Palak Paneer ( Cheese in Spinach gravy )

Palak or spinach is one of the most nutrient dense foods available to us in abundance and at an economical rate. Along with a high water content and soluble fibre content, it is loaded with vitamin K, vitamin A, magnesium, folate, manganese, iron, calcium, vitamin C, vitamin B2, potassium, and vitamin B6. It’s a very good source of protein, phosphorus, vitamin E, zinc and copper. Also it’s a good source of selenium, niacin, and Omega-3 fatty acids.

But since it is loaded with pesticides and fertilizers ( common problem with most leafy vegetables as they grow so near to the soil ), one should prefer the organic version whenever possible. I myself buy the 'Gopalan' brand that is stocked by Bigbasket.com.

I try to keep on incorporating it my diet and often come up with new combinations. But today i am sharing a popular and all time favorite recipe 'Palak Paneer'. Read on :

Preparation Time - 15 mins

Ingredients - 350 gm paneer, 1 bunch of spinach ( 2 1/2 - 3 cups ), 2 medium sized onion, 1 1/2 tsp ginger-garlic paste, 1-2 green chillli, 1/2 teaspoon jeera-lanka powder, 1/2 tsp garam masala, 2 tsp Fortune Rice Bran oil, butter, salt to taste, turmeric.

Preparation - Cut the paneer into cubes.

Remove the stems from the spinach and chop roughly. Cut the onions into large pieces.


Cooking - Heat water in a pan. Add salt and turmeric and bring to a boil.

Add paneer cubes and boil for 5-6 minutes. Drain water and keep aside.

Boil fresh water in another pan. Add the spinach leaves and boil for 1-2 minutes. Drain the water and wash in cold water. Keep aside to drain off all the water.

Heat oil in a wok. Add half of the chopped onions and fry to translucent. Add ginger garlic paste and cook for 2 minutes.

Add the green chilli and spinach leaves with salt to taste. Fry for 3-4 minutes.

Transfer to a blender cup, allow to cool down a bit and grind into a smooth paste.


Add some butter to the same wok. Add the remaining onions and fry till translucent. Add the green paste prepared earlier with jeera-lanka powder and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add paneer cubes and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Serve hot with pulao rice/basmati rice/rotis.

Cheese Veggie Strips

Kids love all kinds of fried stuff. Though they are high on calories, i do give in at times and make something for my little one. This time i used some veggies and cheese along with a little seasoning to make these easy snacks. The strips can be made and stored in the fridge for 2-3 days .

Preparation Time - 20-25 minutes

Ingredients - 1 medium sized boiled and peeled potato, 2 tbs finely chopped carrots, 2 tbs finely chopped beans, 2 tbs sweet corn, 1/2 cup grated cheese, 1 tsp grated ginger, 1 tsp finely chopped garlic, 1/2 tsp pepper powder, 1/2 tsp red chilli powder or 1 tsp chilli sauce , salt to taste, 2 tsp finely chopped coriander.

For the outer layer - 1 cup freshly made bread crumbs, 1 tbs cornflour, little cornflour for dusting, salt to taste, oil for shallow frying.

Preparation - Take all the ingredients ( except those for the outer layer ) into a mixing bowl. Mix well and shape into long flat strips.

Take the 1 tbs cornflour and mix it with 3-4 tbs of water. Add a little salt and form a thin batter.

Take the breadcrumbs in a flat plate. ( To make fresh bread crumbs, take 2 slices of bread, cut off the sides and transfer to a food processor. Buzz for 1 second. Fresh breadcrumbs are ready. )

Cooking - Heat the oil in a wok.

Take each strip, dust it with a little cornflour, dip in the thin batter and roll in the breadcrumbs.

Dip in the hot oil and fry till light brown on both sides.

Serve with chilli & tomato sauce.

Panchamrit

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi To All !!! Ganapathi Bappa Moriya!!

Panchamrit can be literally translated as 'five nectars'. It is used as an offering during pooja. After doing the abhisekha with it, it is distribute among the devotees as prasadam.

Preparation time - 5 mins

Ingredients -  2 tsp milk, 2 tsp curd, 1 tsp ghee, 1 tsp honey , 1 tsp jaggery/sugar.

Preparation - Take a clean vessel and add milk, curd, honey and jaggery/sugar. Mix well. Add ghee at the last.

Note - Tulsi leaves can also be added to the above prasadam.

Korua (milk solids ) Ladoo

I usually make ghee at home every month. After cooking the butter and draining off the golden colored liquid ( ghee ), one is left with these brown colored nutty flavored sediments/residue. They are quite nutritious and i almost always end up incorporating them in my meals/snacks/desserts. This time Ganesh Chaturthi being around the corner, i incorporated them into laddoos ( Ganeshji's favorite snack ). This is an easy breezy recipe. Read on:

Preparation Time - 10-15 mins

Ingredients - Milk solids ( 2 cups ), whole wheat flour ( 3/4 - 1 cup ), powdered jaggery ( to taste ).

Preparation - If the milk solids are a little lumpy, freeze them. Take into a grinder cup, buzz for 20-30 seconds and turn into coarse powder.

Cooking - Heat a non-stick vessel on low flame ( i had reused the vessel in which i made the ghee ). Add the milk solids. Fry for 1 minute.

Sprinkle the flour, a little at a time and mix well. The contents of the vessel should look like one whole mass/lump and not powdery ( else the laddoo will not have binding ).

Fry for 5-6 minutes till the flour is roasted.

Add the powdered jaggery, mix thoroughly and cook for 2 minutes.

Remove from flame and allow to cool down till it is bearable to touch.

Take small amounts of the mixture into your palm and shape into balls/laddoos. If they are not binding or too powdery, add 1-2 tsp of melted warm ghee to the mixture.

These laddoos can be stored in the refrigerator for a month.

Khari pakoda

Khari biscuits are a favorite with almost everyone. They are light, airy and wonderfully crispy. I usually serve them to my guests with tea ( yeah i do try to resist them....loaded with butter...u know :) ) and they disapper in minutes. But at times some are left in the cupboard for too long or maybe hubby forgot to close the container properly and they lose their flavor ( no Tupperware/LocknLock works in this case ) . I had been putting those in the dustbin till last week.

But then i heard Ranbir Kapoor singing about 'Khari pakoday' with 'nukkad ki chai' in the promos of his latest flick 'Besharam'. Voila, and a new dish was born. Initially i tried making pakoras with the broken crumbs of khari biscuit and they are ok-ok types. But then i tried to take each biscuit, pull apart the layers and then dip them into the batter individually before frying. I must say these pakoras are wonderfully crisp and totally worth the effort.

Preparation time - 15 mins

Ingredients - Khari biscuits, oil for frying.

For the batter - 4 tbs besan, 1 tsp cornflour, 1/3 tsp jeera-lanka ( cumin-chilli ) powder, 1/3 tsp coriander powder, 1 tsp coriander shoots finely chopped, 1 tsp green chilli finely chopped, salt to taste.

Preparation - Take all the ingredients for batter in a mixing bowl. Add water and make into a paste of medium consistency. Keep aside for 15-20 mins.

Cooking - Heat oil in a wok.

Take each khari biscuit and pull apart into 3-4 layers. Dip each piece into the batter and leave in the oil. Fry till light golden brown. Remove and keep on a tissue to drain excess oil.

Serve hot with tomato sauce and tea.

Drumstick kadhi ( Sajana Chuein kanji )

There used to be a patch of 'Khada Saga' (Amaranth) growing in our vegetable garden during my childhood days. They are perennial plants and one can harvest and eat the leaves and tender stems throughout the year. Once cut, the leaves and stems grow back in a fortnight. But during the summer months, the foliage reduces, the plants shoot up in height and start flowering. It is now time to cut and remove the main stems called 'Khada'. These make a wonderful 'kanjee', a lightly flavoured sour soup and an appetizing raee with badi and saru (colocasia).

Since i havn't been able to source and khada outside Orissa, i turned to using drumsticks for this kanjee. Though the taste is quite different, i quite enjoyed this new recipe.

Preparation Time - 15 mins

Ingredients - 2-3 drumsticks ( chopped in 2" or 3" pieces ), 1/2 cup sour yogurt, 1 tsp besan, 1-2 red chilli, 1 sprig curry leaf, 1/3 tsp mustard seeds, 2 tsp oil, salt to taste, pinch of asafoetida, pinch of turmeric.

Preparation - Lightly beat the yogurt. Add besan and salt and dilute with 1 1/2 cup water.

Cooking - Boil the drumstick with a little salt and turmeric till tender. Drain all the water and keep aside.

Heat the oil in a wok. Add the broken red chilli and mustard seeds followed by the curry leaves and asafoetida. Add the boiled drumstick and fry for 30 seconds.

Reduce the flame and add the besan-yogurt mixture slowly while stirring continuously. Stir for 2-3 minutes and bring to boil. Allow to simmer for 3 minutes.

Serve hot with white rice.

Note - one can also add a touch of mustard garlic paste to the kanjee/kadhi. It gives a wonderful flavor.

Poee Raee

This is my 300th post and such a special occasion is the right time to get the spotlight back on Orissa. When i first started writing this blog my sole objective was to showcase the cuisine and food habits of Orissa. My initial posts do bear a testimony to that. But since we all inhabit a cosmopolitan world, my latter posts were influenced by the varied cuisine that i came in contact with.

'Raee' or vegetables cooked in a light mustard gravy is a signature dish of Orissa. While some people add cumin along with the mustard, garlic may or may not be added depending on the day(vrat/osa bara). Usually vegetables  like raw banana, colocasia and brinjal are added to this preparation but i have skipped those due to a food allergy in the family.

Preparation Time-20-30 mins

Ingredients - 4 cups chopped poee, 1 cup pumpkin cubes, 1/2 cup ridge gourd cubes, 1/2 cup potato cubes, 1 medium sized tomato chopped, 2-3 garlic flakes, 1 small onion chopped, 1/2 tsp pancha-phutana or mustard seeds, 1 dry red chilli, 1/3 tsp turmeric, salt to taste, 4 tsp oil.

For the mustard paste: 1 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 5-6 garlic cloves, 1 red chilli.

Preparation: Grind the mustard, cumin and red chilli into coarse powder in dry state .Then add a little water along with garlic flakes and grind again into a fine paste.

Cooking: Heat 1-2 tsp oil in a wok. Add the chopped poee and stir fry on high flame till excess water evaporates. Remove and keep aside.

Add the remaining oil to the wok. Add the broken red chilli and pancha-phutana/mustard. When it starts spluttering, add the crushed garlic flakes and onion. Stir fry for 1 minute.

Add the mustard paste along with a little water and stir fry for 1-2 minutes. Add 2-3 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add all the vegetables and cook with lid covered till they soften.

Add the fried poee to the wok and cook for another 3-4 minutes.

Serve hot with white rice.

Dahi Gupchup

These days i feel like i belong to an endangered species, one of the last custodians of 'tehzeeb' or courtesy. The next generation with their 'grab-it-all' attitude no longer have the time or inclination for such niceties. Well I maybe exaggerating but i do feel that we all are being sucked up into a big 'black hole' of materialism with the media playing the role of a very tantalizing devil in thin disguise. Our wants have become all consuming living little scope for old world romanticism or even practicality.

The Dominoes and MacD's of the West have influenced our food preferences to such an extent that we no longer crave for the comfort element associated with local food which is more suited to our climate and economy. The Western food palate with its Meat & Cheese staple is essential for providing energy and heat in the cold climate while our dal-chawal or dal-roti is supposed to satiate us without the excess body heat. Nothing satiates me more than a Dahi-pakhala or arwa bahta-dalma but i inadvertently get drawn to the 'Buy 1 get 1 Wednesdays' Dominoes offer beamed on the telly. I guess i have to banish the TV to stop myself from ordering those luscious looking pizzas. Now thats' a tall order so instead i have taken a resolution to forgo any western ingredients and go back to my roots this week ( just one week at a time ).

Today i will be sharing this 'Dahi Gupchup' recipe which I used to have during my childhood years in Rourkela. There used to this obscure little thela 'cart' in front of Deepak talkies near Ambagan which sold the yummiest version of the street snack. No idea if the younger lot still frequents this place but i havn't visited it for years.(See what i was talking earlier, even i am not immune to such influences) Hence i am doing this based only on my memory and without any inputs from the guy himself. Read on:

Preparation time - 10 mins

Ingredients - 10 gupchup/puchka/puris, 2/3 cup fresh yogurt/curd, 1 tbs tamarind-dates-jaggery chutney ( u cn replace it with Imli Pichkoo ), 1 small boiled potato, 1 small onion chopped, chopped green chilli, 1 tsp sugar, salt to taste, jeera-lanka powder, kala luna (black salt), chat masala, roasted coriander powder, red chilli powder ( optional ), chopped coriander.

Preparation - Take the boiled potato in a mixing bowl. Mash it and add half of the onion, green chilli, jeera lanka powder , coriander powder and salt. Mix well.

Add a little water, salt and sugar to the yogurt and beat lightly. Dilute the tamarind-dates-jaggery/imli picchkoo with a little water.

Take the puris and arrange on a plate. Puncture the upper layer on the puris.

Put a little of the potato mixture into each one.

Pour the beaten yogurt over the puris, followed by the tamarind-dates-jaggery chutney. Sprinkle the jeera lanka powder, coriander powder, chat masala, red chilli powder kala luna and salt. Finally add the green chillis, coriander leaves and chopped onions. ( Add a little shev but its optional )

Serve immediately as the puris tend to get soggy very fast.

Red Velvet muffins ( with natural beetroot coloring )

I had been eyeing the 'Red velvet cake' for quite sometime. I know the blogsphere is choc a block with 'Red Velvet cake' recipes and mine would only add to the clutter but i kind of treated it as a personal milestone . After buying the food coloring and testing it out, i realized that it needs quite a lot to get that vivid red color. But since i have a toddler at home, i was reluctant to use the synthetic stuff. The chocolate & beetroot cake made me realize that beetroot can be used to color this cake. The quantity of beetroot needs to be much more than the quantity of cocoa powder as the chocolate tends to mask the color. Though the muffins turned out great, the color wasn't exactly red rather a deep pink color. I guess its a trade-off between looks and health.

Read on for the recipe:

Preparation Time - 35-40 mins

Ingredients- Butter ( 1/4 cup ), sugar ( 1/4 cup ), eggs ( 1 no ), all purpose flour ( 1/2 cups ), baking powder ( 1/2 tsp ), cocoa powder ( 1/2 tsp ), beetroot puree ( 2/3 cup ), vanilla essence ( 10-12 drops ).

Preparation - Powder the sugar in a food processor.

Take the butter ( at room temperature ) in a mixing bowl and add the powdered sugar. Beat it nicely with a whisk till it turns a few shades lighter in colour.

Break the egg in a separate bowl and whisk till it forms soft peaks.

Add the whisked egg and vanilla essence into the mixing bowl and mix them nicely.

Add the beetroot puree, little by little so that it mixes completely with the batter ( Do not add all of it in one go ).

Take the flour and cocoa powder in a seive and add to the above batter slowly, a little at a time (This trick incorporates an extra amount of air into the batter which is very important in making the cake/muffins very spongy). Add the baking powder to the last quantity of the flour being added to the batter. Mix well. (We need to be quick from this point as the baking powder starts working as soon as it comes in contact with moisture)

Take a muffin tray and spray the cups with a non-stick cooking oil/brush with butter. Sprinkle some flour.

Pour the batter into it and shake it gently.

Cooking: Pre-heat an oven to 170 degees celcius. Put the muffin tray into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Prick the centre of the muffins with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, the muffins are done. Else pop it back into the oven for 5-10 minutes.

Allow to cool down. Decorate with cream cheese frosting or serve as it is.

Pudina Suji Kheeri ( mint semolina kheer )

Semolina kheer is also known as the poor man's kheer in Orissa. It is usually prepared with roasted semolina, sugar and water/milk and is conspicuous by the absence of dry fruits. It features more on the everyday meal menu rather than being reserved for special occasions. Some people also use it as the substitute for Cerelac/Farex as it is easy on the digestive system and costs only a fraction of the former.

However i have a lot of warm childhood memories associated with this dish. It is a simple dish which needs a little magic to make it special. Here i have added fresh mint leaves which break the sweet monotony of the dish and give it a zing. Orange zest/lemon grass are two other ingredients which i normally use to transform this dish. I have used the medium coarse semolina but one can also use the coarse/superfine ne.

Preparation Time - 10 mins

Ingredients - 2 cups boiled milk, 3 heaped tsp roasted semolina, 4-5 tsp sugar, 2 tbs milk powder/1 tbs condensed milk, 10-12 drops vanilla essence, 1 tbs finely chopped mint leaves.

Preparation- Bring the milk to boil in a heavy bottomed vessel. Add the sugar and vanilla essence.

Add the roasted semolina and stir continuously to remove lumps, if any. Boil it for 5 minutes.

Add the milk powder/condensed milk and mix thoroughly. Finally add the mint leaves and remove from heat. Keep it covered for 2-3 minutes.

Serve chilled/warm .

Santula

Santula is one of the most popular vegetable dishes of Orissa. It is essentially a mixed vegetable preparation minus the spice which makes it easy to digest. Highly recommended for high blood pressure, hypertension, diabetes, constipation, ulcer and postpartum patients, it is full of nutrients and dietary fiber. It is also popular as pani(water)-santula and khira-( milk )santula.

It is also consumed on vrat/osa bara days. The onion and garlic is replaced by jeera-lanka powder and ghee is used instead of oil for the tempering. I find it to be the best way to use/cook all the leftover/excess veggis from the week and hence one can usually find it on the Friday dinner menu at my home. But for best results( read taste) prepare with fresh vegetables.

Preparation Time - 20-25 mins

Ingredients - chopped pumpkin ( 2 cups ), chopped green papaya ( 1 cup ), chopped string beans ( 1 cup ), chopped ridge gourd ( 1 cup ), green peas ( 1 cup ), boiled kabuli chana ( 1 -2 cups ), chopped spinach or any green leaves ( 1 1/2  cup), chopped raw banana ( 1 cup ), chopped potato ( 1 cup ), finely chopped onion ( 1 no., small ), garlic flakes ( 6-7 nos ), dry red chilli ( 2 nos ), salt to taste, oil ( 3 tsp ), turmeric ( 1/4 tsp ), pancha phutana ( 1/3 tsp, optional ), chopped coriander for garnish.

Cooking: Heat 2 tsp oil in a wok. Add all the vegetables and green leaves along with salt and turmeric.

Cover with a heavy lid and cook till vegetables soften. Stir at regular intervals to avoid sticking to the bottom of the wok.

Heat the remaining oil in a tempering pan. Add the red chilli and pancha-phutana.

Follow with the onions and cook till translucent. Finally add the crushed garlic flakes. Fry for 5-10 seconds and then pour over the cooked vegetables. Garnish with coriander and remove from the flame.

Serve hot with rotis/paratha.