Paneer Mint Mazedar

Wow!!! It has been more than two years since I posted anything here!!! I wish I would make some time to address my passion once in a while...

It all started last Sunday when we had lunch at one of our favorite Indian restaurants. We ordered 'Paneer Shashlik' without exactly knowing what it was. We were served large cubes of paneer in a light green yogurt sauce. It tasted divine and different. As soon as we got home, I searched for Paneer Shashlik recipe. I was surprised to find Paneer Tikka recipes and none of them resembled what we ate at the restaurant. Hence it was up to me to reinvent the recipe.

In most of my gravies, I saute my onions and then grind them. My husband often tells me (from his experience during student days) that chefs in Indian restaurants cook onions using a different technique. I decided to experiment this new technique (read recipe to find out what I did ;-) ) with this recipe. I also added cashews (a bit too much) to make a (read extra creamy) creamy gravy. As a side note, I coined the name for this dish too...


Ingredients:
Paneer - 1 lb (cut into cubes)
Onion - 4 large
Mint leaves - 1 large bunch (wash and separate leaves)
Cilantro - 1 bunch (Wash and chop)
Ginger - 2 inch piece
Garlic - 8 large cloves
Cooked Peas - 1 cup (Optional. If using frozen thaw to room temperature)
Cinnamon - 3 inch piece
Cloves - 5
Cardamom - 4
Cumin - 3/4 tsp
Coriander - 1 tsp
bay leaves - 3 to 4
Yogurt, well beaten - 3 tbsp
Green chillies - 2 (I make my gravies mild, you can spice it up to your needs)
Whole cashews - 15 to 20 (I added a lot more)
Juice of 1 large lemon
Milk - 1/4 cup
Salt - to taste
Oil - 3 tbsp

Method:
Slice onions and cook them covered with 1 cup of water and 2 tbsp of milk. When the onions become transparent, soft and the raw smell disappears, remove from heat, cool, reserve remaining liquid if any (onion water) and grind into a smooth paste.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and add cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, cumin and coriander. When the coriander seeds turn light brown, add green chillies, ginger and garlic and saute until soft. Now add mint and cilantro leaves. Stir fry for 30 seconds and remove from heat. At this point the leaves would be bright green and the raw smell would have disappeared. Cool this mixture, grind and set aside. Let us call this 'green paste'

Grind cashews with milk into a smooth paste.

To prepare paneer, in a small sauce pan allow water to boil, add cubed paneer and remove from heat. Let it stand covered in warm water until ready to use.

Heat 2 tbsp of oil, add the ground onion and cook in medium heat for 3 minutes. Add cashew nut paste and yogurt and cook for another 3 minutes. Stir constantly to prevent burning and splattering. Add the green paste, onion water and paneer cubes. You can add more water to obtain desired consistency. Bring the gravy to a boil. Add peas and remove from heat. Add lemon juice and mix well. Serve with hot rotis, paratas or naan.

Note:

• The onions can be sauteed instead of boiling in water
• To prepare paneer, I have tried deep frying, shallow frying, microwaving and using hot water. I have found hot water to be the best technique. It keeps the paneer soft and is easy and quick.

Rasmalai - A Indian classic

Rasmalai is my favourite sweet among the whole line up of Bengali / Odiyan sweets. Bengal and Orissa are eastern states of India along the Bay of Bengal. Rasmalai is sweetened (and generally flattened) paneer balls soaked in sweetened and reduced milk flavoured with saffron and cardamom.

Recently, I heard some interesting history about these paneer sweets from Murali's manager, Sarkar. He said, rasgulla (rasmalai's cousin soaked in sugar syrup instead of milk) was invented by Nobin Das, who was a confectioner in Kolkata when a ball of paneer accidentally fell into boiling sugar syrup. I was doing some research and found that there is no agreement whether the sweet originated in Bengal or Orissa. Read more about it here. Whoever invented it, they did a great job having brought to the world such an amazing sweet.

My first experience (that I remember) of rasmalai is in Chennai, when my maternal uncle would bring the sweet home from the famous sweet shop 'Shree Mithai'. Ever since, their rasmalai has become my favourite. Once, when I was in school, my mom and I tried to make rasgulla and did not turn out good. After that, I never tried to make this sweet at home until I found an easy recipe online in Priya's kitchen to make them from ricotta cheese. There were so many reviews from people who followed the recipe and it turned out great. I tried it last Diwali and somehow managed to goof it up... I decided to try the original long version recipe next time, which I did this Diwali.

I followed the recipe from showmethecurry.com. I replaced lemon with yogurt to curdle the milk while making paneer. Also, I did not thicken the ras (milk) as much as they did. I am repeating the same recipe from 'Show me the Curry', modifying the steps that I did differently, adding my tips if I have any, and adding step by step pictures where ever I can.

Ingredients: 

For paneer balls:

Whole Milk – 5 cups
Yogurt - 1 cup
Water – 5 cups (in a pressure cooker)
Sugar – 1 cup


For ras (milk):
Whole Milk – 3 cups
Saffron – pinch
Cardamom Powder – 1/4 tsp
Pistachios & Almonds – 2 Tbsp, roughly chopped
Sugar for the Ras – to taste
 
Method:

Boil 5 cups of milk.

Set up a cheese cloth over a colander in the kitchen sink.

When the milk comes to a rolling boil, add the yogurt. 

The milk should start to curdle. If you do not see enough curdling after about 10-15 seconds, add a drop or 2 of lemon juice.

Remove from heat and pour the contents over the cheese cloth. Be careful, the contents are very hot.

Gather the cheese cloth into a ball and hang it from the kitchen sink tap to drain all whey water. Leave it up to 30 minutes to 1 hour.

 
Meanwhile, heat 3 cups of  milk (for ras) in a non-stick vessel. When milk starts to foam up, add saffron and sugar to taste. Mix well and let the milk simmer until it reaches required consistency. I let it reduce to 3/4ths of its original volume. Add cardamom and the nuts and keep aside. I could not find raw pistachios in any store - looks like some quality control issues and no store carries it currently in US. I used only almond pieces.

When the hanging paneer has cooled enough to touch, squeeze out as much whey water as possible and remove from cheese cloth.

Break paneer and knead until it becomes smooth and fluffy.  Using a food processor makes the process easy and quick. I do not own a food processor, hence used my blender. Make sure the container and the blades are completely dry - else, paneer would get sticky.

Roll the kneaded paneer into small balls and flatten them. These balls would become 2-3 times their original size, so keep them small.

In a pressure cooker with water, add the sugar and the paneer balls. Cook the paneer balls in the pressure cooker with weight until one whistle sounds. Remove from heat and set the timer for 5 minutes. After exactly 5 minutes, release the pressure by placing the pressure cooker under running water in the kitchen sink.

Open the pressure cooker. Remove the paneer balls onto a plate using a slotted spoon and let it cool. When they have cooled enough to touch, squeeze the water out of each one and drop them gently one by one in the prepared milk to make super duper rasmalai. (If dropped into sugar syrup, it becomes rasgulla!!! - two recipes in one post!!)

Cool in the refrigerator and let it soak the sweet flavoured milk. To serve, transfer couple of malai balls to a serving plate, add some ras (milk), garnish with saffron and almonds and enjoy every bite.

Paneer Burji

We are in India right now and the first three weeks have been very busy with festivities. We have gotten out of jet lag, finished my dad's 60th birthday at Thirukadayur, went to Thirupathi, celebrated Karthigai deepam and have finally settled down. I have some breathing room before the preparations for my bil's wedding would start and decided to utilize that in my blog.

Paneer Burji is a very simple and easy dish and can be served as a side dish with roti or separately as a breakfast entree. It is very nutritious and high in protein. 'Pal curry' (Curried milk), as my mom would call it, is made when she has excess milk or when she suspected the milk would turn sour soon. She would boil the milk, curdle it using lemon juice or curd, separate out the curds from whey water by filtering through a 'veshti' (dhoti) cloth and hang it to drain the excess water. Then she would crumble the paneer with her fingers and use it in the curry. As a kid, I somehow never liked this dish and that thought stayed in my head. When I prepared it at home for the first time, I was apprehensive about the taste. I took the first spoon expecting it to taste bad. I was surprised by how much I liked it. I realized that our tastes grow with us and our horizons widen each day.

My version here uses store bought paneer for ease, and can be substituted with home-made paneer. I made this recently as a side dish when we had invited a couple of Murali's (husband) colleagues home, for dinner. We loved it so much that the four of us finished all the burji made from about a pound of paneer (apart from the other dishes). My little son liked it too - which was an additional plus.

Ingredients:
Paneer - 400 gms pack grated
Onion - 2 finely chopped
Tomato - 3 finely chopped
Green chillies - 4-5 or to taste
Ginger paste - 1 tsp
Garlic paste - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Cilantro - 2 tbsp finely chopped (optional)
Oil - 2 tsp
Salt - to taste

Method:
Heat oil over medium heat, add cumin seeds and fry until brown. Add onion and green chillies and fry for a minute. You can add little salt at this stage to bring out the sweetness of onion. Now add ginger paste and garlic paste and fry until the mixture turns light brown. Keep stirring to avoid burning. Now add tomatoes and fry for 2 minutes. Add salt (include salt for paneer too), garam masala powder, turmeric powder and add little water and cook covered for 5 minutes. Now add the grated paneer and mix well until heated through. Add cilantro mix well, remove from heat and enjoy hot.

Paneer and Vegetable Tikka - using the oven

Paneer is Indian cottage cheese made by curdling milk and filtering out all the whey water. Paneer tikka is traditionally made in a Tandoori oven. Vegetables like onion, tomato, bell pepper, cauliflower and cucumber and fruits like pineapple are skewered, grilled and served along with paneer

This is my husband's recipe and when he made it the first time, I took a bite and felt all the wonderful flavours explode in my mouth. I just closed my eyes and cherished it, like Remy the rat in the movie 'Ratatouille' (one of my favourite animated movies). This is a simple and easy recipe, but takes time, as paneer and vegetables need to be marinated at least for 6 hours before baking in the oven. Your patience will be rewarded.

Ingredients:
Paneer - 400 grams (about 14 oz) cut into cubes
Colourful bell peppers - 2 - 3 cut into big pieces
Onion - 1 cut into big pieces
Cauliflower - 8 -10 florets
You can use other 'grillable' veggies and fruits of your choice
Bamboo skewers - 15-20

For marinade:
32 oz cup of Yogurt (I used fat free) - 1
Cumin powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Bay leaf - 1
Cloves - 5
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Ginger paste - 3 tsp
Garlic paste - 3 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Juice of 1 lemon

Method:
Mix all the ingredients for the marinade. Add cubed paneer and vegetables, toss well with hands to coat each piece, cover and refrigerate for 6 - 12 hours, mixing every 2-3 hours (you can skip the mixes when left overnight ;-) Mix before going to bed and then in the morning).

Preheat oven to 425F. Soak the bamboo skewers in water for few minutes. Skewer paneer and each of the vegetables in separate sets of skewers, as the grilling time is different for each one. Place the skewers supported by the edges of a baking pan to collect the dripping marinade. Make sure paneer and veggies do not touch the bottom of the pan. Bake until the edges turn brown. It takes about 20 minutes for paneer, 30 minutes for bell pepper and cucumber and 45 minutes for onions, cauliflower and pineapple. Once done, remove from skewers and enjoy when hot as an appetizer with green and sweet chutneys or as a side for roti. Optionally, you can toss with chat masala, coriander leaves (cilantro) and lemon juice before serving.