Paneer Mattar Masala

This month has been a busy month. We have had friends and cousins from India every weekend. This weekend I had my husband's Uncle and Aunt from India. His Aunt is an expert cook and I had to make something special. So I tried this paneer mattar masala from another expert's blog - Rak's blog. The paneer turned out creamy and yummy and we all enjoyed it immensely.

The recipe I followed was quite close to what was on Rak's blog. I just skipped the yogurt and lemon bit! Also the step by step pictures, helped me not burn the onions - key to a yummy gravy!

Sending this recipe off to Priya's every tuesday book-marked event.



Ingredients
1 packet of Paneer - defrosted

1/2 cup of Frozen Peas
2 Tomatoes - diced
3 Green chillies
1 tea spoon of Ginger garlic paste
1/2 tea spoon of Red chili powder
1 tea spoon of Dhaniya powder
1/2 tea spoon of Turmeric powder
pinch of Garam masala powder
Coriander leaves for garnishing
Salt to taste
2 tablespoon of oil 

To Fry and grind to a paste
2 Onion - sliced
1 small Cinnamon
2 Elachi/cardamom
2 cloves
4-5 Pepper
1 tea spoon of oil or ghee

How To

Heat a pan with oil and add the cinnamon, elachi, cloves and pepper.
The add onion and fry till golden brown. Ensure it doesn't burn. (Look at the pictures on her site to know when to stop frying the onions). Cool and grind into a smooth paste.
Shallow fry the frozen paneer with a little bit of oil until it turns golden brown. Remove and keep aside.
Heat a pan, add oil. Once the oil is hot, add green chilies and then ginger garlic paste. Fry for 2 minutes and then add the onion paste from above and let it simmer at low heat for 10-12 min. Keep stirring the paste every few minutes. Keep doing this until oil comes out from the mixture.
Add the salt and red chili powder and dhaniya powder and mix well.

After this add the diced tomatoes and cook well. Add garam masala. Cook until the tomatoes are mushy.
Add the frozen peas and the paneer cook for a few minutes.
Adjust spice level and garnish with coriander leaves. Add some water if you like gravy in your paneer curry.
I love my paneer curry, the next day. You can enjoy it same day or warmed the next day!

Panasa (Jackfruit) cutlets

Here is panasa cutlet that was made by Sasu (who I would say is the queen of cutlets- she makes them all and makes them awesome). See my earlier post on Soya cutlet and Fish cutlet,  to see what I mean.

Most of the cutlets are similar, but each tastes unique.. This made from fresh jack fruit, tastes just as good as mutton cutlets. No fresh jackfruit, no worries, use the canned ones - they state yummy too!

My in-laws had a huge jackfruit tree in their backyard. So summer months, they had load of panasa delicacies. So while both the sons (my husband and his younger brother) sat reminiscing their childhood days with mom, they remembered this cutlet. My Sasu made this as a farewell dinner for her sons, as she left for India yesterday.

Ingredients

1 can of raw Jackfruit (or panasa in Oriya)

4 small potatoes (peeled)

2-3 green chillies chopped

1 large Onion finely chopped

2 tea spoon of ginger-garlic paste

handful of peanuts (optional)

1 tea spoon of garam masala

1 spring of coriander leaves cut finely (optional)

Salt to taste

Bread Crumbs - as needed

1 cup of Besan

Oil for deep frying

How To

Boil the jackfruit with potatoes and salt until they turn mushy. Once the mixtures cools down, mash the 2 together.

In a nonstick pan fry Onion and ginger-garlic for 2 minutes. Add the peanut and fry well.

Then add the mashed jackfruit and potatoes mashed mixture and fry  for 1-2 minutes. 

Add the garam masala and salt if needed. Mix well and let it cool.

Add the coriander leaves and green chillies and mix well.

In a separate bowl, take the besan, a pinch of salt and pinch of garam masala and mix well.

Add water to make a thick batter and mix well to ensure there are no lumps.

After the jacfruit and potatoes mixture cools, take small portions and shape into oval cutlets.

Dip them in besan batter then roll them in bread crumbs and keep aside.

Fry them and eat them hot off the plate. Enjoy with mint chutney!

Summer fun with orange (color)

Its end of summer and wow what a fun filled time it was. Evenings were fun and sunny and warm and spent in the parks or beach. The kids got a restful summer doing nothing and it is all coming to an end. Summer here reminds me of grilled corn and lemonade (kids love making it)... Of course cannot imagine summer without mangoes. So here is my ode to summer color - orange!

The orange juice is freshly squeezed by my kids. Add a pinch of salt to enhance the flavor of the juice. And if the orange is too sour - add a spoonful of sugar and mix well and serve!

The mango ice-cream was made for family friends who have a sweet tooth and are borderline diabetics. So certainly not a very healthy choice but they really enjoyed it. The ice-cream I initially served to them was not really sweet, so I had to add some honey to it while I ate it. I have added some sugar to the recipe here (adjust to taste - since I am putting approximate amounts here). I also made mango milk shake with dollops of the mango ice-cream and it was heavenly...

Ingredients for the mango ice-cream

1 can of unsweetened condensed milk
1 can of mango slices (you can use the sugar syrup if you want, I didn't)
1/2 can of evaporated milk
1/4 cup sugar (optional - use any sweetener of your choice)
1/4 cup of fresh mango sliced into small pieces

How To

Mix the condensed milk, mango slices, evaporated milk, sugar using a blender. Do it in batches if needed.
Put in a container and freeze for 2 hours. Take it out, break the ice crystals and re-freeze. Take it out after an hour, break the mixture again, add the mango slices and put it back to freeze. Let it freeze for 2-4 hrs (depending on the size of the container). Serve chilled!

Enjoy as ice-cream or mix well with milk and enjoy as a mango milkshake!