Mattar Paneer

Mattar Paneer recipe is nothing but a creamy gravy recipe prepared with peas and cottage cheese. This North Indian recipe is rich in taste and pairs well with roti, chapathi and naan. The paneer which I used here is the ready to use paneer available from any grocery shop. Here I present you this mouthwatering recipe.

Ingredients:



Paneer - 1 cup,cubed

Fresh peas/Mutter - 1/2 cup

Onion - 1 medium

Tomato - 2 medium

Ginger - 1 teaspoon

Garlic - 1 teaspoon

Cinnamon Sticks - 1 inch

Cloves - 2

Bay Leaves - 1/2

Cumin Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

Oil - 1 teaspoon

Coriander Leaves - 2 strings

Curd - 3 tablespoon

Turmeric Powder - a pinch

Red Chilli Powder - 1 teaspoon

Coriander Powder - 1 teaspoon

Masala Powder / Home made Masala - 1teaspoon

Green Chili - 1

Butter - 1 tablespoon

Method:



1) Take a kadai / frying pan and heat butter in it.

2) Fry the paneer till they turn to golden brown colour.

3) When Paneer turns to golden brown, remove them from pan and allow it to cool down.

4) In the same kadai, add onions and saute them.

5) When onions are half fried, add ginger - garlic minced mixture.

6) Saute for a minute. Then add tomato and turmeric.

7) Wait till the mixture gets completely mashed. Then, turn off the stove and allow the mixture to cool down.

8) Grind the mashed ingredients well using a mixer/food processor.

9) Take another kadai, add oil in it.

10) In a low flame, heat the oil and then add crushed cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves, cumin seeds and green chillies one by one.

11) Allow cumin seeds to splutter.

12) Add the ground mixture to the kadai and also add red chili powder, coriander powder, masala powder and salt.

13) Stir fry the mixture. Now turn the flame to medium. When gravy starts to thicken, add peas(cleaned).

14) Cook for few minutes and then add paneer. Fresh peas should cook within five minutes.

15) Cook till the gravy is thick enough as you like. Then, turn the flame to very low level and add curd / yogurt.

16) Stir fry the contents and after 2 minutes turn off the stove.

17) Garnish with coriander leaves and Serve hot with Roti / Naan.

Note:
1) If you have fresh home made paneer, you can directly use them without frying. If your paneer is not fresh, you can add them in warm water before frying for softness.

Healing Foods - Event announcement

I am very excited to guest host Healing Foods event for this month. This is a wonderful event started by Siri of Cooking with Siri. And any guesses on what food I chose for this month's theme... Yes, It is "Banana". 
Banana is a favorite fruit for most of us. It serves as an instant storehouse of energy due to its carbohydrates content and is rich in iron, vitamins, potassium and fiber. It is

Eggless Banana, Date and Walnut Loaf

My baking escapades scores  more in number than the sweets I have been making. I don't miss celebrating any festival and all our festivals are associated with some kind of sweet. And it gets done as part of it. So I go for baking to satisfy the sweet cravings. During our Palakkad trip, we had various sweets and savories. That's another reason which pushed me to bake, yesterday. I had a bottle of  dates syrup and wanted to use in baking. I googled for a date loaf and found  a suitable recipe at JoyOfBaking. I tweaked the original recipe a lot that my recipe may look entirely different from the original one. Anyways, I started with that recipe as the base and modified to suit the ingredients at hand and to make it egg less. Hence this Banana, Date and walnut loaf. 

I replaced the nutmeg with cardamom to give an Indian flavor. Believe me the combo of banana, date and cardamom was outstanding. The aroma while it was baking filled the entire house. I couldn't wait to cool and slice. Before I was done with the slicing, I polished off two slices. It was so tempting that I was afraid I might finish off the whole loaf  before my husband is back from office. My loaf tin is small, so I halved the original recipe. I felt the date syrup and banana would have been enough for the sweetness. The 1/4 cup of sugar did make it more sweet but not the cloyingly sweet kind.  I liked it.  But if you intend to serve along your evening tea/coffee, you may omit the sugar altogether or reduce it. In case you are using the dates, then the amount of sugar is required.

You need


Whole wheat flour -1 cup
Baking soda - 1/2 tspn
Baking powder - 1/2 tspn
Salt - a pinch
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tspn
Walnuts - 1/4 cup, toasted and chopped
Banana - 1, small
Date syrup - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Oil - 1/4 cup

Method

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom powder and salt. Add the toasted and chopped walnuts. In a blender jar, take chopped  bananas, sugar, and oil. Blend to make a homogeneous paste. Fold in the flour mixture into the wet mix. Stir to mix it completely. Transfer to a greased and dusted loaf tin and bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for 55 minutes or till  tooth pick inserted comes out clean.