Paneer Bhurji

I had leftover of Paneer from the making of paneer chapatti (http://www.simplycookandfun.blogspot.in/2012/07/stuffed-paneer-chapatti.html) . What could be the immediate idea to cook from this residual paneer, obviously paneer bhurji- one of the easily and frequently cooked Punjabi vegetable recipe. Wheat chapatti tastes lot yummier with paneer bhurji... J

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 7 minutes approx

What goes in it:

Cottage cheese (Paneer), minced: 250 gm

Curry Leaves- 1 sprig (7-8 leaves)

Asafoetida (Hing)- ½ tbl spn

Mustard Seeds- ½ tbl spn

Green Chilli, finely chopped- 4-5 chillies

Ginger, finely chopped- ½ piece

Garlic, finely chopped- 5-6 cloves

Onion, finely chopped- 1

Tomato, finely chopped- 1

Oil- 2 tbl spn

Turmeric powder- ½ tbl spn

Coriander –Cumin powder- 1 tbl spn

Red Chiili powder- ¼ tbl spn

Salt to taste

How did I make it:

Finely chop tomato and onions. And grind green chilli, garlic & ginger to form a paste.

What I did was chopped tomato, onion, green chilli, garlic, ginger & curry leaves together in chopper which took only 3 minutes.

Mince paneer. This can be done very easily with hands.

Take a kadai, pour oil in it. As oil heats up, put mustard seeds and let them pop properly. Add hing to it. Sauté for about 1 minute. Now add onion, tomato & chiili-garlic-ginger paste. Sauté for another 1 minute. Add salt, turmeric powder, coriander- cumin powder & red chilli powder. Let it cook for 2 minutes. 

Finally add minced paneer to it and little water. Season generously. Let it cook for 2 minutes.

And it’s ready to be served with chapatti/ paratha/ Nan. 

Misal Pav

Well there’s nothing special behind making this dish. Simply I and mom thought to cook this famous Maharashtrian snack for dinner tonight. This was my way of cooking simple, tasty and spicy recipe... Share your’s with me...

Preparation time: 15 minutes to boil vatana and chop ingredients

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Serving time: 5 minutes to add toppings on misal

Serves: 3

What goes in it:

Dried white peas (Safed vatana)- 250 gms

Chilli-Garlic paste- 2 tbl spn

Onion, chopped finely- 2 cup

Curry leaves- 6-7 or 1 sprig

Turmeric powder- ½ tbl spn

Red chilli powder-1/2 tbl spn

Dried coriander cumin powder- 1 tbl spn

Salt to taste

Oil- 2 tbl spn

Mustard-Cumin seeds- 1 tbl spn

Asafoetida (Hing)- ½ tbl spn

Mic Chavanu as per required by you (easily available in any kirana store)

Date-Imli Chutney- 1 cup

Coriander leaves, chopped finely- 1 cup

Indian bun (Pav)- 6 buns

How did I make it:

Soak vatana overnight or may be 10-12 hours before cooking. Pressure cook vatana for about 8-10 whistles with water & salt.

While pressure cooker is on stove, chop onions and coriander leaves. I had chilli and garlic paste ready. Also date-Imli chutney was ready so used that.

For making chutney, soak imli and dates in water and pressure cook it for 5-6 whistles. Mash it properly and drain off the liquid chutney.

After vatana are boiled, take a heavy bottomed pan and heat oil in it. Put mustard-cumin seeds and let it pop properly. Add hing, curry leaves, little of chopped onions and chilli-garlic paste. Sauté properly for about 2 minutes on low flame. Add boiled vatana to it. Put turmeric powder, red chilli powder, dried coriander-cumin powder & salt if required.

Let it cook for about 5-7 minutes.

Keep ample amount of water in it so that later when you mix chavanu with it the gravy gets soaked. Misal is ready.

Take misal in a bowl and add date-imli chutney, chavanu, chopped onions and chopped coriander leaves to it.

 Serve it hot with pav before the mixture turns soggy.

Stuffed Paneer Chapatti

While I was cooking chole puri (http://www.simplycookandfun.blogspot.in/2012/07/chole-puri.html) from my mom’s recipe book, I came across scribbled Paneer Chapatti recipe. This was one of my favourite paratha which had not tried since ages. On seeing the recipe nothing could stop me from cooking it very next day. It’s easy and quick to cook and delicious too...

Preparation time: 20 minutes (5 minutes to knead the dough plus 10 minutes to chop & grate ingredients and make the stuffing and finally add 5 minutes to make raita)

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Makes- 4 chapatti

What goes in the stuffing :

Maida: 200 gm

Cottage Cheese (Paneer), grated- 1 cup

Cheese, grated- 1 cup

Capsicum, finely chopped- ½ cup

Onion, finely chopped- ½ cup

Water- ½ glass

Oil- ½ tbl spn

Pepper- ¾ tbl spn

Salt to taste

What goes in raita:

Curd- ½ cup

Cabbage, shredded- ½ cup

Red Chilli powder- ¾ tbl spn

Lemon drops- 2 tbl spn

Corainder, chopped- 1 tbl spn

Salt to taste

For making chapatti I used Ghee.

How did I make it:

First of all make the dough, in maida flour add oil and salt to it. Knead the dough by adding water little by little so that it becomes pliable. Keep it aside for 15-20 minutes so that dough becomes soft to get nice chapatti.

Foodies’ Note:  Don’t make the dough too soft as maida loosen’s up with time.

Then I prepared the stuffing. In a bowl, take paneer, cheese, capsicum, onion, salt and pepper. Mix them all well.

Then make Raita. This will make your timing perfect as you have to keep the dough for about 15-20 minutes and till then you prepare rest of items. For Raita, in a bowl mix curd, cabbage, red chilli powder, pinch of salt, lemon drops and coriander leaves properly.

To prepare paneer chapatti, divide the dough into eight equal rounds. 

Roll the dough like you do for chapatti. Make two chapattis. 

Apply little water with finger on the sides of the chapatti on which you going to spread the stuffing. This will stick the two chapattis properly. Spread the prepared stuffing. And super impose the other chapatti.

Cook them on a tawa until both the sides turn cooked properly.

Serve hot paneer chapatti with raita. It is a perfect blend of cheesy and sour taste. A different taste for your taste buds. Try it...

Chole Puri

Chole puri, one of the most loved and delicious Punjabi recipe, cooked almost in every Indian home but the taste varies from home to home. I cooked it from my mom’s cook book. Let me share it with you guys...

Preparation time: 20 minutes required for boiling chole and grinding of ingredients. Add 10 minutes to make dough.

Cooking time: 10 minutes to cook chole and 15 minutes to make puri

What goes in it for making chole:

White chick peas (Kabuli chana), boiled- 250 gm

Tomato puree- 1 cup

Onion, grinded – 1 cup

Garlic-Ginger paste- 2 tbl spn

Pepper seeds- 6-7 piece

Cinnamon bark (Tej)- 6-7 small pieces

Cloves-6-7 nos

Cumin seeds- ¾ tbl spn

Dried Red Chilli- 6-7 chillies

Dried Mango powder (Aamchur powder)- 1 tbl spn

Dry coriander seeds- 1 tbl spn

Oil- 2 tbl spn

Curry leaves- 2 sprig (7-10 leaves)

Salt- to taste

What goes in for making dough:

Wheat flour- 2 cup

Ghee- 1 tbl spn

Water – about 1 glass

How did I make it:

Soak white chick peas in water overnight. This says chole puri requires planning in advance not on the spot.

Next day, pressure cook chick peas for 8-10 whistles with salt. Let it cool and mash only half portion of chole. Keep it aside.

(Foodies’ Note: This will give uniformity to chole and the masala will be mixed properly giving it yummy flavour). 

Let’s make the dough in a wide bowl. In the wheat flour, put a little ghee and then keep on adding water little by little till the dough becomes soft and pliable.

 Divide it into equal portions and make rounds. Keep them aside.

Also we will do preparation required to cook tempting chole. As it is said India is a land of spices, this can be very rightly seen while cooking chole.

In a grinder, put all the spices- pepper seeds, cinnamon bark, cloves, cumin seeds, red chillies, aamchur powder, coriander seeds & curry leaves. Grind them to get coarse masala.

Also make tomato puree, grind ginger and garlic to form fine paste and grind onions in a blender. I grinded most of the ingredients so as to get a nice uniform taste and colour in chole.

In a kadai, take oil. As it heats up, put spices powder. Sauté it for about 3 minutes. Add garlic-ginger paste and onion-tomato puree. Sauté it for next 3 minutes. As your kitchen fills up with desi aroma and the gravy gets brown in colour add chole to it. Season generously and let it cook for 7-10 minutes.

Make puris.

Serve chole with hot and soft puris. You can have onions or green chillies along with it. I had khamman with it. A perfect lunch for me- Chole puri and khamman...

Obviously you must be cooking it with different style and I am eager to hear that and try it too...

Rava Ladoo

  My mom is fond of preparing homemade mithai. Recently she made Rava Ladoo. I never try my hands on making sweets because they involve lot of cooking time and have to be made meticulously.  This time thought of giving a try and help mom in cooking it.

The look and taste of Rava Ladoo proved me wrong. Cooking traditional sweets is also enjoyable as well as challenging for new learners like me. But as we say it will be FUN!!! Witness this as you make it...

Preparation time: 5 minutes to assemble the ingredients

Cooking time: 25 minutes

Makes: 12-15 ladoo

What goes in it:

Semolina (Rava)- 2 cups

Dried Cocunut powder- 1 cup (Nariyal Khamman, readily available in any kirana store)

Sugar- 1 ¼ cup

Ghee- 3 tbl spn

Raisins- 10

Cardamon powder- ½ tbl spn (I didn’t use it)

How did Mom & Me (under momie’s guidance) make it:

Heat ghee in a pan on a low flame. After it is warm enough (don’t boil it) add rava to it. Cook for about 5-7 minutes by stirring continuously till it becomes very little golden brown.

As you heat rava with ghee

After 5-7 minutes of stirring ghee and rava

Now add coconut powder to it and stir well so that both rava and coconut powder is mixed properly.

Take the pan off the stove and let it cool in a plate.

Put raisins and cardamom powder to the mixture and mix well.

While it is left to cool, I prepared sugar syrup (chaasni, as fondly called in Gujarati). Boil sugar with little water in the pan. Keep on stirring it and check for the sugar syrup for less than one string consistency.

Now how do you check the consistency of sugar syrup??? This might be the question in your mind. My mom taught me this. Take a little of boiling syrup in spoon. Now gently pinch the syrup and spread apart between your first finger and thumb. It will be hot but you got to do it to check the perfect strand.

After about 3-4 minutes sugar syrup will trail less than one string strand. Check and take the pan off the stove and put the mixture in it.

Keep on stirring it slowly so no lumps are formed for 3-4 minutes. Mix them all well.

When warm enough to handle, form small balls/ ladoo. Now it is an art to form small balls. I learnt it from my granny after making and remaking of many ladoo’s. And could make 3 ladoo’s with real hard work...

Foodies’ Note: Our mixture became dry/powdery. So mom reheated the mixture on low flame and added few drops of milk. Stir it properly. Take it off the stove and shape into balls.

As I saw white soft sugary ladoo’s, the only thought dominated my mind was “Like hard work pays off!!! Time and meticulous cooking also pays off!!!” J

Do share your experience with me...

Pani Puri

Paaani Puriii- Spicy chatpatti and absolutely yummyyy Indian chaat which has to be eaten in one go, placing entire puri in mouth. I guess no chaat can beat pani puri. Wat say???

My mouth starts watering as I hear Pani Puri. Roadside pani puri or Pani puri at home or in a restaurant like Kailash Parbat or Elcho market, Bandra. It will taste delicious with Mint and Tamarind Water and Hot Ragda. I bet you will continue eating it even if your eyes start watering.

Last Sarurday my sister’s friends came to our home for dinner and momie prepared pani puri for dinner. Puri with mint and tamarind water, sautéed sprouted moong, chopped boiled potatoes, boiled ragda with lillte turmeric and red chilli powder & chopped onions. Sounds yummy no and it indeed was...

We had fun, spice and gossip on the table with chatpatti pani puri...

  

Like Maggie stories I am sure we all have pani puri stories as well. Waiting to hear from you... J