Paneer Masala with Capsicum

Paneer Masala with Capsicum

In continuation with the series North Indian side-dishes I have today this delicious dish that I had long ago found on the site cinnamon n spice. I had made it ages ago and remembered this yummy dish occasionally but since I could not remember the details I have just hoped to make it yet again.

The other day when I was cleaning up I found the scrap of paper on which I had written the recipe.

Paneer Masala with Capsicum

Paneer Masala with Capsicum

Recipe Source: CinnamonNspice

Ingredients:

• 400 gms paneer, diced
• 2 medium capsicum, diced ( I used coloured)
• 2 onions, chopped fine
• 4 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 large tomato
• 1 tsp garlic ginger paste
• 1 tbsp kasuri methi (dry fenugreek)
• 1 tbsp cashews
• 1tbsp raisins ( I did not use)
•  A pinch black salt
• 1/4 tsp red chilli powder
• A pinch hing/asafoetida
• A pinch turmeric powder
• 1 tsp sugar
• Salt to taste
• 2-3 tbsp oil
• 2-3 tsp of North Indian Spice Masala

 Method:

• Heat a kadhai/wok and drop the  Kasuri Methi. Switch off the gas. Set aside. Once the pan cools crush the methi between fingers and powder it.
• If using soak raisins in hot water for a few minutes and drain.
• Heat oil in a kadhai/wok. Add cashews and sauté till golden in colour.
• Drain them. I get small pieces you could chop them to a smaller  pieces.
• In the same oil add capsicum sauté for a few minutes. Drain  and set aside.
• Now add hing/asafoetida, ginger garlic paste and sauté till the raw smell goes away.
• Add the onions and sauté till transparent.
•  Add tomato puree and cook for a few minutes on low heat till oil separates.
• Now add salt, rock salt, sugar, and turmeric powder, red chilli powder mix and cook for a minute on low heat.
• At this point you can add the capsicum cover and cook for a minute. But since we do not like cooked capsicum much I did not do this step.
•  Add chopped tomatoes, salt and the ground masala. Cover and cook for few minutes till capsicum (in case you are cooking the capsicum) is tender yet firm.
• Add paneer pieces and salt mix well. Cover and cook for a minute or two. Add crushed kasuri methi. In case you are using raisins now will be a good time to add them.
• Switch off the heat add the capsicum in case you have not cooked it like me.
•  Add cashews. Garnish with coriander leaves.
•  Enjoy with hot with chapattis.

Paneer Masala with Capsicum

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

 

Xi’an stuffed pancakes

Xi’an stuffed pancakes

For the alphabet X I have tried the Xain province from China.I knew of this province for the terracotta army. I would have liked to write more but as my arm is not too agreeable I am just linking my source Wikipediaof course.

These were appreciated a lot at home and the waiting period is right now extended till y arm is better then I better make these again and not just 8. Apparently younger one want 8 for herself alone. ;D

 Xi’an stuffed pancakes

Recipe Source:here

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Total time: 45 minutes

Yield: 8 pancakes

Ingredients

For the dough:

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• ½ tsp salt
•  Water as needed

For the filling:

• 200 grms mushrooms
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp garlic paste
• ½ tsp pepper
• Pinch of jeera/cumin
• ½ tblspn soya sauce
• 1 tblspn tomato sauce
• Pinch of sugar
• Salt
• ¼ cup paneer, crumbled
• 1 cup cabbage, finely chopped
• 1 spring onion, chopped
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp oil
• Pinch of white pepper
• 2 tblspn til/sesame seeds
• 1/2 cup oil for frying+ 1 tblspn oil

Method:

Let’s make the dough first:

• To the flour add salt and water little at a time to form dough.
•  Knead for 5 minutes. Set aside keep covered with a damp kitchen towel to rest.

Now let’s make the filling:

• In a kadhai /wok add 1 tblspn of oil.
• Add the garlic and brown it.
• Add the onion and stir fry till the onions are translucent.
• Add the mushrooms and stir and cook covered.
• Once the mushrooms are done add the jeera/cumin, pepper, soya sauce, tomato sauce, salt sugar. Mix and stir fry till almost dry.
• Add the paneer and mix well. Switch off the gas and keep the kadhai/wok open. Set aside to cool.
• Once cool transfer to the chutney jar of the blender and make a coarse paste. Set aside.
•  In another bowl, combine the cabbage, spring onion, garlic powder.

Now let’s assemble the pancakes:

•  Divide the dough into 8 equal portions use one portion and keep the rest covered with a damp towel.
•  Oil the work surface lightly and roll the selected portion into a long, thin rectangle about four inches wide.
• Again very lightly oil the dough and spread on about an eighth of your mushroom paneer mixture on one side. Spread till about the middle of the rectangle.
• Add about 2 tblspn cabbage mixture to one end.
•  Roll the dough a little. Cover the sides like a burrito to make a cylinder till you reach the end of the rectangle.
• Stand the roll on one end so it's like a standing cylinder.
• Press the dough down into a flat pancake with one hand and then sprinkle with sesame seeds.
• Repeat with all the balls. Meanwhile keep the prepared pancakes under the damp towel.
•  Pour ½ cup oil into a small kadhai/wok and heat. When put a small pinch of dough in the hot oil the dough should first sink then slowly come up. In case the dough sinks and stays under you oil is not hot enough heat it and test with a fresh pinch of dough. In case it rises immediately cool the oil. Test and then fry.
• Drop the pancakes gently into the pan and fry until golden.  You will need to flip the pancakes so fry 1-2 at a time.
• Carefully flip and fry on the other side (about 3 minutes per side). Please be careful when working with hot oil.
• When golden brown, transfer to a plate lined with paper towels.
• Taste best when eaten immediately but they can be frozen and re-toasted in the oven.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 44

An InLinkz Link-up

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

Blintzes from Russia

 

Today on in the Mega Marathon which has been christened as “Around the World in 30 Days” let us visit Russia!

If you are about my age you will remember the Span and the “Adventures of Misha.” How I used to wait to see what she came up with next.

Apeksha, my elder daughter has been always after me for pancakes. And as I was researching Russia for some reason she borrowed the laptop, the rest is history this was the page that I was on. If that was not enough after that she was trying to convince me to do crêpes as a Sub-category in street food….

On the day I made these Blintzes it was pouring and we had a lot of guests. The idea was to remake the dish for better pics. Never got down to it. Hope to remake these delicious Blintzes again soon!

According to Wikipedia, “A blin (pl. blini), blintchik (pl. blintchiki) or blintz is a type of thin pancake.  Blintzes are thin pancakes that typically lack a leavening agent and are similar to crêpes, whereas blini are typically thicker and include a leavening agent.^”

Traditionally Russian blini are made with yeasted batter, which is left to rise and then diluted with cold or boiling water/ milk. When diluted with boiling water, they are referred to as zavarniye blini and were baked in a Russian oven. Though the blini are pan fried they are cooking of blini is still referred to as baking in Russian.

 French crêpes made from unyeasted batter (usually made of flour, milk, and eggs) are also common in Russia.  Flours used for making blini range from wheat and buckwheat to oatmeal and millet, although wheat is currently the most popular.

Blintzes are made in Jewish cuisine too; blintzes that are stuffed with a cheese filling and then fried in oil are served on holidays such as Chanukah (as oil played a pivotal role in the miracle of the Chanukah story) and Shavuot (when dairy dishes are traditionally served within the Ashkenazi minhag). Blintzes are called "blinchiki" in Russian, and are ordinarily stuffed before frying a second time. Fillings include chocolate, mushrooms, meat, rice, mashed potatoes, and cheese.

Blintzes are the traditional meal in Lithuania during Fat Tuesday.

Buckwheat blini are part of traditional Russian cuisine. They are also widespread in Ukraine, where they are sometimes known as hrechanyky (Ukrainian: гречаники), and Lithuania’s Dzūkija   region, the only region in the country where buckwheat is grown, where they are called Grikių blynai.”

Blintz

Recipe Source: Tony Avey

Ingredients:

  For The Blintzes:

• 2 cup Maida or APF
• 2 cup milk
• 2 tblspn sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tblspn oil
• 2 tblspn baking powder

Ingredients for the Filling:

• 1 cup fresh paneer, crumbled
• ¼ cup cream
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1 egg yolk (optional)
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Pinch of salt

Method:

• Blend all of the blintz ingredients together using a blender or electric hand mixer. You can blend with a fork too but remember that the batter should not have any lumps.
• Warm up a non-stick tava/skillet until hot.
• The tava/skillet is ready check the heat . Sprinkle a drop of water and if it sizzles on the surface of the of the tava , your tava is ready. If the water pops or jumps out of the pan, the skillet it too hot—let it cool slightly before starting.  
• Grease the tava/skillet generously with cooking oil.
• Pour the pancake batter using a 1/3 cup into the pan.
• Tilt the pan in a circular motion till the batter coats the entire bottom of the pan in a large, thin circular shape.
• Cook for 60-75 seconds until the edges of the blintz brown and the bottom of the blintz is lightly golden. The pancake is done when the centre of the pancake's surface is dry and slightly tacky to the touch.
• Remove the pancake with a spatula and place it on a plate.
• Keep the blintzes separated by pieces of butter paper or paper towels to prevent the blintzes from sticking together.
• Similarly cook all the blintzes.

Now make the filling:

• Put all of the filling ingredients into a chutney bowl of the blender and pulse it. The filling should not be smooth. But should be well blended.
• Now let’s assemble the blintzes
•  Put about 3 tblspn of filling on the lower part of the blintz, about an inch from the edge.
• Now fold the lower edge of the blintz covering up the filling, say about till the centre.
• Now fold the sides of the blintz inward, as though you’re folding an envelope.
• Roll the blintz up and over the filling like a burrito, tucking the edges in as you roll.
• Finish them all. Then let’s fry them…
• Heat about ¼ cup of oil in a non-stick pan over medium until hot.
•  Cook the blintzes in batches see that you have enough space to turn them easily in the pan. Gently lay the flapside down in the oil (take care the oil is hot).
• The oil will sizzle after 1 ½ to 2 minutes flip carefully the blintzes. They will be brown and crispy.
• Fry the flipped side again for a 1 ½ - 2 minutes till they are browned evenly.
• Serve blintzes warm as they are or topped with fruit topping, sour cream, applesauce, whipped cream or maple syrup.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 44

An InLinkz Link-up

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

Poutine/ Fries and Gravy from Canada

Poutine

Welcome to day 3 on The Blogging Marathon “Around the World in 30 Days”!

Let’s stop at alphabet C today…

Actually I had planned a different Country beginning with C, cooked it too but then Canada kept popping in my head continuously!

My fascination was because I heard my teacher talk about the country from inside the class when we were doing world geography. Either she forgot to throw me out or gave up on me realizing that I will never be able to draw maps to her satisfaction! Then there were Mills n Boon and instead of reading the antics of the fair damsel and the dark hero and the villain thrown in I used to love to read about the countryside….!!

 Gastronomically I got interested since Manali went to Canada for a year long course.  Vivek, her husband and she told me about warm people who live there and the different foods, authentic food available not like our Indo- Chinese, they have described the Japanese etc. food available too.

So C-Canada naturally won out!

Pakke Pakke Tamatar/ Ripe Stuffed Cherry Tomato

In the book Vegetarian Fare at Taj there are delicious pictures some of them are doable at home some need a lot of thought process for substitutes but the pictures are wow so very delicious!  One such a dish is Kacche Pakke Tamatar!

The others that I have already attempted are VendakaiMelugu Peretti, Waal/Long Beans in Butter Garlic Sauce, Wok Fried Lotus Stemsand Assorted Veggies in Honey Chilli Sauce, Zunka Bhakar , Idli~ Old Wine in a New Bottle! Slowly plan to attempt them all.

I could not get kacche cherry tamatar, which is raw cherry tomatoes and so I made it as a pakke pakke tamatar.  You could use 1 cup of raw  cherry and 1 cup of ripe tomatoes. 

Peas Caulifower and Paneer Pull Apart ~Knead to Bake

Bread baking is a skill  and I hit panic buttons, due to the fact that yeast and I are not so good friends.

 So when Aparna said she is starting a group that is baking 12 breads down the year I thought I will tag along. Hopefully I will make friends with yeast finally. 

This is the February challenge and I am very late posting it but then I went to Ahemadabad for "The Blogging Marathon #25 Meet" and so was delayed.  Had a rocking time there but now I realize that I have not done tons and tons of work here. So will keep posting now hopefully regularly.

Vegetarian Chilli For Taste & Create

When I signed up for Taste & Create I was just hoping to make newer friends. But till now I have not contacted my partner Carol @ NO REASON NEEDED.  Will rectify the problem soon but right now I need to tell you that I am amazed at the stuff that Carol has done, not just cooking but from skydiving to horse riding!! My I really need to broaden my horizons!!

There were a few recipes like the no bake cookies, banana muffins and of course Chilli that caught my eye. Will use them shortly.

I had to try making chilli for it was a long pending demand. Must say I enjoyed it. Carol has used the slow cooker and beef ,since I do not own a slow cooker I used the regular kadhai/wok and in place of beef used rajma or kidney beans.

Paneer, Bottle Gourd and Mint Parathas-Working Lunch Thali

When Valli was floating her idea of Indian Thali Mela I was quiet. 

That is quite unlike me. Usually I like to be in the thick of things if not doing anything else at least making a noise.

You may wonder why I was quiet. Well there is a reason no three reasons

1. Will I be able to cook an entire festive thali all by myself? I do not know why I wanted one festive thali but I wanted it. I still want to make one but

 2. Will I have eaters? For my family is one are very fussy eaters so I did not want my hard work go down the drain.

3. The most important reason is I do not know how to click it. The pictures suck.  

So I decided to let the festival go by. But I hate failures or giving up before I try so I decided to try. I would love to see your comments on improving my pics.

Tinda Stuffed with Paneer and Mint~ Dedicated to Mom

 I decided to make tinda and started to make Tinda Do piyaza that I had seen here.

However as I started long lost memories of how we, that is we siblings, hated this vegetable as kids swamped me. We always fought with my mother when we saw this vegetable. But in the sweltering heat of Nagpur and Akola where we spent our childhood in the summer very few vegetables were available. One was Gola Bhaji and other dhemsa or tinda. Poor mom had nothing to make, she must have been so frustrated…

Tomato Gralic and Onion Chutney with Paneer

I am sorry that I could not post my Blog Hop on 11^th April as I had migraine and could not work. In fact today is the only day that I have done some work, barely managed to cook. Please accept my sincere apologies.

With this as the rules of Blog Hop say I will not be able to participate anymore so this is a bye bye from me. I really enjoyed myself and had a great time. I will definitely join in the next round of Blog Hop.

Coming to Blog Hop recipe Week #16 recipe I was paired with Sona of Spill the Spices. 

Black & White Wednesday & Mattar Paneer~Blog Hop# 5

For today's blog hop I am paired with Radhika of Tickling Palates and the brain behind the wonderful Blog Hop.

Radhika has a number of exiting recipes and I have bookmarked quite a few recipes. In fact I made this delicious Mattar Paneer (click here for the link) last Wednesday when it was "Avidhwa Navami".

Paneer and Tofu Tikka Burger~Bloghop Wednesday #4

For the Blog Hop this time I am paired with Prathima of Prats’ Corner.   

 

Now came the biggest challenge what to make. For each recipe that I read I wanted to make! Finally I choose this Paneer Tikka Sandwich recipe for it falls in is an entry for my current event (Please send me your entries for I have hardly any) and most importantly I was sure my kids would love it.

The Let’s Get stuffed Event ~~Pasta Stuffed in Capsicum

   

I write this post with mixed feelings.

Elated as I have achieved the 100 followers mark. Starting from an anonymous blogger achieving this peak would not be possible had it not been for you my friends. A Big thanks to all of you!!

The fact that I have hardly received any entries for my event the Lets Get Stuffed Event is a big disappointment. Well that’s life!

Here is one of my experiments that was not much of a success. What I did was made pasta in tomato sauce stuffed it in the capsicum.

My husband poor lamb ate it but my kids told me that I better stick to pasta in white sauce only. So that’s that. Personally I love all my creations so this was good but not good enough.  I am open to suggestions on this.

 Ingredients:

 ¼ cup oil

½ tsp hing/asafoetida

1 cup chopped basil

2 tsp dried oregano

6 cups tomato puree  

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp black pepper

1 tsp sugar

2 tblspn tomato ketchup

250 grms of any pasta you like I used fettuccine

250 grms paneer or tofu, cubed

8 capsicums

Olive oil+ 1 tsp

Method:

1.     To make the tomato puree, wash and cut a small cross at the stalk of the tomato.

2.     Drop the tomato in hot water for about 10-15 minutes. Then peel and discard the skin grind the rest of the tomato. Set aside.

3.     Heat the oil add hing/asafoetida add the basil leaves and oregano fry for about ½ a minute.

4.     Add the tomato puree, stir and bring to a boil.

5.     Add the rest of the ingredients and reduce heat.

6.     Simmer till the mixture thickens.

7.     Next boil the pasta as per the instructions on the packet. 

8.     Cool under running water and then toss in olive oil.  Keep aside.

9.     Cut the capsicum and clean the insides.

10.  In 1 tsp of olive oil add salt and the oregano. Apply to the capsicum inside. Let this rest till your sauce is ready.

11.  Once the sauce is ready reserve 1 cup full add the paneer to the rest of the sauce  & pasta and mix well.

12.     Stuff the pasta in the capsicum and grill on in the griller with both the grills on for 15-20 minutes till the paneer is grilled. I need 18 minutes.

1      13.   Before serving top the capsicum with the reserved sauce.

Sending this to my event the The Lets Get Stuffed Event started by Vatsala of Show and Tell!!