The very first time I tasted paneer was when I was in engineering college. Our all parties involved atleast one paneer dish. I have tried including it in my cooking, but I don’t say I have been very successful. I buy it once in a while when I remember. Recently, we are having lot of get togethers and we get to taste atleast one dish with paneer, thanks to my North Indian friends.
Yesterday I wanted to make a gravy with paneer which was sitting in my freezer for a while. I asked my friend Amrita for a recipe, she makes lip smacking good paneer dishes. She suggested shahi paneer or paneer matar . I started making shahi paneer but then I kept tweaking it and made something which is kind of cross between shahi paneer and paneer kadai. It came out really good, even my 3 and half year old liked it (who hates any kind of cheese, so I tell him it is white chicken!!).
Ingredients: 2 cups paneer cubes 2 cups chopped capsicum (green bellpepper) 1/2 cup onion 1/2 cup tomato 1 tea spn ginger paste 1 tea spn garlic paste 1/2 tea spn coriander powder 1/2 tea spn cumin powder 1/2 tea spn cumin seeds A pinch turmeric 1 tea spn chilli powder 2 tbl spn chopped coriander leaves (use stems also) 1 tbl spn cashews 1 tabl spn almonds Oil Salt
Method: Heat a little oil and fry paneer pieces in it till they get brownish color. Then add capsicum pieces and fry for few minutes. Take cashews, almonds in a bowl with water and microwave for about 40secs. (Or soak them in water for for few hours). Heat oil and add cumin seeds, ginger-garlic paste, onion. Fry till they are transparent. Now add tomato, coriander powder, cumin powder, chilli powder, turmeric, salt and cook till tomatoes are soft. Grind with soaked cashews-almonds, coriander leaves. Grind to a smooth paste. Add the paste to paneer-capsicum, pour in enough water to make it to gravy of needed consistency. Add salt and cook 5-6mins. Serve hot with chapatis or jeera rice .
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 30mins
Ridgegourd or Gosale is one of the favorite vegetables for any Konkani person. It is one of those vegetables where every part of it is used – even the ridges to make a chutney . When my father in law was alive, we used to grow ridgegourd in our garden. These days we have many more banana plants, mango trees, so we no more have the empty space where these vegetables were grown. We do get very fresh ridgegourds in ‘ santhe’ (local farmer’s market) . One of our favorite dishes to make is this ambat. Traditionally made with cooked dal and ground coconut, spiced with teppal. But for making it quickly, you can even leave out coconut and it still tastes good.
Ingredients: 1/2 cup toor dal 1/4 cup coconut 1 cup chopped ridgegourd(gosale) 2-3 red chillies A pinch turmeric 2 pieces kokum (or use tamarind) 2-3Â teppal Salt
Method: Cook toor dal with turmeric in pressure cooker. Cook ridgegourd in enough water with some salt. Grind coconut with red chillies to a smooth paste. Add coconut paste, slightly crushed teppal, kokum, Â dal to ridgegourd. Â Bring it to boil. Serve hot with rice.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 20mins
