Paneer Butter Masala

Sometimes, it is easy to replicate a dish by just tasting it in a restaurant. Sometimes even with the recipe, it is difficult to replicate it. Paneer Butter Masala is a dish which even restaurants fail to prepare properly. A little compromise in the procedure gets magnified as flaws in the taste. Recently I came across a perfect recipe on the internet which even beat hi-fi chefs' recipes. I followed it and it turned out perfect - the best PBM we have ever had in our life - a masterpiece. Presenting it with pride:

Ingredients:

1. Paneer - 200 grams chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
2. Tomatoes - 2 large or 3 medium-sized.
3. Onion - 2 medium-sized - chopped into big pieces.
4. Ginger - 1 inch cube
5. Garlic - 4-5 pods
6. Cashewnuts - 10-12
7. Green chilly - 1 small, slit lengthwise
8. Bay leaf - 1
9. Fresh cream - 50g (Amul fresh cream is a good choice)
10. Butter - 75g
11. Oil - 1 tbsp.
12. Milk - 1 tbsp.
13. Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp.
14. Dhania powder - 1 tsp.
15. Jeera powder - 1/4 tsp.
16. Clove-cinnamon powder - 1/4 tsp.
17. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp.
18. Kesari powder (orange colour) - 1/8 tsp.
19. Kasoori methi - 1/2 tsp.
20. Salt - as per taste.
21. Sugar - 1 pinch

Procedure:

1. Grind together onions, ginger and garlic to a fine paste.
2. Blanch and peel the tomatoes and puree them. ( I pureed the tomatoes directly without peeling)
3. Soak cashewnuts in milk for 10 minutes and grind them together finely.
4. In a pan, heat 50 grams of butter and 1 tbsp. oil. Add the slit green chilli, bay leaf and onion paste. Fry properly on medium flame while continuously stirring for 6-8  minutes till the raw smell of onions is gone and the paste forms a single blob as you stir and it leaves the sides of the pan like halwa. Do not hurry to the next step until this is done.
5. To this add the tomato puree and keep stirring on medium flame or high flame for 12- 15 minutes again till the paste leaves the sides of the pan as a single blob and the oil separates out. It is very important to stir the paste till it leaves the sides of the pan like halwa. The secret of PBM lies in this step.
6. Add all the dry masala to this - red chilli powder, dhania powder, jeera powder, clove-cinnamon powder, turmeric powder, salt and sugar. Add a little water ( around 100 ml.) and stir well and bring to a boil. 
7. Switch off the flame, add kasoori methi, kesari powder dissolved in 1 tbsp. of water, cashew paste, fresh cream and paneer pieces. Stir well.
8. Heat again on medium flame till it comes to a boil. Switch off and garnish with the remaining butter which will melt upon adding to the gravy.
9. Serve with rotis.

Brown Sugar Cookies

The butter cookies recipe which I posted earlier (one of my earliest posts in this blog) is a recipe which I follow exactly. But there are times when you do not have all the ingredients and you try to make something worthwhile using the ingredients you have. This is one such experimental recipe. I must confess that the measurements here are just approximate. There was a little brown sugar leftover from the blondies, so used them up.  Also there was no butter available, so used ghee instead. Again, I didn't want to use too much ghee, so I used a little milk for binding the dough together.

Ingredients:

1. Flour - Atta or Maida - 1 cup ( 200 ml)
2. Brown sugar - 1/3 cup ( More brown sugar will make the cookies gooey)
3. Powdered sugar - 1/3 cup
4. Ghee/melted butter - 1/3 cup
5. Milk - 2-3 tsp.
6. Baking soda - 1/4 tsp.
7. Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp.

Procedure:

1. Sieve together flour and baking soda.
2. In a bowl mix the flour,  brown sugar, powdered sugar, ghee, vanilla essence and mix well.
3. The dough will be coarse and will not bind together. Add very little milk, just enough to bind together the flour. The dough should not be pasty and should not stick to fingers when rolled. If it is pasty, add a little more flour and knead.
4. Preheat the oven at 200 degrees C.
5. Make small balls (like for chapatis) out of the dough and flatten them lightly like patties (around 1&1/2 inch diameter).
6. Place them on a baking tray with space for expansion (cookies can double in diameter and flatten out a little) and bake for 12-15 minutes at 200 degrees C. till the edges turn brown.
7. Cool the cookies in open air. Once they cool, they will become crisp (unless of course the amount of brown sugar is high, in which case they can be enjoyed as gooey cookies).

This measurement made around 25 cookies and took 3 batches of baking.

Lauki ki sabzi

Lauki or bottle-gourd is a tasteless vegetable. Infamous for being one of the most boring vegetables with a lot of household jokes being cracked about it ( remember the Cadbury's Dairy Milk ad??) , it is predominantly made in the northern parts of India as a side-dish for rotis. But being tasteless renders it as a versatile vegetable which assumes the taste of the masala it is cooked in.
It has never been made by my mother or mother-in-law all these years, but it recently made its entry into our kitchen after my delivery. It is considered helpful for lactation and hence the other name dhoodi.
Like the fate of all gourd vegetables, lauki made its way into becoming kootus all these days, when the tongue demanded a change in taste. I rummaged through the net to find a simple recipe using this vegetable, and here it is.

Ingredients:

1. Lauki/Soraikai - 250 g ( chopped into 1/2 inch cubes)
2. Onion - 1 large ( chopped finely)
3. Tomato - 1 large ( chopped finely)
4. Oil - 1 tbsp.
5. Ghee - 1 tsp. 
6. Jeera - 1/2 tsp.
7. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp.
8. Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp.
9. Dhania powder - 1 tsp.
10. Jeera powder - 1/2 tsp.
11. Asafoetida powder - 1/4 tsp.
12. Salt - to taste

Procedure:

1. In a cooker, heat oil + ghee and temper with jeera seeds.
2. Add all the masala ( jeera, turmeric, dhania, chilli, hing) powders to this and fry lightly.
3. Add chopped onions and fry till they turn golden brown.
4. Add chopped tomatoes and cook till the tomatoes are tender.
5. Add chopped lauki and mix well with the onion-tomato masala.
6. Add little water ( around 1/2 cup; not too much since lauki leaves water) and salt and pressure cook for 3 whistles.
7. Open the cooker and mix well. If there is excess water, cook without lid till desired consistency is reached.
8. Serve with rotis.

Matar Paneer

Ingredients:

1. Fresh shelled peas - 200 g.
2. Paneer ( diced into 1/2 inch cubes) - 200 g
3. Tomatoes - 2-3 large (pureed)
4. Onions - 1 large ( very finely chopped)
5. Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp.
6. Jeera - 1/2 tsp.
7. Bay leaf - 1
8. Jeera powder - 1/2 tsp.
9. Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp.
10. Dhania powder - 1 tsp.
11. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp.
12. Clove-cinnamon powder - 1/4 tsp.
13. Salt - to taste
14. Fresh cream - 1 tbsp.
15. Oil - 6 tsp.
16. Ghee - 2 tsp.
17. Finely chopped coriander leaves - 2 tsp.

Procedure:

1. In a kadai, heat oil + ghee. Ghee is for flavoring. You can use ghee alone instead of oil if you want a richer flavor.
2. Temper with jeera seeds. Add bay leaf, ginger-garlic paste and clove-cinnamon powder and fry gently for a few seconds.
3. Add chopped onions and saute till they become translucent.
4. Add the peas and saute on low flame till they are tender. The peas should get cooked in oil. 
5. Add the tomato puree to this. Add chilli powder, dhania powder, jeera powder, turmeric powder, salt. Keep boiling till the raw smell of tomato is gone.
6. Add the paneer pieces to this gravy and cook for a few more minutes so that the paneer pieces absorb the masala. Add a little water if necessary while cooking.
7. Add fresh cream, mix well and remove from flame when the gravy is of the right consistency.
8. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with rotis.