पनीर भुर्जी / Paneer Bhurji (Cottage Cheese savory)

Paneer Bhurji

Paneer (Indian cottage cheese) is full of Protien, and many micro nutrients. Mixed with lots of vegetables it's nutritional value increases so does the taste. Matar-Paneer, butter-paneer, shahi-paneer are all very tasty and delicious savory of paneer, but tare very high on fats and cholesterol as they require lots of butter/nuts etc. Paneer Bhurji (पनीर भुर्जी) requires very less cooking oil. The moisture of vegetables and paneer renders the bhurji soft texture. 

Nutritional value (approx.) 

• Energy : 400 cal
• Carbohydrates :  2-3 gm
• Fats : 40 gm
• Sugar :
• Protein : 22 gm
• Calcium : 450 - 460 gm 
• Micronutrients:Magnesium, Phosphorus, vitamins 

Preparation Time : 15 minutes 

Cooking Time : 10 minutes 

Servings : 4Medium helpings 

Ingredients for Making Paneer Bhurji : 

• Paneer : 100 gm
• Onion : 1medium size (50 gm approx) 
• Capsicum : 50 gm
• Tomatoes : 100 gm 
• Ginger :1inch piece 
• Green chilies :1-2 according to taste (optional) 
• Green coriander : 10 - 15 leafs 
• Salt :1teaspoon or to taste 
• Cooking oil : 10 ml 

Directions For Making Paneer Bhurji :

• Wash and chop all vegetables 

Chopped vegetables 

• Break the paneer into crumbs.

Paneer crumbs

• Heat oil in cooking pan. Add chopped green chillies and grated ginger to hot oil. Sautee for 30 seconds then add chopped onions. 

Green chillies ginger and onions in oil 

• Sautee for a minute or two till onions become transparent. Add chopped capsicum. 

 Onion sautéed 

Capsicum added 

Capsicum after cooking for a minute 

• Mix and cook for a minute or so.
•  Add chopped tomatoes. Mix and cover, allow it to cook for two minutes stirring it atleast once 

All vegetables cooked

• The vegetables should be little crunchy not mushy after cooking.
• Add paneer to cooked vegetables. 

Paneer added 

• Add salt and mix. 
• Cover and cook for two to three minutes on low heat with stirring in between. Switch off the heat and allow it to cool. Paneer Bhurji is ready. 

Paneer Bhurji

• Add chopped coriander and mix. Paneer Bhurji is ready to serve. 

Paneer Bhurji

Tips: 

• Vegetables should be finely chopped. 
• Vegetables should be sautéed not cooked fully. 
• After adding paneer stirring regularly is must and cooking should be done on medium heat. 
• Do not over cook, else paneer bhurji will become dry not juicy and soft. 

Alternate Suggestions :

• Boiled green reen peas can be added to increase the taste and Protien content.
• Red chilli powder can be added, if one wants spicy bhurji. 

Vegetable Suji Idli /सब्जी और सूजी की इडली /Semolina vegetable Idli

Vegetable - Suji Idli with Peanut Chutney 

Idli and dosa are traditionally made of rice and urd daal. Urd daal is called Black Lentil in English. It's botanical name is Vigna Mungo. 

But many variants of idli, dosa are made, like Sabudana dosa, suji dosa, suji idli etc. In this post I am going to explain how suji idli with the goodness of vegetables is made. Suji/Semolina idli is easy to digest. When vegetables are added to batter then these idlies become more tasty and nutritious. Paired with coconut chutney /peanut chutney and Sambhar it becomes healthy, nutritious, tasty full meal. 

Preparation Time : 4hrs. Soaking time included 

Cooking Time: 20 minutes 

Servings : 20 Idlies (approx) depends upon the size of idli slots in idli stand. 

Nutritional Value  of whole idli mix from given ingredients : (approx. Values) 

Calories : 1600

Carbs : 285 gm

Proteins: 65 gm

Sugar : 16 gm 

Iron : 14 mg

Fats : 20 gm

Dietary Fibers : 16. 5 gm

Folates : 612 mcg 

Calcium : 300 mg

Potassium : 2452mg

Sodium : 1gm

Vitamin C : 10mg

Vitamin A:According to Cooks.com,

30941.91 IU 

For nutrional value (approx) of one idli divide the given values with the number of idlies you make from the idli mix. 

Ingredients Required for Suji Idli :

• Suji/Semolina :  200 gm or 2 bowls (measuring 150 ml.) 

Suji/Semolina 

• Carrot grated : 100 gm. Or 1bowl 
• Beans : 3-4 Finely chopped 
• Cauliflower grated : 1/2 bowl 
• Peas : 1/2 bowl 

Grated Carrot and Cauliflower 

• Fresh Coriander leafs finely chopped :  2Tes spoons 
• Curry leafs : 6-8 
• Grated Ginger : 1teaspoon 
• Dhuli moong daal (Yellow moong daal) : 2 teaspoons 

Dhuli Moong Daal 

• Mustard seeds : 1 Tea spoon 
• Cooking oil : 2 Tea spoons 
• Salt : 1 Tea spoon 
• Curd : 250 gm or 2 bowl 
• Eno : 1sachet 

or 1teaspoon baking powder +1/4 tea spoon cooking soda 

• Lemon juice : 1 Tea spoon 
• Oil for lining idli stand 

When measurement is done by bowl or cup then it should be same size bowl or cup for all measurements. 

Directions For Making Suji Idli : 

• Wash moong daal and soak it in water for at least 30 minutes. Once daal is soaked drain and keep soaked daal aside for further use. 
• Dry Roast suji till it gets light golden color. 
• Shred curry leafs. 
• Take a thick bottom cooking pan. Put 2tea spoon oil in it and heat. When the oil is hot add mustard seeds. 

Mustard seeds sputtering in hot oil 

• When mustard seeds start sputtering add shredded curry leafs and grated ginger . Let it cook for 10 sec. max. 

Curry leafs and Ginger added 

• Immediately add:

1. Grated carrots 
2. Finely chopped beans 
3. Grated cauliflower 

Beans, Cauliflower and Carrots added 

• Cook on low flame with continuous stirring till the beans and carrot become tender and change color. It will take 2-3 minutes. 

Vegetables cooked nicely 

• Add roasted suji (Semolina), mix and cook for 1-2 minutes with continues   

Suji/Semolina added to cooked veggies 

• Add : 

1. Salt 
2. Turmeric 
3. Kashmiri mirch

•  Mix nicely and cover. Cook for a minute. 

• Add soaked drained moong daal, mix and cook for a minute. 

Moong daal added 

Mixture with cooked Moong daal 

• Mash green peas and add to the mixture. Cover and cook for 1-2 minutes. 

Mashed Green Peas added 

• Add finely chopped coriander leafs. Mix and switch off the heat. 
• Cover and let it cool. This will infuse the flavor of coriander in suji mixture. 
• Once the mixture is cooled it can be used immediately or stored in fridge for future use. 

Idli mix is ready 

• To the cooled cooked mixture of suji and vegetables add the curd (200 gm) and mix nicely. Keep it aside for at least for 1/2 hr. Or till suji gets soaked and becomes soft. This mixture can be used immediately or can be kept in fridge. for 2-3 days for further use. 

Curd added to idli mixture 

Curd mixed nicely 

Idli mix nicely soaked in curd suji is soft 

• To make idli stir the soaked mixture nicely. It will be thick so add about 50-100 ml water in small batches . Mix nicely. 

Water added to bring it to correct pourable thick batter 

• Coat the idli stand with oil. 
• Fill 500 ml water in idli steamer and keep it on high heat. 
• Add Eno/cooking soda +baking soda and lemon juice. Mix in circular motion but in one direction only. Either clockwise or anticlockwise for 1minute. 

Eno added

Thick pourable Idli batter 

• Immediately pour the prepared idli mixture into idli slots and place the idli stand inside idli steamer. Cover and cook for 20 minutes on medium heat.

Batter in Idli stand 

• Lower the heat. Remove the lid and poke any one idli with clean knife or long needle. If it comes clean then idlies are cooked. If any thing sticks to the knife /needle then cook for another 5minutes. 
• Remove the idli stand from steamer and let it cool slightly. Pry the idlies from edges and take out from idli slots. 
• Serve hot suji-vegetables idli with chutney and Sambhar. 

Vegetable - Suji Idli ready 

Tips : 

• Preferably take suji (Semolina) of bigger grain size.
• Curd and water requirement may vary little depending upon the grain size of suji(Semolina).  I use big grained semolina/Suji 
• If your curd is not thick then lesser amount may be required. 
• Make sure the water inside steamer is near boiling before Eno /baking soda +cooking soda is added to suji mixture
• If using cooking and baking soda make sure it is mixed evenly else brown spots will appear on idli. 
• I prefer Eno. 

Suggested Variations : 

• Green chillies can be chopped and added to idli mix as per taste. 
• Thin curd or butter milk can be added instead of water to soaked idli mix for bringing batter to correct consistency. 
• Break cashews into two halves. Place one half on idli stand then pour the idli batter. Cook. Idli with cashew on it looks beautiful and appealing. 

Enjoy healthy Idli for breakfast /lunch /snacks /dinner. 

Chicken in wine With Crunchy Veggies

Drunk-Tangy Chicken With Crunchy Veggies

Chicken is a lean meat and for all non-vegetarians it is one of the best foods to be incorporated for keeping weight and cholesterol under control. The benefits of chicken diet is lost if it is cooked with too much of oil/fat. This recipe deals with tastier and easy to cook method of making chicken, retaining all the benefits of lean meat. The veggies by the side of juicy, slightly sweet, chicken with wine and mustard flavor add not only crunchiness to the meal, but also all other type of required proteins, dietary fibers , minerals and vitamins which chicken alone chicken cannot provide. Those who are not averse to carbs can add any type of bread. I prefers it without any accompaniment. My daughter in law loves this preparation of chicken and needless to say how much I enjoy the happiness and appreciation I see on her face while she is relishing the dish.

Preparation Time: 20 min.(marination time not included)

Cooking Time: 10 min.

Servings 2 Large servings

Ingredients Required For Making Chicken Sautéed in Wine:

• 500 gm. Boneless Chicken
• 100-120 ml. Red Wine (I used homemade wine which is not having any sweet taste)
• 3 Teaspoon Honey
• 2 Teaspoon Mustard powder (Preferably freshly powdered yellow mustard)
• 1/2teaspoon Red chili Powder (Optional)
• 3-4 Tea spoon Thick Curd
• 2 Teaspoon fresh Ginger-Garlic Paste
• Salt to taste
• 5-6 French Beans
• 1 Medium size Carrot
• 1 Medium size Capsicum
• 4-5 Mushrooms

Veggies 

• 1 ml. Olive Oil

Directions For Making Typsy Chicken:

• Making Marinade For Chicken:
• In a bowl take:
• 50 ml. wine
• Ginger- Garlic Paste
• 3-4 Tea spoons of thick curd
• Red chili powder
• Mustard powder
• Honey
• Salt
• Mix all ingredients with a spoon. It will be slightly liquidish marinade.
• Marinade for chicken is ready.
• Wash the chicken and cut them to 3-4 inches pieces.
• Drain all water from the washed chicken.
• Poke the pieces of chicken with a fork so that the marinade reaches inside the chicken pieces.
• Add marinade to the chicken and mix nicely to ensure every piece coated with the marinade.
• Cover and keep for minimum of 30 min. for marinating. (It can be kept in fridge for 2 days also for later use). I normally keep for 5-6 hrs for marinating to get full taste of marinade in the chicken.
• Wash all vegetables.
• Devein the beans and remove any thin roots present in the carrots. (I prefer not to peel it as lots of nutrients are lost in the process).
• Dry the mushrooms with a cloth.
• Cut beans to 2-3 inches pieces.
• Cut carrots to 2-3 inches long and thin pieces.
• Remove the stalk and seeds of capsicum and cut capsicum to the thin 2inches pieces.
• Cut each mushroom to 4 pieces and if they are huge then to 6-8 pieces.
• In a thick bottom pan take ½ ml of Olive oil and heat till hot (not smoking hot)

Olive oil for Chicken

• Put all chicken pieces and the marinade in the pan and cook on medium flame/heat flame with continuous tossing / stirring and turning to make sure chicken gets cooked with marinade evenly.

Marinated chicken with marinade in hot oil

• Add remainder 50-70 ml. of wine and bring down the flame to medium and let the chicken cook in wine for 4-5 min. Stir two or three times to ensure even cooking. Do not allow the juices to dry up completely. The chicken should be moist, juicy with little wine sauce along with it.

• While the chicken is cooking the color of chicken will change to pink. If not checked then the honey will get caramelized leading to brown color of chicken. This will also change the taste.
• While the chicken is cooking in wine take 1/2 ml. oil in another pan and heat it.
• Add carrots and beans and capsicun to the hot oil and stir for just 1 min. keeping the flame on high.

Veggies in 1/2 ml. oil on high flame

• Add mushrooms and cook for 1 more min.



Mushrooms added and being cooked

• Sprinkle salt to taste and mix all the while heat being on high flame for just one min.

• Switch off the gas and sprinkle 3-4 drops of honey and 1/2ml. of vinegar to the veggies and stir. I use apple cider.
• While the veggies were cooking the chicken becomes ready to be plated.

Chicken ready to be plated along with Veggies

• Place the veggies and chicken side by side in a plate and serve hot.



Drunk-Tangy Chicken with Crunchy Veggies

• Clear chicken / vegetable soup and any type of bread goes very well along with this dish .

Tips:

• In the absence of boneless chicken, chicken with bones can also be taken.
• If you are not comfortable cooking veggies and chicken together then cook chicken and keep aside then do the veggies as it takes 3-4 minutes only to do the veggies. Heat chicken by sprinkling 2-3 ml wine, then plate it with piping hot veggies.
• Too much reheating of chicken causes it to become dry so avoid heating again and again.
• Veggies should be cooked for 2-3 min. only. They should be crunchy not limp.

Suggested Variations:

• 1-2 ml of dark soy sauce can be added to the chicken while it is cookeing with marinade.
• Broccoli, Asparagus, cauliflower, Red/yellow/purple bell pepper can be added to the veggies. Let your imagination run wild in choosing veggies. It will add a different dimension to your dish.
• Little (2-3) ml. honey can be poured to the cooked chicken just before plating. Believe me it tastes yummy.

Arbi ke Patte Ki sabji (Indian savory Of Taro Leaves)

Arbi Ke Patte Ki Sabji

Arbi (Taro/colocasia leaves) are made to different savories in India. Patode/Patra is one of them Its vegetable is very tasty and healthy. It has 12%Calcium, 10 %Iron, 86% Vitamin C, Vitamin A and B, Dietary fibers1% saturated fats, Proteins, no carbs.In Kumaon (Uttarakhand) and Maharashtra both of the preparation are very popular. In Kumaon it is taken with Dal-Chawal and is called papadok saag, in Maharashtra with roti also. Millet bread and taro/colocasia leaf vegetable are real good combination with groundnut chutney by the side. Once after my marriage I made this vegetable and was so eagerly waiting to get thumbs up by my husband. But with one spoon down his throat and he started feeling itchy in the throat same with me and it was all ten fingers and both hands up. I was highly disillusioned. I spoke to my mom staying thousands of miles away from me and got the tips how to avoid such situation. Actually my cooking method was itself flawed. Next time I made the vegetable as per my mom’s instruction. My husband put one spoonful in his mouth and swallowed feeling very scared. But what followed was what I was looking for first time when I had cooked it. Since then I regularly make it and the appreciation goes like “It is very tasty but your mom makes it better”.  Well she always cooked in iron wok I cook in non-stick wok.

Preparation Time: 10 min.

Cooking Time: 15 min

Servings: 4 Large servings

Ingredients required For Making Arbi ke Patte ki Sabji (Taro/Colocasia Leaves Savory):

• 15 Leaves of Arbi (Taro)

• 4 Tea spoon Whole wheat flour/Rice flour

• 1/2Teaspoon Turmeric Powder

• 3-4 Whole Red Chilies

• 1 Teaspoon Ghee (Clarified butter)/Mustard oil/Any cooking oil

• 150 ml. Water

• 1 Teaspoon Cumin Seeds

• Red chili powder to taste

• Salt to taste

• Pinch of Asafoetida

Direction For Making Arbi Ke Patte Ki Sabji (Taro Leaves Savory):

• Roast the flour on low heat till golden brown in color.
• Wash the Taro (Arbi) leafs nicely in lots of water.

• Pat dry them with cloth.

• Remove the stalk from the leaves.

• Peel the thin outer covering from the stalks. Discard the peel and keep the cleaned stalks aside.

Arbi ke Patte Cleaned and in small bowl peels of stalk to be discarded

• Cut the cleaned stalks and the leaves very fine.

Finely cut Arbi ke Patte and Stalks

• In a wok take ghee/oil and heat.

• When the oil is hot add:

• Cumin seeds

• Broken whole red chilies

• Asafoetida

Tempering of Cumin seeds and Red chili and Asafoetida

•  When the seeds had spluttered and chilies color wonderful flavor of cumin, chilies and asafoetida will come.

• Add Water to the tempering. This is the step where I had gone wrong I had added finely cut leaves first. An absolutely no no in this case, water should be added to the spices in oil first.

• Add

• Turmeric

• Salt

• Red chili powder

Water added to the seasoning

• When the water comes to boil add finely cut taro leaves and stalks.

Arbi ke patte added to the boiling water with seasoning

• Cover and lower the flame. Cook for 4-5 min on low flame this should result in the leaves and stalks to become soft.

Stage when roasted flour to be added

• Add roasted whole wheat flour/Rice flour in little amount with continuous stirring so that lumps do not form.

Flour added and being mixed

Cooking for 2min. after added the flour

• Bring the heat to high and cook for 2-3 min. or till you achieve the consistency of your requirement.

Water added and cooked to thick consistency

• Remove from wok into a serving bowl and enjoy with any type of bread/steamed rice-Dal.

Arbi ke Patte Ki Sabji

Tips:

• Never make the mistake I made of putting the uncooked vegetable into oil with spices directly. Water should be added first until unless you want itchy throat. 

• Never over cook the green leafy vegetable else the color and taste spoils.

Over cooked  Arbi ke patte ki sabji

• Apply oil to your palms before chopping the leaves and stalks otherwise your fingers and palm may itch for some time after chopping work is done.

• Always break the red chilies before adding to hot oil otherwise they may burst open causing hot oil droplets to fall on you. Sure we do not want that to happen.

• Asafoetida should be added after cumin and chilies have been added to get best flavor of asafoetida.

Asafoetida added to Tempering

• Wheat/rice flour can be added by making thin paste for easing the work but while it is added continuous stirring is must to avoid lump formation.

• Removing the thin skin from the stalks is must else the texture4 and taste will get spoiled.

• Best results are obtained when cooked in mustard oil or ghee.

Suggested Variation:

• Roasted groundnut with outer skin removed can be added after adding the flour.

• After adding flour 15-20 ml. of milk can be added to the vegetable in wok and cooked on high heat for a minute or two before removing in serving bowl, this causes the vegetable to get creamy texture.

• Tadaka (tempering) using 1/2ml. oil/ghee and cumin and red chilies can be given to enhance the flavor.