Paneer Pulav

Paneer Pulav

Time and again I keep proving to myself that unless one puts their heart and soul into cooking, the dishes do not come even reasonably good. That does not mean you have to sweat yourself in the kitchen but just that if either your mind or your body is not there fully, then I find myself binning more food than we ate. Last couple of weeks have been very hard as my husband was down with quite a bad chest infection and I had limited help and it was all too overwhelming. Last week and now seems to be my turn to be ill. When you have two young children and live away from family, resting while ill is luxury really. In order to keep myself going I tried to make/bake new dishes but it just did not work. I kept saying to myself it is okay, I will eventually bounce back. Anyway, that's enough rant for tonight, here is a very simple but tasty rice recipe...

1 onion, finely chopped

1 green pepper, finely chopped

1 yellow pepper, finely chopped

1 large carrot, finely chopped

About 100g of paneer, cut into small pieces

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

1 cup rice soaked and cooked so grains are fluffy

Salt to taste

Cooking oil and little butter/ghee

Whole spices – about 4 cloves, 1 piece cinnamon, 2-3 bay leaves, 2 star anise, 3-4 cardamom pods

Finely chopped coriander leaves for garnishing

Heat some oil and add the whole spices and allow them to puff up

Add the cumin seeds and once it turns golden brown, add the onions and fry until it turns soft

Add the vegetables and cook until done

Add salt, paneer and rice. You could fry the paneer to make them more chewy but I usually avoid that extra fat and effort

Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve with a spicy side dish or just raita