Shahi Paneer

Shahi Paneer

My daughter has discovered her love for all things Paneer, which is quite a relief since my husband is not very fond of paneer and I felt bad making paneer just because I like it. Now I can use her as an excuse to make paneer at least once a week.

But with great power comes great responsibilities..now what was that for? Anyways all I wanted to say was since I now make paneer more regularly I needed to find more recipes to try out. Typing paneer into google search put up quite a few options but this recipe of Sanjeev Kapoor caught my fancy maybe beacuse it was different from the usual red/orange gravies that I make for paneer

I tried it out and felt this recipe is a keeper. So I am reproducing the recipe here with my few changes:

Shahi Paneer


Serves : 4

Shahi Paneer

Ingredients:

Paneer/Cottage Cheese - 200gms
Onion - 2 quartered, boiled and ground to paste
Cloves - 2
Peppercorns - 6
Bay Leaf - 1
Cinnamon - 2 inch
Green Chillies - 2 slit long
Ginger-garlic paste - 3/4 tsp
Kitchen King Masala - 1tsp
Cashewnut - 10 soaked and ground to paste
Dahi/Curd/Yogurt - 1/2 C
Cream/Milk - 1/4 C
Saffron - A pinch to be soaked in the above cream/milk
Cardamom Powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - To taste
Oil - 1 tbsp

To make

1. Cut Paneer into bite size pieces - cubes/rectangle/triangle - and let soak in warm water

2. Heat oil, add the dry masala - cloves, cinnamon,peppercorn and bayleaf. When fragrant add in the slit green chillies. Follow it with the boiled onion paste. Cook for 2-3 minutes till the raw smell disappears.

3. Add the ginger-garlic paste and cook till the raw smell is gone.

4. Add the kitchen king masala and cook for 1 minute. Add in the curd and and cook till the mixture is dry.

5. Add the cashew paste, saffron induced milk/cream, paneer(without the water) and salt to taste.

6. Cook in low heat for 2 mins. Top off with cardamom powder and take off the heat.

Preparation Time : 15 mins
Cooking Time : 15 mins


Notes & Deviations :

1. Soaking paneer in warm water reduces cooking time and helps add in the paneer into the gravy at the last
    moment.

2. Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe doesn't ask for Kitchen King. He suggests Garam Masala. However, since we
    are using whole masala and the cardamom powder I didnt want to use garam masala as well. Adding
    Kitchen King brings in a slight colour change but I love the flavour it imparts

3. If you think the cream/milk could curdle, you may add the same after taking the curry off the heat.

4. Take care not to brown the onion paste or any other ingredients so that the curry would be white/cream in
    colour



Make this dish to add a new colour and taste to your dining table. It will add the royal touch that the name promises.

Jalebi Garma Garam!!

Garam garam Jalebi! was chosen for Srivalli's Indian Cooking Challenge.

Who can ever resist a plate of hot Jalebis especially when you have such an easy and versatile recipe with you.

Ingredients in the recipe was what you could find in your pantry any day, so I didn't bother to even check the availability. But when I decided to get going, I realised I was short of a crucial ingredient. But this recipe is so forgiving, even with the variations I had some gorgeous jalebis at hand or rather in my mouth.




Jalebi

Makes : 24

Ingredients

For Jalebi
All purpose flour/Maida - 1C+3 tbsp
Cornflour - 3 tbsp
Food Colour - 1/2tsp (Optional)
Yogurt/Curd - 1C
Oil - 1tbsp heated
Lemon Juice - 1 tsp

For Sugar Syrup
Sugar - 1C
Water - 1/2C

Oil for deep frying


To Make

1. Mix all the ingredients for Jalebi into a thick batter.

2. Leave overnight to ferment.

3. Once fermented fill into a clean thick plastic packet or squeezable ketchup
bottle. If packet, cut a small hole for batter to flow out

3. Prepare Sugar Syrup by boiling the sugar and water till sugar is melted. Keep Warm

4. Heat oil till about medium heat. Pour out the batter into interconnecting
concentric circles.


5. Turn over. Allow each side to cook for about a minute.

6. When done, take out of oil and let rest for about a minute.



7. Dunk into the warm sugar syrup, soak for about 30 seconds.

8. Take out to serve hot Jalebis.


Preparation Time : 12 hours for fermenting
Cooking Time : 3 min per batch

Notes & Deviations

1. I ran out of cornflour so substitutes the same with custard powder and arrowroot
powder.
2. I used a lot of food colouring to get the store bought Jangiri colour
3. With the quantities I have given, the batter stays thick and you need thick
batter to get the right shape of Jalebi
4. Resting the Jalebis before soaking them helps them retain their shape without
becoming soggy.
5. I used the Gits Jalebi bottle for making the jalebis. It was easy to handle and
very non messy too.



A lovely and easy recipe to make. But be sure to serve it fresh and hot for great compliments!!

Edited to add : Priya wanted to have a look at the Jalebi bottle , so here it is