My Baby turns 2

Yes, can't believe it that my baby (my blog) is growing up! Yes my blog turns 2 today! Happy Birthday - my toddling blog! And Happy New Year everyone. Hoping you had a great New Year bash and wishing everyone a lovely year ahead...

This dish is dedicated to one of my mausi... She makes these awesome chena tarkari, aka Paneer Curry. She makes it so well even without adding ginger and garlic to the curry; and her paneer balls are as smooth as silk. This version I present here is my adaption of her chena tarkari... Hope you enjoy these as much as I do...

Ingredients

For the Paneer balls
1/2 gallon of whole milk (yields about 12-14 paneer balls)
1 lemon or 1/4 cup vinegar to curdle milk
1/4 cup maida
Salt to taste
a pinch of Garam masala
1 cup of oil for deep frying the balls

For the curry
1 big onion chopped finely
1 tea spoon of ginger garlic paste
2 tomatoes - chopped finely or mixed once in the mixie
1/2 tea spoon garam masala
1/2 tea spoon Turmeric powder
1/2 tea spoon Chili powder
1-2 bay leaves
1-2 green chillies (optional)
Salt to taste
1-2 table spoon oil

How To

Make Paneer balls
Boil the milk in a large container. Keep stirring so that it doesn't burn.
Once it boils, add the lemon or vinegar to curdle the milk.
Strain the paneer and remove as much whey as you can from the paneer.
Mix well with maida, salt and garam masala.
Make small balls, flatten against your palm and keep aside.
Deep fry the balls in oil, in small batches until golden brown and keep aside.

Make curry
Put the oil in a large vessel and heat.
Once the oil is hot, add the bay leaves and green chillies. Let it sputter for a minute.
Add onions and fry on low heat until the onions turn golden brown.
At this point, I took the onions out, let it cooled for a few minutes and mixed it well in a food processor to get a smooth paste.
Put the onion paste back into the hot vessel, add the ginger garlic paste and let it cook for a few minutes
Add the turmeric powder and chili powder now and mix well. Add the tomato puree or chopped tomatoes and cook until the oil starts to come out of the sides.
Add the garam masala and a cup of water and let the curry look nice and rich.
Turn off the heat and add the paneer balls.

Tastes awesome with plain rice or Jeera rice. This curry tastes even better the next day!