Kadai Paneer

Well as I told you before, I am very lazy person. My husband loves kadai paneer outside so I attempted at home last month and it came out nice. Since then I made it atleast couple of times more. So here goes the recipe which I made.

Ingredients
Paneer - 200 grms - chopped in cubes (can be raw or can be fried ones, whichever your taste buds prefer)
Capsicum (Green) - 1 or 2 - chopped in cube(square) shapes
Onion - 1 - Chopped in cube shapes
Capsicum(red) - 1 - Optional in cubes shapes
Tomato - 1 or 2 - Chopped either cubes or vertically
Cumin powder - 1 table spoon
Coriander Powder - 1 table spoon
Red chilli powder - ask your tastebuds
Salt - I will also leave this to your tastebuds
Oil - 3-5 table spoons (depends on your choice again)
cumin seeds - 1 tea spoon or less
Kasoori methi - very little - smashed in hands
Cashew powder - 1 table spoon (optional)
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tea spoon (optional)
Turmeric - 1 tea spoon


Method of preparation
1) Keep all the vegetables cubed and ready. Take a kadai and add oil to it.
2) Add cumin seeds to it. Now add Onions to it and fry for a minute. Add ginger garlic paste and fry till its raw smell is gone.
3) Now add capsicum (both color if available) and fry for a minute.
4) Add all the powders and masala's and also add tomatos. Do not stir more otherwise the tomatos get very mushy.
5) Add little water if the curry is too dry. Add a little kasoori methi by crushing between your hands.
6) Once the vegetables are cooked, add paneer to it along with some water and cashew powder. Cover and cook them for five minutes and turn off stove. Cashew powder will give thickness to the gravy.

Your curry is now ready. It can be served hot with roti. Garnish it with coriander and dried onions. You can be creative at this step. Good luck and as always please let me know how it comes out.

Capsicum curry with peanut powder

Well this curry is really easy to do and nothing much different than doing a regular capsicum curry. So here goes recipe in simple words. Do the tadks by taking one or two spoons of oil in a kadai/pan. Add jeera and then add capsicum pieces chopped. Add 1/4 spoon turmeric, 2 tablespoons red chilli powder (modify this according to your taste). Mix and let it cook for some time. Once the capsicum is almost cooked, add salt and peanut powder. If required add 1/2 cup water to it. cook for another two minutes and your curry is ready. Can have it with Roti or Rice.

Happy Diwali (2010)

Hope you all have a happy, joyous Diwali with the blessings all the goddesses on you and your family. 

Happy Diwali

Paneer Curry

I am very lazy person. So the easy I can do the better it is. Especially when I don't want to cook and want to have something which is tasty and special. Paneer curry can be done very quickly without any rigorous effort and makes you feel you did cook something special. Neat haaa..... so here it goes my simple paneer recipe. I generally use only garam masala only. You can vary the ingredients upto your taste. You can either use cumin and coriander powder combination as most of the websites mention or you can use garam masala or both of them. Wake up your creativity to satisfy your taste buds.

Ingredients
Paneer - chopped in cubes (you can shallow fry it or use it as is)
Onions - finely chopped - 1 big or two small
Tomato paste/fresh tomatos - 2 full spoons/2 big ones (finely chopped)
Red chilli powder - 2 spoons (or upto your taste buds)
Kaju powder/paste - two spoons
Oil
Salt to taste (1 and 1/2 spoon)
Cumin powder - (jeera powder) - 1 spoon
Dhania powder - 1 spoon
garam masala (optional) - 1/2 spoon
full cream (or full fat milk) - 1-2 spoons

Method of preparation
Add oil in a kadai and then add onions. Fry them until they become translucent. Now add tomatos and salt. Salt makes them cook fast (tomatos). Leave them on flame for couple of minutes by stirring in between. After tomatos are cooked, add little water along with kaju paste/powder. Mix in between. The base will become little thick. You can add all masalas (cumin, coriander, Red chilli, garam masala) to the gravy. Finally before taking off from stove add paneer cubes to it. leave it on for couple of minutes and then serve it hot with roti.

Paneer curry goes best with Roti, paratha, naan etc. But you can have it with rice if needed.

Besan Laddoo

As the vinayaka chavithi celebrations are going on... we get to enjoy lovely food everyday with nice bhajans in the evening. One of those days, our relative cum friend Vani got this besan laddoo. So here goes the recipe as well as the picture of it.

Ingredients

Besan:  Cashew/Badam powder ratio should be 3 cups to 1 cup

Sugar - 4 cups

Ghee 

Water - less than 4 cups

Elaichi/Cardammom powder

Method of preparation

1) keep a kadai and add the sugar and water to it. This is make the sugar syrup ready. The sugar syrup which is ready should be of gulab jamoon syrup.

2) Take another kadai or pan and add ghee to it. Now add besan to it. fry besan until nice aroma starts coming or until light brown color. At this point add the cashew or badam powder.

3) Now add half of the the warm sugar syrup to the above mixture.

4) Remove from the stove and keep aside. 

5) Add elaichi powder and dry fruits at this point.

6) keep the remaining sugar syrup on stove until it becomes thick.

7) Add the thick syrup now to the mixture. Mix everything.

8) Now wet your hands with ghee lightly and then start making laddoos.

Pita pockets - Instant lunch

last week on Saturday my husband was insisting on eating something different. The previous day we got some nice falafel and pita pockets. I asked my husband to get some hummus and made these  nice tasting and quick lunch. You might need to buy some ingredients to make it but its healthy, tasty and nice variety to give it a try. So here goes the recipe which I tried.

Ingredients
Pita bread - makes 2 pita pockets with one full bread
Roasted red pepper hummus - (you can add your flavor of the hummus to it)
Cucumber
Tomato
Falafel (we bought the big falafel packet from costco. You can use your own or get different flavor)

Method of preparation

Pre-preparation
      - heat falafel in microwave as per the instructions
      - peel and chop cucumber and tomatos to small pieces
      - Cut the pita bread into two pieces.
Carefully open the pita bread in the middle and apply the hummus to it. In a bowl, smash the falafel, add chopped cucumber and tomatos. If you like you can add onions also. Stuff the mixture into the pita pockets. Do not overcrowd it.
Heat a tawa on medium flame. Put these pita pockets prepared and turn sides once the side becomes a little golden brown. This will give a nice feeling of having it hot. If you do not like eating hot, you can skip this step.

Hope you enjoyed the recipe.