Paneer remains my all time favorite. When I was a kid (I am not one now despite what my mom wants me to believe), mom always made a paneer dish once a day. Lunch always used to contain fish, which is obvious as we were a typical Bengali family, but on Saturdays it was no fish. Instead we had a paneer dish. As far as I was concerned for me it made no difference. I loved fish, chicken and paneer equally. In fact some days when we had leftovers, I had to select between paneer or chicken and it used to be a very difficult decision indeed. So it is no surprise that when we visit Kolkata these days (that too once a year), paneer is an important ingredient in mom’s dishes. In fact this time when we visited, she made 4 different paneer dishes. Yummy!!

So today I am posting one of those 4 dishes. It is a classic in North Indian cuisine. Bengalis, however, have paneer usually in other forms. But my mom loves to make paneer with peas. And I just love the dish. Hope you all enjoy it too.

Ingredients

• Paneer – 400gm
• Peas – 100gm
• Onion – 1 sliced into small pieces
• Onion – 2 whole (cut into big slices)
• Cashewnuts – 50gm
• Green Chillies – 6 sliced
• Tomato – 1 (cut into big slices)
• Capsicum – 1 big (slices into small pieces)
• Salt – to taste
• Kasoori Methi (Dried Fenugreek seeds) – 1 pinch
• Jeera (Cumin) Powder – 1/2tsp
• Dhaniya (Coriander) Powder – 1/2tsp
• Chilli Powder – 1/2tsp
• Garam Masala Powder – 1/2tsp
• Shahi Paneer Masala Powder (if present otherwise not needed) – 1/2tsp
• Tomato Sauce – 1/2 small cup
• Butter – 50gm
• Refined Oil – 4Tbsp
• Fresh Coriander Leaves for Garnish.

Method

Grind and create a paste of 2 whole onions (cut into big slices), cashewnuts, tomato, and green chillies, in a mixer. Keep aside.

Cut paneer into small cubes. In a non-stick wok, add oil and fry the paneer cubes till they turn light brownish and remove from oil. Keep aside.

Fry the capsicum slices and keep aside.

Now add 1 sliced onion to the wok and fry. When brown, add the prepared paste from the first step and keep frying. When it becomes well fried, add all the remaining spices.

Now add the peas and fry well in the spices.

In a different utensil, heat little water and add the kasoori methi.

Now in the main wok, when the peas get fried well, add the kasoori methi water and butter. Bring it to a boil.

When the mixture starts boiling, add the fried paneer cubes and capsicum. Keep cooking till everything get mixed and the water evaporates. Now add more water and cook further. When fully cooked, add tomato sauce and garam masala. Mix well and switch off the flame.

Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

Related posts:

1. Paneer Vegetable Delight
2. Paneer Noodles Quickie

If you like this post please post your comment by going to the original post here Matar Paneer

© Copyright Enjoyable Recipes - Simple everyday recipes with bits of this and that and a touch of Bengali-ness

Lately Sumi and I have noticed that our vegetable intake has reduced a great deal. Due to us following the low carb diet the easiest way has been blindly consuming chicken. The veggies which are best for our diet are mostly the premium ones in terms of price. Moreover Sumi hates almost all vegetables except potato. Especially when most of the time we can have just boiled veggies. As you guys might know, the wife is the “king” of the house so I just have never been able to force her to have more veggies.

But there has been a sudden change in her the past week or 2. She has told me that she is a bit fed up of having just chicken. She wants some other taste and have more vegetables. Yay!! So the past few days we have had quite a lot of veg preparations even though they are not purely Bengali styled recipes. The reason being less oil to be used and obviously reduced spices.

Coccinia or Ivy Gourd or Kenduri (Bengali Name) helps in maintaining the blood pressure and reduces the sugar levels. To be honest, when just eaten boiled it tastes yuck LOL. But its been a while we consumed it so Sumi decided to make a light fried Kenduri preparation with Capsicum to bring variety to it. It really refreshed our taste buds. The recipe details only the plain vegetable preparation. You can also add Paneer to it to bring more flavor which is what we did (see the picture)

Ingredients

• 200 gm Kenduri (Coccinia), sliced thin and circular
• 1 big capsicum, sliced thin
• 1 medium onion, sliced thin
• 1 tsp chilli powser
• 1 tsp garam masala powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 Tbsp chopped green chilli
• Salt as per taste
• Mustard Oil as required
• Optional Paneer (Cottage Cheese) thinly sliced

Method

Heat oil in a wok, add chopped green chillies, onion and fry till onion becomes soft.

Add capsicum and fry for 3-4 min, add kenduri, garam masala and turmeric powder, chilli powder and fry in medium to high flame for 5 min.

Add salt and saute till kenduri is medium crisp.

Serve hot with roti/chapatti.

PS – You can also add thinly sliced Paneer (cottage cheese) during the final sauting to bring more flavor and bulkiness to the dish.

No related posts.

If you like this post please post your comment by going to the original post here Kenduri Capsicum Bhaja

© Copyright Enjoyable Recipes - Simple everyday recipes with bits of this and that and a touch of Bengali-ness

Usually when we sit idle working on our site or simply harvesting at Facebook or murdering the Mafia we really feel lazy and not have anything for dinner. But what can you do when your plans go awry? Actually in our case we felt hungry :-p So Sumi ran and looked into the fridge and there we had Paneer (Cottage Cheese). Our quickest option in such cases is Grilled Paneer. But guess what Sumi decided to go for something rich in masala and oil – typical Indian style. Presenting Paneer Vegetable Delight……

Ingredients

• 1/2 Cauliflower cut into medium sized florets
• 3 medium sized potatoes sliced into thin pieces
• 200gm cottage cheese cut diagonally into 1 inch cubes
• 10-12 cauliflower tender leaves/stems from inner part of cauliflower (optional)
• 1 medium sized capsicum sliced thin
• 1 onion cut into thin slices
• 4 green chillies cut diagonally
• 2 tbsp onion paste
• 4 tbsp tomato paste/puree
• 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
• 2 tbsp curd
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp whole garam masala
• 1/4 tsp asafoetida (optional)
• 1 tsp garam masala powder
• 1 tsp Kitchen King powder
• 1/4 – 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tbsp oil
• Extra oil to shallow fry
• A pinch of sugar
• Salt to taste

Method

Heat oil in a non-stick wok, add green chilli, cauliflowers (along with tender leaves) and capsicum and shallow fry them for around 5 minutes in medium flame till the cauliflower florets turn light golden color. Make sure you keep turning the vegetables for the entire 5 mins. Now take the vegetables out and dry out the oil and keep them aside.

Take the paneer pieces and stir fry for 1 minutes till they turn light brown. Keep it aside.

Use around 2 tbsp of the oil (that you used during shallow frying) and heat it in a pressure cooker/pan. In sequence first add whole garam masala, cut onions (with a pinch of salt and sugar – prevents onion from burning), onion paste, ginger garlic paste and all the spices and keep stirring in medium flame for 5 minutes. Now add the tomato paste (or puree) and curd and keep stirring in medium to high flame for 2 minutes. Now add the potatoes and cook in medium flame for 5 minutes. Take care the spices get mixed and cooked evenly. You may add around 50ml of water if you feel that there is no oil left. This prevents addition of more oil and the spices move around freely and get cooked evenly.

Once the potatoes get cooked, add the remaining vegetables you kept aside in the first step and keep turning all the ingredients.

Finally add the stir fried paneer cubes into the vegetables, close the cooker lid and in high flame wait for 1 whistle and after that immediately drain out the remaining steam (otherwise the cauliflowers become very soft).

Take out the lid.

You may garnish it with fresh coriander leaves.

Serve it with any Indian bread or simply plain old bread (I had it with bread actually )

Related posts:

1. Aloo Gobi
2. Paneer Noodles Quickie
3. Bhindi Aloo Dry

If you like this post please post your comment by going to the original post here Paneer Vegetable Delight

© Copyright Enjoyable Recipes - Simple everyday recipes with bits of this and that and a touch of Bengali-ness

Sumi is crazy about potatoes. She says thats why she looks like a potato I respectfully disagree. Because I feel I am more inclined to look like one Coming back to potatoes and Sumi, she is so crazy about it that no matter what she cooks she will “sprinkle” potatoes on them ROFL. Why am I discussing this when the recipe we will present today shouldnt even have potatoes? Well thats precisely the reason why I am mentioning it hehehehe. Hope you like this quick super fast dish.

Ingredients

• 4 cups noodles cooked ardent
• 100gms of cottage cheese (Paneer) cut into small pieces
• 1 medium sized capsicum thinly sliced
• 1 big sized potato sliced into thin pieces
• 1 big onion thinly sliced
• 3 green chillies thinly sliced
• 2tsp kitchen king powder
• 1/2tsp black pepper powder
• 2tbsp tomato ketchup
• 1tsp soya sauce
• 1tsp chilli sauce
• 3tbsp oil
• Salt to Taste

Method

Heat oil in a wok. Add the onions, potatoes and capsicum and cook in low flame for around 5 minutes till the potatoes turn soft.

Add green chillies and all the spices mentioned and mix well and stir properly.

Add the ketchup and all the sauces. Add little bit of salt just enough for the spices to mix well and give a nice aroma.

Add the noodles and stir well. Now add salt for the noodles taste and flavor to blend properly with the spices. We did not add all the salt previously to avoid the spices becoming fully salty.

Cook in high flame for around 5 minutes. Serve hot. Yum yum

No related posts.

If you like this post please post your comment by going to the original post here Paneer Noodles Quickie

© Copyright Enjoyable Recipes - Simple everyday recipes with bits of this and that and a touch of Bengali-ness