Paneer Chettinad Masala

Chettinad cuisine is all about spices, the blend and perfect balance of which make the cuisine. Pepper, cumin, fennel, coriander cardamom, clove and the heat of red chillies with the balance of fried coconut,  all fried and blended, gives way to the fiery aromatic Chettinad masala. Unlike the addition of the flavorful garam masala to any side dish pertaining to the North, Chettinad masala curries have them all freshly fried and ground along giving life to the dishes.
My daughter was mentioning about this dish she tried past weekend which was a hit at home. I made slight changes, from the recipe she had tried and passed along, to suit my taste.

Paneer Chettinad Masala
 Prep Time : 10 minutes
 Cook time : 25 minutes
 Total time needed: 35 minutes
 Serves : 2-3


Ingredients:

Cashew nuts- 2-3

To grind to a fine paste after sautéeing 

Oil- 1 tsp
Paneer or cottage cheese, 200 grams, cut into 1 inch pieces.
Coriander seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Cumin seeds - 1/4 teaspoon
Fennel seeds - 1/4 teaspoon
Black peppercorns - 5-6
Green cardamom - 1, just the seeds
Clove - 1
Cinnamon - 1/2 inch stick
Star anise - 2 petals from one whole star
Dried red chillies - 3-4
Grated coconut- 1/2 cup


To season

Oil - 2 tbsps
Chopped big onion - 1/2 cup
Curry leaves, a sprig
Green chilly - 1, halved and split lengthwise
Ginger garlic paste - 1 teaspoon
Tomatoes chopped - 1/3 cup
Red chilly powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Turmeric powder - 2 fat pinches

Salt to taste
Chopped coriander - a tsp, for garnishing


Method:




Soak 3-4 cashews in 3 tbsps of luke warm water.

Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a non-stick pan and sauté coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, black peppercorns, cardamom, clove, cinnamon and star anise in order with a gap of 3-5 seconds during each addition, feeling the aroma of each while getting fried. Add chillies lastly and sauté along for 5 seconds. Add coconut and sauté until brown and fragrant.





Cool and grind to a fine paste adding the soaked cashews and its water. You may add a little more water if needed to grind fine.

Heat the 2 tablespoons oil in the same non-stick pan and sauté the chopped onions until well browned followed by the green chilly.





 Add red chilly powder and turmeric powder, followed by curry leaves chopped tomatoes.

Let the tomatoes turn mushy. Stir in ginger garlic paste and sauté until the raw smell disappears.  Add the ground paste at this point.





Sauté until oil separates.





Pour along 1/2 cup of water and add salt. Add along the paneer cubes and stir gently to combine taking care not to break the pieces. You may shallow fry the paneer cubes before adding. I added them raw, after a gentle rinse in luke warm water. Cook with a lid closed for 5 minutes or until the oil separates.

Garnish with chopped coriander. Paneer Chettinad Masala goes well with any main dish, steamed rice or any mildly flavoured rice like pulao or ghee rice. Pairs better with Indian breads.

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Rasmalai for Diwali

Rasmalai. The irresistible Indian sweet. I doubt if anyone would hate this divine dessert. The spongy and mildly sweet paneer balls dunked in the richness of milk, creaminess of nuts and mingled flavours of cardamom and saffron. Heaven!

I had been making rasgullas for the past few years inspired by a video recipe and when I slowly mastered the art of making  the perfect I was confident enough to go to the next step; the richer avatar of the same delicacy dunked in Rabdi. Rabdi is nothing but thick and concentrated full fat milk.This in turn is sweetened adding sugar and flavoured with cardamom or rose essence. I am still unaware of the fact that the rabdi used in rasamalai is further enriched by the powdered nuts, but anyway I did it as my family loves it this way!
Basically I refer vahchef for the recipe. Trust me, making rasagullas is not at all tough. Even a first timer can make it perfect without flaws.

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Homemade Indian Flavoured Pizza!

Making a Pizza from scratch, rich in Indian flavours has been a long time dream for me.

And then Lavi announced the theme for the lovely event of Global Kadai and I was all set to venture this beautiful looking food.
Moreover, the overwhelming response from my dear blogger buddies in savoury buns, the recent post and the sudden expertise I gained in handling yeast on flour propelled me to come up with the fullest energy! :)

So here we go…

For the preparation of the Pizza Base I substituted Whole Wheat Flour with the regular All Purpose Flour.

Ingredients for the Pizza Base

A large cup of Wheat Flour (makes 2 medium sized pizzas)
¼-½ cup of Luke warm water
½ tsp active dry yeast
½ tsp each of sugar
A pinch of salt
2 tsps of Homemade Ghee(no olive oil here so as to make it more Indian) ;)

Mix ½ tsp of active dry yeast in ½ cup of luke warm water along with sugar and salt and kept it aside in a warm place undisturbed for 30 minutes.The frothy layer would have formed on top.(I used Hodgson Mill active dry yeast which works well with whole grain flours)


In a bowl containing the wheat flour, add the yeast solution as well as the melted butter and knead well into a soft pliable dough.Taste the dough and add more salt or sugar if you need.Brush melted butter on top the dough and keep it aside for 2 hours.The dough would have acquired double the size after this time.Punch down the dough to remove air and roll it out to make 1cm thick pizza base.I spread the dough with my fingers leaving the edge around a little thicker, since I preferred thin and crispy inside with soft and 'bready' edge.Prick it with a fork here and there and bake for 5-6 minutes in 180 deg C in a pre heated oven. Remove and keep aside the ‘pre baked’ pizza base.


Ingredients for the Pizza Sauce

A tbsp of oil
4 Ripe red tomatoes (less sour variety)-4- cut into bite sized pieces
1 Big onion
4-5 cloves of garlic
2-3 tbsps of water
½ tsp of dried herbs-I substitiuted Indian herbs- a few fresh Coriander and Tulsi leaves.
Salt- as needed
A pinch of freshly ground pepper


Chop onion and garlic, fry in the oil, red chillies next and the tomatoes.Saute until they turn soft and mushy.Add 2 tbsps of water if you want a runny sauce. Simmer.
Stir in the herbs,salt and pepper powder.Cool and grind to a smooth paste/sauce.

For The Topping, I used

Roasted Bell Pepper (insert a skewer across, roast in direct flame, rub off the black skin and cut into small cubes)

• *Paneer Tikka ( I tried tawa method)- Scroll down for the recipe.

• Corn

• Roasted Bell Pepper- inspired by the post here.

• Sliced Button Mushrooms

• Finely minced Small Onions and Garlic

• Homemade Ghee- drizzled here and there
  

• Chilly flakes

• Coriander leaves.

• Cheese-I used mozarella cheese slices.

*Paneer Tikka

100 gms Paneer, cubed into 9 equal pieces.
A tsp of yogurt
1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste
A fewdrops of lime juice
1/4 tsp Chaat masala powder
1/2 tsp Tandoori masala
A pinch of Black pepper powder
Salt to taste
Ref oil to drizzle while cooking on Tawa

Mix the ingredients (except paneer) to form a thick paste.Marinate the paneer pieces with the paste evenly smeared (liberally) on them for half an hour.


Heat a tawa or a griddle and place the pieces 3-4 at a time.Drizzle a few drops of oil.




Turn the pieces carefully, so as to ensure that all the sides are cooked evenly and browned well on the surface. Repeat as batches.Once it cools down cut the chunks each into 9 pieces and use as the pizza topping.

Assembling the Pizza before Baking


Spread the Sauce over the pre baked pizza base. Sprinkle the toppings in the list in that order ending it up with cheese topping.Preheat the oven to 240 deg C , often the full blast in any oven. Bake the Pizza for abt 10-12mins or until the cheese melts. Check the pizza often to make sure it doesn't overcook or burn.

Remove from the oven and serve warm.

The roasted bell pepper, paneer tikka along with the crunchy bits of onion and garlic was Heaven, still bitten deep into the flavourful ghee enriched topping as well as the thin n crispy wheat flour base was YUM!..


Lavi, this is prepared specially for the Global Kadai event you host for the month :)
Global Kadai is an event started by Cilantro.

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Palak Paneer

Palak paneer,a famous North Indian Side Dish,is said to be a well balanced,nutritious and a tongue tingling one.Unlike the other dishes of North India,this particular dish has a delicate flavour of the fresh green palak,paneer and lighter masalas.
Generally our little ones make a big fuss to take green leafy vegetables,but if your kid is a paneer lover,he would surely attempt to try this.I make this dish occasionally,when my kids are in a mood to taste paneer as well.

This is my entry to JFI-WBB hosted by Indira.

So,here goes the recipe folks...

Serves-4, Cooking time-40mins.

Get ready with:
Palak-a fresh bunch
Paneer/cottage cheese-200gms cut into cubes. Click here ,to make home made paneer.
A big onion-cut finely
A tomato
4 green chillies-split lengthwise
A tsp chopped ginger
A tsp chopped garlic
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
1/2 cup oil-to fry paneer pieces
4 tsps oil-to temper (divided into 2 parts)
2 tsps of fresh whipped cream- for topping
Salt-to taste.

Palak,paneer and the veggies..

Method:

• Wash Palak well and cut into large pieces.
  
  
• Heat 2 tsps of oil(the first part to temper) in a wide-kadai-with-lid and lightly sauté the green chillies.Add the palak,close with lid and let it cook in a medium flame.Sprinkle a little water if only necessary as Palak when getting cooked,lets out water and gets done in its own water content.Cook till the leaves are reduced and tender.Cool and blend well in a mixer.Keep aside.
• Blanch the tomato by immersing it in HOT water for 10mins and peeling off the skin.Blend well in a mixer.Keep aside.
  
  
• Fry the paneer pieces using 1/2 cup oil,in a separate kadai,lightly till golden.Keep aside.
  
  
• Now use the kadai taken to cook palak.Heat 2 tsps of oil(the second part to temper), sauté onions till translucent and add the ginger- garlic mixture.Sauté in reduced flame until the aroma fills the air.Add the tomato puree and cook in a low flame till the oil separates and the raw smell disappears.
  
  
• Add cumin,coriander and garam masala powders and sauté for a few seconds, keeping the flame still low to avoid charring.
  
  
• Add the cooked and mashed palak-green chilly mixture.When it is about to boil add the fried paneer pieces and simmer for 3 minutes.Add water if necessary.The gravy should not be watery and must be semi thick.
  
  
• Swirl top with whipped cream.Goes well with chapathi,nan&paratha.

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