Palak Paneer ( spinach and cottage cheese )

PALAK PANEER

This is a very popular dish which is enjoyed with  both roti and rice. Palak has got many benefits and should be consumed but young and old.

Generally at home and specially in Bengal this dish is prepared without onion and garlic . But today I will show you how you can get the taste like what we get in Restaurants.

• First I boiled 5 bunches of spinach ( palak) with 5 green chillies 
• Added 2cups of water and 1tsp of salt.
• After boiling let it cool down.
• Then make it into a paste in your mixer grinder and keep it aside.

• In the meantime sauté 200 gms of cottage cheese in a pan/ kadai with 1 Tbsp of ghee.

• Now in the cooker added 1 Tbsp of ghee 
• Add 1 tsp of jeera(cumin seeds) and 2 bay leaves.
• Fry for a minute.

• Then add 1 big onion , finely chopped. 
• Along with it fry 1 tsp of ginger-garlic paste.
• Fry till the raw smell goes away.

• Now add 2 tsp of kasuri methi.
• Add 1tsp of salt and sugar.
• Adjust salt according to your taste .
• I don't add chilli powder as I use green chili .
• Stir it for a minute and then add the spinach paste along with water. 
• Cook in medium flame for 15 minutes. 
• Now add the fried cottage cheese ( paneer).
• Finally add 1tsp of garam masala powder and 1tsp of ghee from top.
• Stir well and turn off the stove/gas.

Paneer Posto (Cottage Cheese cubes with Poppy Seed Paste)

This dish, Makes me nostalgic, because when I got married there were only 2 dishes I could make with confidence, this one which is a cottage cheese delicacy and the other was pumpkin with eggs.
I especially wanted to write this on my blog so that one day our children can cook up these kind of delicate things instead of burgers and sandwiches and with the passage of time we tend to forget things as we grow old, and may forget many ingredients too. This serves as a permanent reference .

Ingredients:

• Half a coconut (will be made into paste)

• 4-5 green chillies
• 2 tsp of mustard seeds
• 2 tsp of poppy seeds

• 1 tsp of salt 
• 1 tsp of sugar
• 1 tsp of turmeric powder
• 250 grams of paneer( cottage cheese)

• 2 tsp of mustard oil

 Method:

• First make a fine paste out of the coconut, green chilly, mustard and poppy seeds in a mixer or blender, adding 1/4 th cup of water, sugar and salt to it and  keep in aside.

• Now take a bowl and grease the bowl with mustard oil and place the the cottage cheese (paneer) cubes in it nicely. 

• Now add the paste made from poppy, mustard and coconut evenly over the paneer and stir it a little so that the paneer cubes get evenly coated with the paste Then spread 1 tsp of mustard oil from top.

.

There are two ways to cook this:

• Either microwave it on high for 10 minutes covered in cling film (plastic cling wrap)    

                                                  Or

• Steam the mixture made above in a pressure cooker / steam cooker / slow cooker, without a whistle (in pressure cooker) for around 20 minutes.

• It's optional but you can garnish your dish with fresh coriander  leaves. 

~Enjoy with hot rice~

Rasagulla

This is a traditional bengali dessert made from chenna (freshly prepared cottage cheese/ moistened paneer). 
In any auspicious occasion this sweet spongy "Rasgullas" are a must for us. This is a sweet delicacy that is staple to the Bengalis and nor can they live without it. 
Many people have told me that it's difficult to make rasgullas, They've tried multiple times, either it breaks or they become hard. But trust me, if you follow everything step by step and take the right measures, ex: kneading the paneer properly, right consistency if the sugar syrup, Nothing can stop you from getting super soft, milky white Rasgullas!

INGREDIENTS:

• Full cream milk: 1 litre
• 2 small lemons: 3 tbsp of lemon juice 

      For Syrup

• 4 cups of sugar
• 1 litre of water

PROCEDURE: 

• First boil the full cream milk while stirring occasionally. When it's completely boiled ' turn off ' the stove and slowly add the extracted lemon juice. (requirement of lemon may vary according to the quality of your milk)
• Stir it well.The milk should start curdling during this process. Don't add the entire extracted lemon juice at once. Do it gradually.

  

• Continue adding the lime juice slowly and stirring after adding. Repeat this process. Once the milk is curdled ( separated ) and greenish whey (watery fluid part of the milk) is out pass it through a clean cloth lined on the colander/ strainer ( छलनी) as shown in the pic below.

• Then wash the chenna ( curdled milk that was just strained ) under running water very well (2-3 times). This step is very important otherwise you will get a lemony flavour from your Rasgullas and the sweet balls won't be soft either.

• Gather the edges of the cloth and gently squeeze out the excess water from the chenna. Don't apply too much pressure .

• Hang it for 30 minutes.

While your chenna is hanging prepare the sugar syrup:

• Take a pot with good depth and width. I took a big pressure cooker (since it's both wide and deep)
• Then add 12 cups of water into the pot and 3 cups of sugar.
• Stir it thoroughly so that sugar gets dissolved completely. (The ratio of sugar to water should be aroung 1:5 )
• After dissolving it turn on the stove and heat the syrup 

Note: The syrup should never become thick, or else your rasgullas will break or become too hard.

• Now take out the Chenna from the cloth and knead it for at least 10 minutes till it's texture becomes very smooth. It should be moist and not dry like the Paneer what we buy from the stores

• Knead the chenna until there are no lumps and cracks. As soon as some fat (oil from the chenna) starts releasing after kneading, start making the balls using your Palms. Try to restrict the size to 1 inch only as it becomes double after cooking.

• Now bring the syrup to boil and then add the chenna balls into the syrup carefully and cover the pot.
• The water(syrup) should be vigorously boiling.
• The process took me 20 minutes. (until the balls became soft and absorbed the syrup and enlarged )
• After every 5 minutes you should open the lid and stir cautiously as to not break the soft balls, Generally it should take around 15 minutes.
• Then turn off the gas and give the pot a standing time of 15 minutes.
• Then slowly transfer the rasgullas into a bowl along with the syrup, Making sure that all the rasgullas are submerged in the syrup.

• It is best when eaten after 8-9 hours. Only after 7-8 hours it becomes soft, juicy and spongy. that it melts in your mouth.
• Refrigerate it and serve it cool.

~ENJOY~

Paneer 65 (cottage cheese)-Indian Snack

Ingredients:-

• Paneer-500 gms-cut into pieces like in picture below
• Curry leaves- 2-3 twigs
• Ginger-2 inches
• Garlic-25-30 pods
• Green Chillies-10-12
• Kashmiri red chilli powder-1 tsp
• Black pepper powder-1 tsp
• Garam masala powder-1 tsp
• Lime Juice-1 Tbsp
• Hung curd-1 Tbsp
• Rice flour-2 tsp
• Corn Flour-2 tsp
• Salt according to taste

Procedure:-

Cut the paneer/cottage cheese like this.

Make a coarse paste from curry leaves, ginger, garlic and green chillies. Add red chilli powder, black pepper powder, garam masala powder, lime juice, hung curd, rice flour, corn flour, and salt to the curry leaves paste & make a thick batter, Add water if needed to make it thick.
Marinate the paneer pieces in this batter for 4-5hours.

Heat some oil in a pan and deep fry few curry leaves and keep it aside. Now deep fry these cottage cheese pieces 1 by one.

Heat 1 tsp of oil in a separate pan Then add chopped green chillies and garlic to the oil. Add 1-tsp of chilli garlic sauce (or) chilli sauce. You can add any leftover batter into the oil.
Finally add the fried curry leaves and fried paneer pieces into the pan and mix well for 2 minutes.
Serve Hot!

~ENJOY~

Paneer (cottage cheese/Tofu) & Peas Curry

This dish is popularly known as "matar paneer" (or) tofu with green peas!

Main ingredients are.....

1) Paneer or cottage cheese- 400 gms
2) Green peas or matar-150 gms
3) Tomato puree one small packet
4) onion -one big
5) ginger & garlic paste 2 tsp
6)1 tsp of garam masala powder
7) I tsp of ghee and white oil to cook.

Procedure:

First grind the onions in the mixer and keep it aside...if you are using fresh tomato then grind 5 tomatoes to a paste and keep it aside.
Then put some oil in the pan and add 1 tbsp of cumin seeds and a pinch of asafoetida..when smell starts coming add d onion paste and fry till golden brown..then add the ginger garlic paste and tomato puree and fry it further till the oil starts coming up (on the top of the pan)

Whirling the pan.....add 1 tsp each of turmeric powder and chilly powder ( preferably kashmiri mirchi for adding the colour) ......
Fry for them all together for 1 min and add the green peas to the pan.
Then add 2 cups of water...let it boil and let the consistency become a bit thicker...
When it's a bit thicker then add the cottage cheese (paneer/tofu) pieces...let the curry and the paneer boil for another 1 min...before putting the whole thing in the serving dish add garam masala and ghee from top and stir well...add sugar and salt according to your taste buds.

Tips....(Optional) you can also fry the paneer or cottage cheese before adding them to the tomato paste...garnishing with coriander leaves.

                                                                  ~Enjoy~

PS:-

This is the kashmiri mirch i used-

This is paneer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paneer

This is garam masala:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garam_masala