Paneer Burji in Cashew and Tomato Gravy

Ingredients:
1 cup Paneer cubed
1 cup Paneer mashed/crumbled
4 Small Tomatoes ( quartered)
2 Small Onions (finely chopped)
2 tbsp Ghee/oil
2 Bay leaves
2 Red chillies
3 Green cardamoms
2 Whole black Pepper corns
¾ cup Ginger garlic paste
2 tsp Cumin seeds
1 Green chilli (minced)
½ cup Cashew paste
1 tsp Red chilli powder
1 tsp Jeera powder
2 tsp lime juice
½ tsp Kasoori methi
Salt to taste

Marinade:

1 tsp Red chilli powder
3 tbsp Ginger garlic paste

Note*: To keep the paneer soft in gravy items. Heat about 1 cup fo water , when it almost starts to boil put the flame off. Add ½ tsp of turmeric powder to the water. Drop the paneer cubes in the hot water and keep it covered for about 5-10 minutes. Then drain the water and use the paneer in your cooking. Method:

STEP 1:
Marinate the paneer cubes with chilli powder and ginger-garlic paste and set it aside.

STEP 2:
Heat ghee/oil in a Kadhai and add bay leaves, whole red chillies, cardamoms, 1 tsp ginger-garlic paste and sauté , when it starts browning add the tomatoes, salt and cook on low flame till the tomatoes become mushy.

STEP 3:
Blend in the cashew paste and little water stir once and cook on low flame for sometime. Now add the mashed/crumbled paneer mix well. Cover the lid and cook on low flame and stir in between.

STEP 4:
Meanwhile, take another pan and heat ghee/oil in it and add cumin seeds, minced green chillies, 1 tsp ginger-garlic paste ands sauté for sometime.
When it starts to change colour add onions and sauté till it turns golden brown. Add red chilli powder, cumin powder, salt, lime juice (add a little water if u want more gravy) and sauté for a few seconds till the rawness fades off.
Put off the flame.

STEP 5:
Add this onion masala to the simmering tomato-cashew mixture and mix well.
Finally add the paneer cubes and mix gently for the masala mixture to evenly coat on to the paneer cubes. Close and cook till done. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with roti/rice.

Simple Potato Tomato Curry

There are times when you are tired after a hard days work and wish to finish cooking in a second. This recipe is the best bet for those days. This is one of S's bachelor-days inventions. He revealed this secret to me on a day when I was too tired to go to the kitchen. You can have it either with rice or rotis. Here it's for you.Ingredients

• 2 finely chopped onions
• 1 finely chopped tomato
• 1 green chilli cut into 4 pieces
• 4 boiled potatoes cut into small cubes
• 1/2 tsp jeera
• 1 tsp garam masala/MDH Kitchen King powder
• 1/2 tsp dry mango powder (aamchoor powder)
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 cup water
• Salt to taste

Method

• Heat oil in a kadhai and add jeera
• Once jeera starts fluttering, put onions and saute till golden brown
• Then add tomato and saute till it becomes tender
• Now add the garam masala/MDH Kitchen King powder and mix well
• Then add water, green chilli and dry mango powder and bring it to a boil. You can decrease the quantity of water if you want to serve it with rotis
• Now add the potato cubes and salt
• Cover the lid and cook till done

It doesn't take any time to make and tastes great.

Raw Papaya and Coconut Stir Fry

Papaya is a wholesome fruit. It's rich vitamin C, protien certain enzyme content is beneficial for many internal disorders of the human body.This fruit consumed raw or ripe aids digestion and is a boon for having a glowing flawless skin.It's an excellent source of energy too.

I was looking for a raw papaya recipe which is different from the usual simple stir fry, I stumbled upon this one in one of the matrimonial sites :) yes! u read that right ;) It grabbed my attention for 2 reasons, it's unusual placement in a matrimonial site, second it read Raw papaya with coconut! I didn't think much and tried it out, the result was good. Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:
2 cups Raw Papaya (peeled and grated)
½ cup Coconut (grated) ½ cup
2 Potatoes medium (diced)
2 Green chillies (slit)
2 Bay leaves
2 Dry red chillies
1 tsp Methi seeds (fenugreek)
1 tsp Jeera powder (cumin)
1 tsp Garam masala powder
1 tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp ghee
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
Oil

Method:

Deep fry the potatoes and set it aside.
Heat oil in a pan and add red chillies and methi seeds, sauté till the methi seeds turn brownish black.
Next add grated coconut to it and sauté it turns yellowish/golden.
Add the grated papaya and sauté for 5-6 minutes.
Now add the fried potatoes, turmeric, jeera, and red chilli powders along with salt and stir well.
Cover and cook it on medium flame for about 8-10 minutes, stir at regular intervals.
Next add the garam masala, sugar, ghee and mix well.
Cook on low flame till it is done.
Serve hot with rice or roti.

Recipe by: Sunanada Sinha Roy

P.S: Congratulations to all the winners of the MCC contest organised by Gayathri. She's been very kind to give all the participants a nice 'hats off' card as a token of appreciation for participating, I've displayed it on my side bar :) Thanks a lot Gayathri

Home- made Sambar Powder

Hello friends! Belated Ugadi greetings to all of you! I wasn’t able to post anything for the last few days as S was down with bacterial infection in the stomach. He preferred to eat only plain curd and rice with grated raw veggies n salads. After a course of antibiotics, he is feeling fine now. The doctor has asked him to get back to normal food. I started cooking normal 2 course meal only from yesterday.

The last whole week was really terrible :( lots of lab tests were done to see if all the organ functioning was normal. I was scared to death. S was feeling low, he was a bit too scared of getting endoscopy done, as v had heard that it’s really painful, but I must say that he was brave and got it done quietly with tearful eyes as the tube went down his throat. The biggest relief was the endoscopy result which showed a normal stomach functioning :)

The Doctor said that it was nothing to be worried about and he would be fine in a day or two after two shots of intra-venous injection. S is back to normal, happy –active and pain free now. We couldn't celebrate Ugadi as S needed rest after so much running around, V just did a simple pooja and had beevu-bella (neem-jaggery).

During the last couple of days my only solace was food blogs. Blog hopping and reading through so many recipes and seeing wonderful food snaps kept me diverted and inspired me to think positive( I used to bookmark recipes to make after S gets well) I love you all friends, thanks for the support and keep blogging your wonderful recipes :) God Bless.

S wished to have sambar and rice today, I usually use MTR sambar powder but today I called Amma asked the recipe for Sambar powder and made it at home. The sambar was truned out tasty, pleasant (not so spicy) S enjoyed the sambar rice :) Here’s the recipe..

For the sambar powder you’ll need:

Mustard seeds 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds (methi) 1 tsp
Whole black pepper ½ tsp
Urad dal 2 tbsp
Chana dal 2 tbsp
Curry leaves 1 sprig
Hing (asafoetida) a little more than a pinch
Coriander seeds 2 tbsp
Dry copra 1/3 cup
Cumin seeds (jeera) 1 tsp
Dry red chillies 10
Turmeric powder ½ tsp

Method:

Dry roast each ingredient individually except asafoetida and turmeric powder. Set it aside and let it cool thoroughly.
Now add the asafoetida, turmeric powder to the roasted ingredients and powder it finely in a mixer. Store the powder in an air tight container.