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Thursday, December 12, 2013

Chenna Matar (Odisha style Matar Paneer)

Green peas are very much in season. Yes, they are harvested in the winters and frozen for use throughout the year. Most of us who shop at supermarkets tend to miss out on these details and assume that most vegetables are harvested and hence available throughout the year. Here is a delicious curry prepared from fresh green peas. A variant of the Matar-Paneer that most people from North are really fond of, this one substitutes the Panner cubes with fried 'chenna balls'. However I am not naming it 'Chenna-Matar' instead of 'Matar-Chenna' as the Chenna turned out to be the star of this home production. The soft succulent 'melt in the mouth' balls floating in an light aromatic gravy interspersed with tender green peas make for an unforgettable gastronomic journey. Read on for the recipe:

















Preparation time - 50 mins

Ingredients - whole milk ( 1 litre ), sour curd ( 1/2 cup ), maida ( 1 tsp, heaped ), finely chopped onion ( 1 no., large ), shelled green peas ( 2 cups ), ginger garlic paste ( 1 1/2 tsp ), tomato puree ( 6 tbs ), whole spices ( 1 cardamon, 2 cloves, 2 inch long cinnamon stick, 1 bay leaf ), soy sauce ( few drops, optonal), sugar ( 1 tsp ), turmeric ( 1/2 tsp ), red chilli powder ( 1 tsp ), cumin powder ( 1 tsp), coriander powder ( 1 tsp ), salt to taste, sufficient oil for shallow/deep frying.

Preparation -

To prepare chenna - Bring milk to a boil. Add the sour curd and wait for a few minutes till the milk soilds separate from whey. The whey should have a clear apperance at this point. If not add more curd and boil for another 5 mins.

Once all the solids separate, strain the chenna using a fine cloth or even a strainer with very fine mesh. Allow to stand for sometime till excess water is drained.

Take the chenna in a vessel/mixing bowl and add the maida. Crumble and knead the chenna to remove lumps and it just comes togather into a soft dough ( takes abt 5-6 mins, do not overdo the kneading ). Pinch small lumps out of the dough and shape into balls. These balls can either be shallow fried or deep fried.

Cooking: Heat sufficient oil in a wok. Put one ball into the wok and test if it holds togather. If yes, add the remaining balls into the wok and fry them to a brown color on medium heat. (If it starts to crumble/break, add little more maida to the chenna dough and knead for another 2-3 mins.)

Once the balls are fried, keep them aside and drain the excess oil from the wok.

Put the whole spices into the remaining oil in the wok and stir fry for 30 seconds. Add the chopped onion and saute on low flame till light brown ( abt 6-7 mins to allow the sugar in the onion to start caramelizing ). At this stage add the sugar and allow it to melt. Once the sugar melts, it gives a deep brown color to the onion. Sprinkle the soy sauce at this point.

Aded ginger garlic sauce and stir fry for 2-3 minutes till its raw smell goes away. Pour in the tomato puree and cook for another 2 minutes.

Add green peas and stir fry for 7-8 minutes.

Now add turmeric, chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and salt. Roast the masalas for 1-2 mins.

Add about 2-3 cups of water and bring to boil. Allow water to reduce to 2/3rd.

Put in the fried chenna balls and simmer on medium flame for 2 minutes. Cover with lid and switch off the flame. Allow to stand for 5-10 minutes.

Serve Hot.









Sending this to Cooking With Green:



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