Paneer Tikka (Cottage cheese cooked with spices)

Juicy Paneer Tikka with salad on the sides

Cottage cheese is one of my favorite milk products. When it is made to Tikka it takes the subtle flavor of the herbs put in the marinade yet maintains the classic taste of its own. Though Paneer Tikka is made in different manner I write this recipe on the demand of my daughter-in-law’s sister Amrita. She liked it especially because it is literally oil less. Paneer Tikka can be had as snacks as well as side dish to the main course. I love it so much that for me every time is paneer tikka time.

Preparation Time: 45 min. (Including marination time)

Cooking Time: 10– 15 min.

Servings: 10- 12 Medium servings

Ingredients required for Paneer Tikka:

• 250 gm. Paneer (cottage cheese)

• 50 - 100 gm.  Cream (Malai)

• 100 gm. Thick Curd

• 1/4 Tea spoon Turmeric Powder

• 1 Tea spoon Amchur Powder (Dry raw mango powder)

• 1 Tea spoon Red chili Powder

• 1 Tea spoon Kasoori methi (Dried and powdered green leaves of methi)

• Salt to taste

• 2 Tea spoon Olive oil.

Direction for marinating Paneer:

• Cut paneer to 2cm.x2cm. pieces.

Cottage Cheese (Paneer ) cut into pieces

• Take Paneer pieces in a bowl.

• Add Turmeric powder, salt, chili powder and amchur.

Turmeric powder, Salt, Chili powder and Amchur added to Paneer pieces

• Add malai(cream).

Cream and curd added to Paneer pieces

• Add kasoori methi and mix well.

Mixed after adding Kasoori Methi

• Keep aside for at least 30 min.

Direction for Making Tikka

• Take a nonstick Tawa and keep it on high flame.

• When hot lower the flame and spread one tea spoon of olive oil on it.

Hot non stick tawa with one teaspoon of oil

• Place marinated paneer pieces on Tawa and let them cook for 3-4 min, without disturbing.

Marinated Paneer pieces placed on hot Tawa and being cooked

• The side of paneer which are in touch of tawa directly will become brownish pink.

• Carefully turn them upside down.

Turning Paneer pieces upside down to cook from both side

• Cook the other side also till brownish pink in color

Paneer Tikka with salad

• Serve the tikka with coriander mint chutney, 
•  http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2011/10/green-coriander-and-mint-chutney.html

• http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/06/hariyali-chutney-raw-mango-chutney.html

   

Tips:

• Do not make the paneer pieces very small.

• Tawa should not be smoking hot when you place paneer on it, because paneer will get burnt spoiling the taste.

• Curd should be thick and not too sour.

Suggested Variations:

• Kasoori methi can be replaced by oregano/ parsley/ basil to change the flavor of paneer tikka.

• Malai (cream) can be replaced by curd to reduce the fat content due to malai.

• Paste of green chili and coriander can be added to marinade instead red chili powder and methi, this gives very good flavor and color to tikka.

Kadi ( Thick gravy of besan/ gram flour in curd with pakodas )

Kadi

Kadi is made in almost all over India though in different style. The one being mentioned today is most popular and is made in northern part of India.In North India Kadi is relished with rice. In Kumaon it is called besan ke Dubke और payo (प्यो). Thick broth of gram flour (Besan) with curd seasoned with cumin, hing, red chili powder and having floating pakodas is simply irresistible and my children used to finish half of it before it used to come on table.

Preparation Time     5 min.

Cooking Time        60 min.

Servings:  Makes eight large servings.

Ingredients Required For Making Kadi:-

• 200 gm. Besan (black gram flour)

Besan

• 250 gm. Thick Curd 

Curd

•   Salt to Taste
•  1/2 Tea spoon Cumin Seeds

•  1/2 Tea spoon Mustard Seeds

Mustard seeds

• 1/2 Tea spoon Methi seeds

Fenugreek seeds

•  1 Dry Red Chili
•  Oil for frying
•  Water

Direction For Making Kadi:-

Step 1

Making the Pakodas(dumplings of gram flour)

• Take 100 ml. of oil in a wok and heat it on high flame.
• Lower the flame when the oil is smoking hot.
• Take 100 gm. of besan in a bowl.
• Add 1/2 tea spoon of cooking oil, salt, and mix.
• Add water slowly and beat with your fingers / fork / spoon to make batter.
• The batter should be of pourable thickness, and it should be free of lumps.
• Beat the batter for 5min. to make it fluffy.

Batter for pakoda

•  With the help of a spoon pour little amount to the hot oil (the amount of batter you put in oil for frying depends upon the size of pakodas you want.

Pakodas being fried

 Put the flame on high and fry the pakodas golden brown by turning them regular.

Fried Pakoda for kadi

• Take the fried pakodas and soak them in water.

Pakodas being soaked in water

 Step 2

Making Kadi

• Beat curd with an egg beater or in the mixer to smooth paste.
• Take 75gm. Of besan in a bowl and add curd paste with regular beating.

Besan and curd mixture

•   Add salt, turmeric powder and 250 – 300 ml. water and mix thoroughly so that no lumps are formed.
• Take 1ml. oil in a wok and heat and heat on high flame till smoking hot.
• Put mustard seeds, cumin seeds and in the last methi seeds.
•  Let the seeds splutter for 10-15 sec.
• Lower the flame and add the mixture of besan, curd, salt and water to the wok.
• Mix thoroughly and put the flame to high.
• Cook with regular stirring till it starts boiling.



Besan - curd mixture of kadi being cooked with seasoning




• Once it starts boiling lower the flame and cook for at least 30 min.
• Keep on adding water to maintain the consistency of kadi. 
•  More the kadi is cooked better the taste becomes.
• Squeeze the excess water from the soaked pakodas gently by pressing between your palms.
• Add the pakodas to the kadi and give it a gentle stir and cook for two min.

Kadi being cooked with Pakodas

• Take out cooked kadi in a serving bowl .
•  For garnishing take 2 ml. of oil in a pan heat.
• When hot add red chili let the chili become brownish red then red chili powder, asafetida and immediately pour over kadi.

Kadi with garnishing of red chilli powder and cumin seeds

• You can decorate with few leaves of coriander or by sprinkling little amount of kasoori methi.

 Kadi is ready to be enjoyed with rice. Some people like kadi with chapatti also, but in whole of northern India kadi has one and only one companion that is RICE. Make some vegetable of spinach / methi or any other vegetable and you have a complete meal!!.

Enjoy your Sunday lunch with your family eating Kadi Chawal (cooked rice).

Kadi,Rice and palak (spinach )ki sabji

Tips:-                                                 

• Do not decrease the amount of curd as the taste of kadi will not come out as it should be.

• The amount of curd can be increased it will make the kadi more tasty.

• Pakodas should be soft otherwise the kadi will not seep into the pakodas.

• While preparing the garnish, make sure the chili powder retains its red color.

• Asafetida should be added last and the oil poured immediately over kadi.

Suggested Variations:

• For healthier eating pakodas can be avoided and thin 2-3 cm. long pieces of beans, carrots,cauliflower can be added to Kadi once it is half cooked so that the vegetables get cooked in kadi yet remain crisp.

Vegetable Pulav (Rice cooked with vegetables)

Vegetable Pulav

Vegetable pulav is a complete food by itself. Rice when cooked with lots of vegetables makes it very attractive and colorful in appearance. It is a real fun in our family when pulav is being made as my husband loves making pulav for the family, and the minutest details right from the amount of vegetable to cutting them to appropriate size and so on, he looks himself where as I have a fields day and get to enjoy the vegetable pulav without doing any work.!!

Preparation Time: 20min.

Cooking Time: 30min.

Servings: Four large servings

Ingredients required for making Vegetable Pulav:

• 200gm. Rice
• 50gm. French Beans
• 50gm. Carrot
• 2 Medium size Potatoes. (optional)
• 50 – 75gm. Nutrela (soya nuggets, optional)
• 2 medium size Tomatoes
• 50-75gm. Onions
• 1/2 Tea spoon Turmeric Powder
• 3-4 Cloves.
• 1 black cardamom
• 2 Bay leaves
• 2-3cm. cinnamon stick
• 5gm. Garam Masala(1 tea spoon approx..)
• 50gm. Ginger- Garlic paste (2-3 tea spoon approx..)
• Salt to taste
• 25ml. Ghee / cooking oil
• Water

Directions to prepare Vegetable Pulav:

• Clean and wash rice
• Soak the washed rice in 250ml. water
• Soak Nutrela for 30min. in water

.

Soaked Nutrela

• Wash and dry all vegetables.
• Cut beans, carrots, into 3-4cm. long thin pieces.

Carrot and French beans cut for Pulav

• Cut onions to thin long pieces.

Onions cut length wise for Pulav

• Cut Tomatoes to pieces.

Tomatoes for pulav

• Take 10ml. Ghee/oil in a pressure cooker and heat it on high flame.
• When the ghee/oil is smoking hot reduce the flame.
• Squeeze water from soaked Nutrela and shallow fry them in oil/ghee.

Carrot, French beans and soaked squeezed nutrela

• Remove Nutrela when they become golden brown and keep aside.
• Add remaining 15ml. of ghee/oil and heat.
• Add bay leaves, cloves, black cardamom and cinnamon stick.
• Cloves will start spluttering and wonderful smell of spices will start coming.
• Add Onion and cook on low flame till they become transparent
• Add Ginger-garlic paste and cook for 2 min. with regular stirring.
• Add Potatoes and cook for 2-3 min. with regular stirring..
• Add beans, carrots and cook for 2-3min. with regular stirring.
• Add tomatoes and cook they become soft.
• Add shallow fried Nutrela and mix

.

All vegetables and soaked fried nutrela being cooked

• Drain the soaked rice and keep the water aside.
• Add rice to the cooker and mix with gentle stirring so as the rice, vegetable, spices mixture becomes homogeneous.

Soaked rice added to the vegetable mixture

• Add turmeric powder, salt, garam masala , red chili powder and mix.

Salt, Turmeric powder, Garam masala and Red chili powder added to rice and vegetables

Spices mixed to rice and vegetable mixture

• Add the water kept aside after draining the rice.

Water added to rice, vegetable and spices mixture

• Mix gently.
• Close the lid of cooker and put the flame on high.
• When the pressure is built in the cooker reduce the flame to low and cook for 5 min.
• Switch off the gas and allow the pressure in the cooker to subside.
• Open the cooker and get the first look and wonderful smell of vegetable pulav.

Vegetable Pulav

Take it out on a serving dish and serve with curd/raita, pickle

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/06/mango-pickle-north-indian-style.html

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/06/tangy-mango-pickle-maharashra-style.html

 http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/06/spicy-mixed-vegetable-pickle-less-oily.html
 / chutney  http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2011/10/green-coriander-and-mint-chutney.html, salad and roasted papad.
I love eating this pulav with Ghee and pickle.

Vegetable Pulav with Curd, Coriander chutney, Salad and Papad

Tips:-

• Those who do not take onions, garlic can omit it and instead replace onions, garlic with cumin seeds.
• The rice used in the above recipe is Dulhan basmati rice, the requirement of water may vary little with different variety of rice.
• While washing basmati rice wash them in a sieve with running water.
• Do not rub rice with hands as the flavor goes off with vigorous washing.
• If you like spicy food then you can add red chili powder to you taste.
• Do not release he pressure from cooker after switching off the gas let it subside by itself, the flavor of spices will get seeped in rice nicely.

Suggested Variations:

• Cauliflower, Broccoli,Cottage cheese can be also be put in pulav.
• Fresh Peas added to the pulav gives it a very good flavor and color.
• Badi can be fried and added instead of nutrela.

Fried Badi

• Pulav tastes best with basmati rice, but you can choose rice as per your choice.
• For those who for any reason like less oil, can reduce the amount of ghee/oil as per the requirement.

Plain Puri (Puffed Fried Bread )

Puris with Sukka Kala Chana

Puri are fried bread made of mainly whole wheat flour. Different variation of puri are made by adding spices and vegetables to the wheat flour before making it to dough. Plain puri are made of wheat flour dough with out mixing any other thing to the flour. What ever type of puri it may be, hot puffed puri are so luring that it becomes difficult to resist. It is a delightful scene to see my children to poke a hole in the middle of puffed hot puri to let the steam out and eat.

Preparation Time:  5-10min.

Cooking Time: 20min.

Servings:  20 - 25 Puri can be made from the material given below.

Ingredients Required To make Puri:

• 250gm. Whole Wheat Flour.
• 10-15 ml. cooking oil.
• 1/2Teaspoon salt
• 100-150ml. Water to make dough.
• 200 ml. Cooking oil for frying.

Directions To Make Dough:

• Take wheat flour in a bowl and add 5 ml. of oil, and salt to it.
• Mix with your fingers.
• Add another 5 ml. of oil and mix nicely.
• The flour oil mixture should resemble bread crumbs.
• If required then add another 5ml.oil.
• The requirement of oil changes with the quality of wheat flour.
• Do not add too much oil; otherwise the puris will become too oily.
• Add water in little amounts and mix and knead.
• The dough should be soft but firm.

Dough for Puri

Directions To Make Puri:

• Put 200ml. oil in a wok and keep the wok on gas, with the gas on high flame.
• Make small balls from the dough.

Dough ball for Puri

• Oil the rolling board and rolling pin with few drops of oil.

Rolled Puri

• Keep the ball of dough in the center of rolling board and roll it to 8-10 cm. diameter round puri.
• When the oil is smoking hot reduce the flame.
• To the hot oil put the rolled puri from the side of the wok.
• Fry it from both sides to golden color by turning it once or twice.

Puri being fried

Puffed fried Puri

• Plain puri is really to be served with any vegetable.

Hubby dear enjoying Puri with Sukka Chana

My personal preference is eating this puri with Aloo ki sabji (Dry potato vegetable) /Sukka kala chana

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2011/10/sukka-kala-chana-gravy-less-black-gram.html

      and mango pickle.

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/06/tangy-mango-pickle-maharashra-style.html, http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/06/mango-pickle-north-indian-style.html

Tips

• Add water in little amounts while making dough as requirement of water changes with different type of wheat flour.
• Take care while putting rolled puri for frying, it should be put slowly from side otherwise hot oil may spill causing burns.
• For those who are not too adept at rolling, you can roll few puris and keep them separated on an oiled plate and then start frying them one by one.
• The oil should be very hot while frying otherwise puri will not puff.
• Maintain the temperature of oil by reducing/ increasing the flame.
• Puris can be kept in a closed container for a day and eaten by warming in microwave or on flat iron plate(Tawa) over gas.

Suggested Variations:

• Add  one coarsely ground red chili to the flour before kneading it adds color and taste to the puri.
• Cumin seeds / roasted cumin seed powder can be added to the flour before kneading.
• Add 2 tea spoonful of Ajwain ( caraway seeds) to make ajwain puri.

Gatte ki Sabji (Gatte Curry)

Gatte ki Sabji

This is a very popular dish of  Rajasthan and Gujarat in India. My friend's mom used to send it  whenever she made it  for me in the hostel and my taste buds tickled. My daughter's friend once landed up when I had no vegetable in my fridge and she was a pure vegetarian. So I tried this dish and not only she loved it but spread the words around about it, and I landed up making Gatte ki sabji every now and then . Am I complaining no dear no!! :)


Preparation time: 5 min.
Cooking time for gatte: 10 min.
Cooking time for gravy: 10 min
Servings: 5-6 large servings

Ingredients required for Gatte (Boiled roll of Black gram flour)

• 200 gm Besan ( Black gram powder)
• 1/4 Tea spoon Turmeric powder
• 10 ml. Cooking oil for adding to besan 
• Salt to taste.
• 1 Tea spoon Chilly powder( or to taste) 
• Cooking oil for frying
• Water 1/2 L.

Directions to prepare Gatte

• Take besan in a deep bowl / plate add the following and mix properly.
• Salt 
• Chilly powder
• Turmeric powder
• 10 ml. oil

Besan with Turmeric powder, salt, oil, chili powder

The mixture of Besan, oil, salt, turmeric powder and chili powder after mixing

• Sprinkle water to the above mixture and keep on kneading till it becomes soft dough.

Dough

• Put 1/2 liter water in a container and keep for boiling. 
• Divide the dough into four equal parts

Four parts of dough

• Roll them to 1/2 inch diameter rolls.

Rolls

•  Cut the rolls to approximately 2-4 inches length.

Rolls cut to pieces before boiling

• When water starts boiling put the rolls into water and allow them to cook for at least 15 min.
• The gatte should become hard. 

Boiled Gatte

• Sieve the water and keep the boiled gatte to cool.
• When the rolls become cold cut them into small round pieces as per your liking.

Boiled Gatte cut into small pieces

• Fry them till golden brown. 

Gatte being fried

Ingredients required for Gravy 

• Onion 2 medium size, cut finely
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, and 1inch ginger piece both made to paste
• 2-3 cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• Oil 1 tea spoon
• Salt to taste
• Chilly powder1/2 tea spoon
• Water 1/2 Liter
• 2 tea spoons cream (malai) (Optional).
• Finely cut coriander leaves.

Directions to prepare Gravy

• Take oil in kadai and heat it. 
• When the oil is hot,  add cloves and bay leaf,onions and cook till onions are golden brown.
• Add garlic ginger paste to the above mixture and cook for 2-3 minutes.
• Add tomatoes and cook till they leave side of kadai.
• Add fried gatte and mix nicely.
• Add 100ml.water and cook on low flame for 10 min. with occasional stirring.

Gatte being cooked in Onion, Tomato gravy along with Red bell Pepper

• In between you can add water to get the thickness of gravy as per your liking.

Gatte ki sabji cooked in gravy along with Red bell Pepper

Enjoy  hot Gatte ki curry with rice or chapatis. :)
Tips :

• If the besan mixture sticks on your fingers while kneading then apply oil to your fingers.
• The water which is left after boiling gatte can be used in gravy.
• Gatte can be shallow fried instead deep fried to reduce the oil content of vegetable.

Suggested Variations :

• While making the dough of gatte, in the mixture of besan Kasoori methi / Finely cut onions / Caraway seeds(Ajwain) /Green chili / Coriander leaves can be added to have different flavor Gatte.
• While making gravy Capsicum ? Red bell pepper / yellow bell pepper / carrots / beans etc. can be added to bring more color and nutrition to the vegetable of Gatte.
• Fried gatte can also be cooked in 
• Sweet and Sour Gravy,
   http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2011/11/white-gravy-3.html  
• Creamy Delicious Gravy,
  http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2011/11/white-gravy-2.html 
• Gravy Lazawab,
   http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2011/11/white-gravy-1.html