dish in a camping site, you can skip step 4 and grill it directly. You will have to cook for few extra minutes.