Shahi Paneer - Cottage Cheese cubes in rich tomato based Gravy

Time moves so fast …it seems just like yesterday that we were looking forward year 2009, and here we are well into the year with one month almost gone. But as they say “good times fly…” so in a way I am happy that time is flying away :-) . Coming back to our New Year eve’s celebrations this time around we had decided to welcome 2009 in a quiet peaceful way. Unlike the noisy and boisterous New Year countdowns we have every year we stayed at home and waited for 2009 to come. We had a sumptuous home cooked meal, which included shahi paneer, sindhi dal and lacchedaar roti. We welcomed the new year with warm doughnuts and bubbling cold drinks .

The menu for the dinner was decided on the last minute after we came back from office. So I did a quick research for the recipe of shahi paneer and finally decided on a mix of Sanjeev Kapoor’s and Tarla Dalal’s recipes. The paneer turned out soft with the gravy rich and creamy, and it tasted even better the next day. Surprisingly it did not take much time to prepare also. After dinner, I got thumbs up from hubby dear and a quick photo of the remaining dish was taken and I was instructed to blog it as soon as possible : -D

So here is my recipe for Shahi Paneer: -

Ingredients –

Cottage cheese / paneer – Approx 250 gms

Tomatoes -3,Large sized, chopped
Onion – 1 medium sized, chopped

Handful of cashew nuts and almonds, ground to fine paste – the original recipe calls only for cashew nuts, but I added some almonds too.

Ginger, garlic, chili paste – 1 ½ t sp

Tomato paste – 1 tb sp

Garam masala powder – ½ tsp

Red chili powder – ½ t sp
Turmeric powder – ½ t sp
Coriander powder – 1 t sp
Salt – as per taste
Oil – 2 tb sp
Kasoori methi / dried fenugreek leaves – 1 tsp
Coriander leaves – chopped finely for garnishing

Fry chopped onions, in oil till soft. Add ginger, garlic and chili paste, fry till its brown. Then add the tomatoes and fry for 6 to 8 minutes till they turn mushy. Cool the sautéed masala and grind to a puree add tomato paste to it along with 1/2-cup water. Now bring it to a boil and simmer on low flame.In the meanwhile cut the cottage cheese / paneer into medium size pieces. Shallow fry the paneer in oil without browning them. Keep it aside.
Now add all the dry masala to the puree .Add the cashew nut – almond paste in the puree. And cook it on low flame till the gravy is thick. Add the paneer pieces and cook till they become heated too.
I added dry roasted and crushed kasoori methi/ dried fenugreek leaves also for more flavor and aroma (this was not mentioned in the original recipes) Before serving garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Serve hot with chapatti, paranthas or rice and enjoy !! :-)

Paneer Bbq. sticks

We had a barbeque party in June. This was our first attempt at hosting a barbeque party and hence I was a little nervous about hosting it . Will the food cook properly , will everyone like the seasonings …etc etc. To add to my jitters was the fact that one of the guests was a complete vegetarian who would not have even touched something which was even near any meat.

I had a number of recipes for meats…but what to make for a vegetarian…what would look great and taste even better. I mulled over this question for a number of days and then one day while browsing through my recipe collection I came across a recipe that I had noted down from a book sometime back. The original recipe was for chicken, I decided to use it with paneer and add some colorful vegetables to make this lovely looking bbq sticks.

I have the pictures of the sticks before we barbequed them, they were consumed before I could click a snap. …and that in itself proves that this was a successful experiment :-)

I hope to make these more often, now that we are confident that we can indeed host a barbeque party successfully. Our friends have been asking us about the next party already J so hopefully I will have more recipes to post in the near future and this time I will click a snap before I allow anyone to eat it ;-)

Ingredients (makes about 9 medium sized sticks)

Paneer / cottage cheese – 400 grams
Red/ Green bell pepper –1 large sized one/ each color
White onion – 2 medium sized ones
Lime – 3-4 depending on size
Bamboo skewers – 9- 10

For marinade –
For paneer/ cottage cheese
Crushed fenugreek seeds – 2 t sp
Amchoor powder / dry mango powder – 2 t sp
Garam masala – 2 t sp
Finely grated ginger – 4 t sp
Finely grated garlic – 4 t sp
Chili powder – 2 t sp

Turmeric – 1 t sp
Ground cumin powder – 2 t sp
Ground coriander powder – 2 t sp
Low fat yogurt – 300 ml
Oil - 1 t sp
Lemon juice – 1 tsp
Salt – as per taste

For vegetables –

Olive oil – 1 tb sp
Lime juice – 1-2 tb sp (depending on sourness)
Ground pepper powder (black or white) -1 t sp
Salt – as per taste

Slice the cottage cheese into 1-inch cubes. Dice the bell peppers, onions into squares of 1 inch. Separate each layer of the white onion.

Dry roast the crushed fenugreek seeds, coriander powder, cumin powder and garam masala, till fragrant. Then blend all the marinade ingredients in a blender. Pour over the cottage cheese cubes. Refrigerate for 2-4 hours.

Then marinate the vegetables with the olive oil, limejuice, pepper powder and salt. Keep aside for 15-30 mins. Also soak the bamboo skewers in water (this prevents them from burning while barbequing)

Then thread the vegetables and cottage cheese, alternating them, as you like. Once all the skewers are done, cook them on a medium hot grill or charcoal. Turn to the other side when one side is cooked or slightly charred.
Sprinkle lemon juice on the ready sticks and serve hot with mint chutney।

This is my entry for MM-Grill It hosted by Sig of Live to Eat