Paneer Shashlik

The first time I ate Paneer Shashlik in a restaurant, I was really excited... Grilled, crispy Paneer along with other grilled veggies decorated on a bed of aromatic basmati rice and the bright red sweetish tangy sauce. The whole thing was served on a beautiful fresh cabbage leaf....what a great sizzler it was! I never thought that I would make such recipes at home. Last week, I tried my best to make a homemade version of it. It tasted good though the sizzling sound was missing...

Ingredients

Rice - 2 cups

Onion sliced - 1

Cloves - 3 to 4

Bay leaves - 2

Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Oil - 3 tbspn

Dip for the grilled paneer

Curd - 1 cup

Garam Masala - 2 tbspn

Ginger and Green chillies paste

For the sauce

Onions - 3 -4

Garlic- 5 flakes

Ginger- 1 small piece

Tomatoes- 3-4

Soya Sauce - 2 tsp

Tomato sauce - 2 -3 tbspn

Chilli Sauce - 2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Oil - 5 tbspns

Paneer - 200 g cut into cubes

Capsicum - 1 cut into 8

Tomato- 1 cut into 8

Procedure

1. Soak the rice for 1/2 hour in cold water

2. Heat oil in a cooker and add onions, bay leaves and cloves and fry till golden brown.

3. Add salt, water and cook the rice till it is done.I add water in the proportion of 1: 1 for basmati rice and allow 2 whistles in the cooker.

4. Spread the cooked rice in a tray so that the rice is fluffed up and separated.

5. Grind onions, ginger and garlic to a paste.

6. Blend the tomatoes.

7. Heat oil in a kadai and add the onion paste and cook till golden brown.

8. Now add the tomato paste and fry till the oil separates.

9. Add some water to make the sauce into pouring consistency.

10. Add the readymade sauces and salt and mix well and cook for another 7 mins.

11. Mix all the ingredients for the dip and coat the paneer, capsicum and tomatoes with it and pierce it into the skewers and grill it in the oven for 10 mins.

12. To serve, spread the hot rice in a rice dish.

13. Decorate it with the sauce and the grilled paneer.

Enjoy the wonderful feast..!

Double Beans Pulao with Mirchi Ka Salan

I Know that its been a long time and some people are very good at giving excuses!!!! I thought that I've got some good reasons to start off again after the summer vacation...Pranav's school has started which means more time for myself and one more good reason is that we've a new and better camera. I'm sure the clarity of pictures are going to be much better...with the Cannon Digital camera.

I made this Double Beans pulao and Mirchi ka Salan for lunch and I can assure you that its a good combination. Try it out and give me your comments.

Double Beans Pulao
Ingredients
Basmati Rice / Jeera Rice 1 ½ cups
Whole Spices( Bay leaves, green cardamom, black cardamom, cloves, cinnamon)
Kasuri methi – 2 tablespoons
Fresh Double beans – 1 ½ cups
Onions – 2 sliced
Green chillies – 2 slit
Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
Beaten curd – ½ cup
Ghee /Oil – 3 tablespoons

Procedure
Wash and soak the rice for 20 mins.
In a cooker, add ghee and oil and add the whole spices, kasuri methi, turmeric powder and onions and saute’ for 5 mins till the onions are translucent.
Add the beaten curd and stir for a few more mins.
Mix in the double beans, rice and water. I added 1 ½ cups of water, i.e in the proportion of 1:1. No extra water is required as no vegetables are added.
Close the cooker and switch off after 2 whistles.
Open after 15 mins and an aromatic Double Beans Pulao is ready!

Note: If you do not have fresh double beans, please soak them overnight.

Mirchi Ka Salan
This is a nice side dish for Pulao or Biryani if you are tired of the raitas. The gravy is also quite different from the normal onion tomato based gravies. There’s nothing to panic seeing the name as it is non spicy. Try it to believe it!!

Ingredients
Green Chillies – 10 slit slightly and deseeded –this takes away the spice. We can use the normal green chillies or the big ones based on availability.
Tamarind paste – 2 cups from lemon sized tamarind

For the masala
Groundnuts – one handful
White Til seeds – one handful
Corriander seeds – 1 ½ tablespoon
Jeera – ½ tsp
Coconut -1 handful
Onions – 2

Procedure
Dry roast all the ingredients individually except onions, coconut and jeera.
Fry the onions in a little oil till light brown and grind all the masala ingredients into a smooth paste. There is no need to roast jeera and coconut.
Heat oil in a kadai and add the green chillies and fry for a while till they change colour.
Add the tamarind paste and allow it to boil for 5 mins.
Add the ground masala and stir continuously for another 3-5 mins.
The Mirchi ka Salan is ready to be served. You can garnish it with coriander leaves if you wish..

Enjoy this wonderful combination…!