Nawabi Paneer

Nawabi Paneer 

Some dishes are celebratory dishes and this Nawabi Paneer which I make for special draws heavily from Nawabi chicken. It is a rich decadent creamy nutty gravy and is fit for the royalty indeed .

I made this when my mother-in-law's visit almost came to an end and since she loved it as did my husband and brother-in-law I am sharing this extremely easy recipe.

Serves 3 to 4

1 litre full cream milk
1.5 tbsp vinegar diluted with 2 tbsp water

2 tsp ginger garlic paste
Onion paste made from 1 medium sized onion and 2 green chilies
50gm cashew nuts
1/4th of a coconut
1.5 inch cinnamon
1 large bay leaf
2 cloves
Pinch of saffron soaked in 2 tbsp milk
Pinch of nutmeg
2 blades of mace
1 tbsp crumbled khoya (In case one doesn't have khoya one can use 1/2 cup cream)
Salt as per taste

2 heaped tsp ghee

Start by making your paneer. Simply bring the milk to a boil and then lower heat and add the diluted vinegar and wait for 5 minutes for the paneer to form. You know its done when the white paneer clumps flat around in a green liquid called the whey. Switch off the gas and cover and leave for 5 minutes and then strain the paneer in a cheesecloth or muslin cloth and reserve the whey . Hang the cheesecloth for 15 minutes and then press it on a flat surface to make a slab with the cloth around it and place a plate on top and a mortar and pestle or a heavy book on the plate and leave for 45 minutes. You will have the softest paneer ready to be used.

Soak the khoya, cashewnuts and coconut in 1/2 cup reserved whey while the paneer is being made. Soak the saffron in the milk.

Now make a smooth paste of the ginger and garlic and then reserve it and make a smooth paste of onion and green chilies with 1 tbsp of reserved whey. Make a smooth paste of the soaked khoya, cashew nuts and coconut. Use extra whey if required.

Heat the ghee and saute the ginger garlic paste and then add the bay leaf and the onion paste and saute till the raw smell goes away and add the cinnamon after crushing it well and then add the crushed cloves. Now add the Khoya cashewnut coconut paste and mix well and add 1/4th cup whey and bring to a slow boil and add salt  , crushed mace and the nutmeg and the paneer and then simmer covered for 5 minutes to 7 minutes. make sure you check from time to time and give it a stir if it shows sign of sticking to the bottom of the wok. Once done the gravy should be velvety smooth and thick but not extremely  dry. Add the saffron , mix well and serve with hot rice.

Paneer Butter Masala

Paneer Butter Masala 

I usually like trying out different versions of the same dish so that I might eventually find a recipe which suits my taste buds perfectly. Such was the case with Paneer Butter Masala also known as Paneer Makhani. Lets face it the name itself suggests it must have copious amount of butter but then the recipes I have had till date did have butter and a lot of ingredients yet there was something which was missing.

Now Butter and I go long back. My Dima 'maternal grandmother' would always compliment the Punjabis due to their use of butter in most dishes. All throughout my growing up years I was fed a meal of hot steaming rice with a good 50gm of butter and numerous boiled and mashed vegetables. Lucky for me my parents had got me admitted to swimming and till I  was involved in some pretty heavy exercise which kept my weight in check. Anyway coming back to the dish, now I know that everyone wants to be healthy and that's great. In fact on any regular day you'l find me with a bowl of steamed vegetables or a raw salad and some boiled egg or poached chicken but when it comes to certain dishes you cannot just try and make them healthy. It takes away the entire essence of the dish. Exercising and balancing your diet on every other day is how you stay healthy not by trying to make a dish named Butter Masala healthy.

Anyway back to the recipe. I had discovered the lovely robust chef Harpal Singh's videos quite by chance and after my tremendous success with his Kadhi I naturally knew whom to turn to for the Paneer Butter Masala. So here goes the recipe. I did use homemade paneer and believe me when I say that once you have made homemade paneer there is no looking back. You can use store bought paneer if you are not much inclined to making your own paneer .

Chef Harpal Singh Sokhi's Paneer Butter Masala

Serves 3

For the paneer :-

1.5 litre full cream milk
1.5 tbsp vinegar diluted with 2 tbsp water or 2 cups leftover whey

For the tomato gravy

6 medium sized tomatoes roughly chopped
6 green cardamom
3 blades of mace
100gm butter
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 cup fresh cream (I used Amul Cream but do use double cream if you have access to it )
Salt as per taste
1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp Kashmiri chili powder

For the final gravy

Ginger the size of half your little finger cut into julienne
2 green chilies de-seeded and cut julienne
1/2 tbsp butter
The freshly made tomato gravy

The final paneer made at home 

Start by making the paneer. Simply bring the milk to a roaring boil and then add the diluted vinegar or whey and lower the temperature and let the milk for the cheese and when you see the green coloured whey with the cheese floating around switch off the stove and cover and keep for 5 minutes . Strain the cheese but reserve the whey and tie the cheese in a cheesecloth or muslin cloth and drain it for 15 minutes to 20 minutes and then flatten it out with the cloth and put in on a plate and put another plate on top with a mortar and pestle or a heavy book on the plate and leave for 1 hour or so. Cut the slab into cubes and there you go , you have soft fresh paneer.

Store the whey in the refrigerator for future use. If you knead your dough for chapatis with whey the chapatis turn out extra soft, used in vegetable curries it enhances the flavour and if used for the next batch of paneer you will get the softest paneer ever.

Final tomato gravy 

Now start off with your tomato gravy. Melt 1 tbsp butter and add the chopped tomatoes and cook over medium to low flame till its mushy (covering and cooking gives faster results) and add the mace and cardamom and cook till it forms a paste and add the Kashmiri chili powder , add salt and cook for another minute . Let it cool down and blend it smooth .

Now mince the garlic. Melt 1 tbsp butter and saute the garlic and add the tomato paste and cook of medium flame , stirring continuously for 3 minutes and add 75gm butter and mix well and cook for 1 minute and add half a cup of cream and cook on low flame for another 2 minutes and your tomato base is ready.

Now melt 1 tbsp butter and saute ginger chopped julienne and the green chilies and add the paneer cubes and saute well. When the paneer turns golden add the tomato gravy and mix well and simmer for 3 minutes and serve with hot chapati or butter nan or Basmati rice.

Chanar Dalna

Chanar Dalna 

During my late teenage years when I finally decided to  venture into Bengali cuisine in the kitchen I started with Bengali vegetarian dishes all because of my maternal grandmother whom I call dima. Dima is the loving way I address my maternal grandmother (generally maternal grandmothers are called didima) Before I move on to the recipe I must share with you my nostalgia. A woman who measured with her eyes and created charming dishes, the one whose condescension seemed adorable, the one who refused to be confined to the kitchens and would travel every weekend till she fell down and broke her hip in 1996. At 93 years today she is an old frail woman in her body but she still roars like a lioness which well doesn't scare her equally ferocious daughter but it makes sure she has the last say in matters which concern her. I decided to share a heritage recipe for Chanar dalna.

Between my two grandmothers my paternal grandmother would try and make an array of dishes in the kitchen but quite honestly she is a better teacher (she used to teach in a school) than a cook while my other grandmother was the magician. She was openly critical of her daughters' cooking, my mother hardly cooks and her other daughter is also not particularly fond of the kitchen. Her one term for things which did not meet her standards were termed 'bhyajals' (adulterated) and she was openly partial to both her children and granddaughters. I have always been the apple of her eye and while growing up  have spent all  the weekends at her home and would usually be fed ghee (clarified laden) dishes and when in my teenage years I would sulk and say it is too fattening she gave me the term 'fancy'.

It was only in my years in college when I suddenly realized the woman who didn't care much about the kitchen as her contemporaries yet produced these lip smacking dishes following the traditional way of cooking yet not measuring should go directly in a diary. I bought a diary and noted down a few of her recipes. When I asked for measurements she was outright enraged and told me, 'if you want to be a good cook why will you steal my measurements?' Well till I started writing for my blog my motto while cooking was to measure with my eyes till I realized the importance of sharing the precise measurement with my readers.

You see I have a special relationship with my dima which goes beyond the kitchen. Her outright fussiness and partiality made her well not too adored but how can I not consider myself lucky that I am one of the few people she would trust enough to gossip with , where she would talk about everything under the sun. As a result I virtually know things which even her daughters do not . She would openly complain to me about how her other granddaughters do not visit her . That they are much more elder than me and has kids and live far away were not reason enough for her. That I visited her weekly because I stay within a kilometer is of no concern of her's.

She was the only one who was happy when I ballooned up during my wedding from my thin self and is now not too happy to see me make an effort to loose weight. Even though I do not like my puffed up terrible self in this picture I will treasure this one for life.

My greatest achievement in the kitchen was when , dima who is critical of everyone's dishes except my mimi's( which should be another story) told me my 'Chanar Dalna' was 'just like it should be' . Well my mimi is my maternal uncle's wife who is a brilliant cook and though dima has seldom openly appreciated her she has told me on numerous occasions how she loves her cooking and hoe 'my daughter-in -the law is the rea cook and your mother and aunt are mad women' . I am incidentally close to both women (dima and mimi) and am glad that both of them did guide me with Bengali cuisine. For my dima  a vegeterian dish seizes to be one if onion and garlic is added but this dish with all its flavours is sure to find a place in your heart.

This recipe is an amalgamated one which uses my dima's and Mimi's recipe so while I cook it in pure ghee because anything else is 'bhyajal' as per my dima I use my Mimi's technique for making the chena (the cottage cheese which is the base of the dish)

Incidentally both women uses the same recipe and I know for a fact it is a heritage recipe since my mimi who is already on the other side of 65 years uses her mother's recipe who follow her mother and a recipe whcih was followed by a 93 year old woman surely is a heritage recipe . So I am proud that I have access to this particular recipe. It is slightly sweet, milky and heavenly in taste.

To make the Chena / Paneer / Cottage cheese

Serves 4

1.5 litres of full cream milk
Juice from 1.5 lemon diluted with previously stored whey/ buttermilk/ warm water

Simply bring the milk to a boil , simmer it and then add the diluted juice (lemon + liquid) this diluting of the juice makes sure  you get the softest of cottage cheese. Wait till you see the chena forming and the water turning olive green and then turn off the stove and then put a lid on the container and wait for 5 minutes. Now collect the chena in a muslin cloth or cheese cloth but reserve the whey. Tie the cloth with the chena inside  and wash it with drinking water and then carefully squeeze out the water and flatten it and keep a dish on top of it and then place a lightweight stone bowl or a book on top. Do not use a very heavy item else your chena will come out hard. Wait for 15 minutes to 20 minutes and cut into cubes. If left for too long the chana turns hard.

For the Chanar dalna :-

Serves 4

The freshly prepared chena
1 small to medium sized tomato made into a fine paste
4 cups of whey (cups which hold 210ml of water)
2 tsp Smooth ginger cumin green chili paste with 1 inch ginger, half a tsp cumin seeds and 2 green chilies
1 inch cinnamon
Pinch of hing
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 cloves
2 green cradamom
1 large bay leaf /tej patta
Salt as per taste
Sugar 2 tsp
2 tbsp clumped up ghee + extra if required
1 large potato cubed into bite sized cubes smaller than the chena
1/4th tsp turmeric
2 whole green chili
Tiny pinch of garam masala

Melt the ghee and fry the chena in batches and soak it in the whey to keep it soft. Once you are done with all the chena lightly fry the potato cubes and keep in another dish.

Now if your potato has soaked up all the ghee which it usually doesn't add some more ghee and add the hing and when it splutters add the cumin seeds and then add the ginger cumin chili paste and keep stirring. Add the bay leaf, cloves after you crush them a bit, green cardamom post crushing, cinnamon post crushing and then when well sauteed add the tomato paste and stir it and fry it on medium flame till the oil separates and then add 2 cups of whey and bring to a boil and add salt and turmeric and simmer and add the potatoes. Now bring to a boil again and then simmer covered till potatoes are well cooked. Once you potatoes are fully cooked add 2 more cups of whey and bring to a boil and add sugar and  carefully add the pieces of chena and bring to a boil and simmer without a lid for 10 minutes. The gravies from Bengal aren't very thick so it should not be thickened with any agent or dried up. Once done transfer on to a serving bowl and then use 1 tbsp water and bring it to a quick boil , what you will get is some  foam and drop in two slit green chilies while constantly stirring it with a spatula and use the spatula to get the stuck wet spices and then pour it on the bowl containing the dish . Your wok will be clean and you will not leave out any spice stuck with the wok.  Enjoy this classic dish with plain basmati rice or try the classic Ghee Bhat.

Palak Paneer (Indian cottage cheese in spinach curry)

While washing chopping and prepping today I was taken back to a hot summer's evening earlier this year. My husband is a solar site engineer and so while I had visited him at site in Haryana we were invited by one of his juniors to dine with his family in the near-by village. While the initial thoughts regarding that day makes me find it hilarious, such as the young man telling me I should not take my husband's name and how I looked an appropriate wife in a churidar and hoe covering the head brings good luck. Most other days when he would come back with Arvind, I would be in trousers and a cotton overcoat. While I do believe in when in Rome do as the Romans do the idea of suffocating in the heat of June under a scarf was impossible. The family was wonderful and to be fair ti was the most delicious of meals I have ever had. The paneer and dal were exquisite , in no other restaurant of Delhi or Haryana have I tasted that good a dish, rather two dishes. I am naturally fond of clarified butter and it was my day. My remembrance of that day is more focused on the little girl I met in that household. Aged about 9 she was fascinated with this "sheherwali" , head uncovered, wearing a hint of lipstick and after the initial shyness remained attached to me throughout the visit. I guess children across borders in all states and nations are the same. They are full of questions, speak really fast when excited and are intrigued by anything which is different form their surroundings. In our 2 hour long conversation I did learn that her favourite subject was geography and that she loved "palak paneer" "Mujhe na palak paneer bohot hee pasand hai" (i just love palak paneer) (A beautiful curry made with cottage cheese and spinach) , what i do also distinctly remember is her telling me that she hates the kitchen and hates the idea of cooking. While I was craving palak paneer I could not but remember this little girl and could not help hoping that she never is pushed into the kitchen unless she expressly wants to. Here is remembering  you little girl , here is hoping that you travel the world and here is hoping you do whatever your heart wants you to do. With Amrit ji's recipe for palak paneer , cooked in clarified butter alone and chapatis with ghee on top this is an evening to remember. Here is to winters and all little girls and hoping they never are pushed into this activity that we all love against their will.

Anyways for those of us who do love cooking here is the recipe. Start by making the paneer. Its all in a  day's work.

For the paneer:

1 litre of whole milk
1 tbsp vinegar diluted with 1 tbsp water / 1 cup leftover whey

Bring the milk to a roaring boil and add the diluted vinegar or whey  . You shall see the cottage cheese forming in front of your eyes and when the whey has completely separated and you can see white clusters floating about in green water , turn off stove and cover and wait for 5 to 7 minutes. Then transfer everything to a clean thin cloth with a bowl underneath it to collect the whey and drain the water for not more than 10 minutes and then use a big flat bowl to transfer the content and press it down to a slab and then put a weight.

Now here is a trick. Many people use the "sil" of sil-nora. A slab of stone with an oval stone shaped object for grinding but while usign that would make yield set paneer it will be ahrd and we do not want our cottage cheese to be hard so press down with another plate and use something like a stone bowl or a heavy book, not one that can be thrown to injure people wink wink on top for a couple of hours. This way the paneer is  soft yet set perfectly. So lets say you start makign it at 11 a.m. , you should be done by 3 p.m. or say 4 p.m. Do reserve the water. It dishes a beautiful unmatched flavour to dishes when used.

For the palak paneer. Now I followed the recipe of Amritji but also took help from my over the years collected ones

So you have your :

1 big bunch of palak / spinach
1 heaped tsp to 1.5 tsp ginger garlic paste
Half a tomato
2 small but not tiny sized onions chopped very finely
2 to 4 green chilies
Pinch of bicarbonate of soda
Juice of half a lemon or a bit less.

2 green cardamom
2 cloves
cinnamon
1 tablespoonful to 1.5 tablespoonful of Coriander powder
2 tsp Cumin powder
1 heaped tsp chili powder
Pinch of garam masala
Salt as per taste
Clarified butter about 5 to 6 tablespoon

Start by first thoroughly washing the spinach /palak leaves. The bets way to make certain that you get all the dirt is immersing them in a big bowl of water and washing them with your hands while changing the water twice or thrice or a greater number of times. Now palak is a leafy vegetable with high water content, so you need not add too much of water. Do add a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to ensure that the green colour is maintained. In the meantime make a course paste of ginger and garlic, chop the onions as finely as possible and blend half the tomato.

Now blend you cooked spinach to a smooth paste. Add the chilies when blending and if you cannot handle so much heat just leave the chilies out.

Keep a bowl of warm water ready, I usually use the leftover water from the spinach. Cube the paneer and saute in clarified butter till golden but not beyond that and add them to the warm water. this step ensures that they stay soft and beautiful. Take some clarified butter and add your onions, saute till translucent. Add the garlic ginger paste and cook till done but not browned or worse burnt. Add the spices after smashing them with a mortar and then add the tomato and a wee bit of the spinach water to make a thick paste and add the coriander and cumin powder.  Now remember that too much cooking of spinach makes them loose colour. So add the spinach and bring to a  quick boil and then simmer and quickly add the paneer and  mix real well and add a pinch of garam masala and lemon juice with a bit of clarified butter and transfer to a bowl. The lemon juice aids digestion when taking leafy vegetables. Serve with hot flatsbread smeared with clarified butter.

Tip :-

If you have leftover whey from a previous paneer making session store it in the refrigerator and use it to make paneer the following time you are making it by bring the milk to a roaring boil and adding 1 cup of whey per litre of milk. It takes a bit of time to form the cheese but it gives the softest cheese ever