Paneer Cigar Roll (non fried)

Paneer Cigar Roll (non fried)

The last time I made paneer cigar rolls was for my son’s birthday celebration last year. It was loved by everyone and was a hit. After that though, I somehow never got to make it again, probably because I have just not had the time and energy for it. Not to say it is energy consuming but because it involves deep frying. This time though I tried my hands on baking it. I felt that if home made dough was used for the pastry then the results may not be very satisfactory so chose filo pastry. For those who do not have access to filo pastry, make a dough with about a cup of all purpose flour (maida) with required water and couple of spoons of oil. Roll the dough as thin as possible and that is almost as good as filo pastry substitute. You can see from the pictures that they look more like the huge cigar rolls than the sleek cigarettes, am sure you can do a better job of rolling them, I had far too many things going on including a crying baby. Paneer is Indian cottage cheese. You could use other cheese like cheddar or mozzarella too. As these will melt, so not add it to the pepper on the stove, mix it after the pepper has cooled down a bit. I made my own dip by mixing hot an d sweet sauce, soya sauce, garlic infused olive oil and sugar. The below mentioned quantity makes about 9 rolls.

100g paneer, grated

1 large red pepper, finely chopped

3-4 spring onions, green and white part finely chopped

½ teaspoon coriander powder

½ teaspoon cumin powder

Turmeric powder

½ teaspoon chilly powder

Salt to taste

6-8 sheets of filo pastry

Cooking oil

Heat some oil and sauté the spring onions for couple of minutes

Add the peppers and add required salt and cook just until if begins to soften

Add the paneer, turmeric powder and spice powders and sauté for couple of minutes

Take two sheets of filo pastry and brush with little oil and cut into three equal parts across its length

On one end, put some of the prepared paneer stuffing and start rolling. Seal the ends with wet fingers and with seam side below, place on lined baking tray. Repeat until all filling is used

Brush few drops of oil on all of the rolls and bake at 170degC for about 15-20 minutes until golden

Paneer and Vegetable Kurma

Paneer and Vegetable Kurma


I am not sure why I end up postponing the use of paneer and leave it almost to the use by date. This time again, I had a pack of paneer that I had to finish off soon and was looking for a good but different paneer dish. Sometimes the downside with paneer dishes could be the fact that it lacks vegetables other than onion and tomato. I wanted to ensure we get a good load of vegetables along with the paneer. While browsing Tarla Dalal’s website, I found this rather simple kurma recipe and seemed like exactly what I was looking for. I made ever so tiny tweaks like not grinding the chillies separate and including it with onion but otherwise the recipe was fairly simple and stuck with it. If you would like to keep the fat down, you could use semi-skimmed milk instead of whole milk. I had made a fresh batch of garam masala and this was the first dish I made with it. As it was homemade, the quantity of masala needed is so much lesser than what I would add from a store bought packet. This recipe will serve two and I was glad that the dish was all gone quickly. Here is the recipe…

½ cup cubed paneer
1 large onion, pureed
3 green chillies, pureed along with onions
3 cloves
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 green cardamoms
1 cup milk
2-3 cups of mixed vegetables like peas, carrot, cauliflower, babycorn, beans
½ bell pepper, chopped
Handful of coriander leaves
1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
½ teaspoon garam masala
Salt to taste
Cooking oil

Heat some oil in a kadai and add the cumin seeds, cloves, cardamom, bay leaf

After the seeds brown, add the onion chilly paste, ginger garlic paste and fry stirring often. After about five minutes add little water so it does not burn. Fry until the raw smell goes away

Add the vegetables including bell pepper, half the milk, about half cup water and cook on low flame until vegetables turn tender

Now add paneer, salt, garam masala and rest of the milk and simmer for about five minutes

Add coriander leaves and serve hot with roti/rice.

Paneer Kali Mirch Masala

Paneer Kali Mirch Masala


Just as I was looking for a paneer recipe, I came across this one on a television program. With the ingredients being quite simple and readily available, I prepared this for dinner the same night. I must say that the dish turned out to be superb. It has a few levels of flavour that slowly unravels as you bite, chew and swallow. The dish was even better than most paneer dishes served in many restaurants. The combination of paneer and black pepper was surprisingly wonderful.

1 cup cubed paneer
1 large onion, chopped
2 green chillies
2 tablespoon cashew nuts, soaked
1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
¾ cup curd/yogurt
¼ cup milk
1 teaspoon coriander powder
½ teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon black pepper powder
¼ teaspoon chilly powder
½ teaspoon kasoori methi
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
1 bay leaf
Salt to taste
Cooking oil

Heat little oil in a kadai and fry the onions

Add green chillies and ginger garlic paste and cook until raw smell goes

Cool and grind to smooth paste along with the soaked cashew nuts

Heat some oil and add the cumin seeds and bay leaf

Once cumin browns add the ground paste and cook until most of the moisture is gone and it all comes together

Add turmeric, coriander, cumin, chilly and black pepper powders, mix well and fry for couple of minutes. Add little water if needed (I cleaned up my mixie jar and added some water from it)

Add yogurt and kasoori methi and allow to simmer

Add paneer, salt and simmer for about 5 minutes stirring frequently

Add chopped coriander leaves and milk and simmer for about 10 minutes stirring frequently

Serve!

Rasagulla

Rasagulla

I don’t have a sweet tooth really so making sweets will usually mark a special occasion or arrival of some guests. This time though it was a visit to my brother’s place that called for a sweet to be made plus. I chose to make rasagulla as he likes them a lot and also because it would help me use up a large portion of the 4 pints organic milk I was trying to finish up before we fly. The recipe per se is simple and similar to rasamalai the key difference being that this will remain in the sugar syrup. The quantity of sugar mentioned is only for people like me but if you have a sweet tooth then increase to 2 ½ cups of sugar. The texture of the rasagulla came out very well and more importantly they all held well without breaking down in the sugar syrup. This will be possible only if the kneading is done properly and the balls as rolled do not have any cracks.

5 cups milk
1 ½ to 2 cups sugar
4-5 glasses water
Lime juice

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, add couple of tablespoons water and add the milk. The water supposedly helps prevent the milk sticking to the bottom

When milk is about to boil, add the lime juice so it coagulates to form the paneer

Drain this, run under cold water so it is easier to handle and also the lime flavour goes away and squeeze out as much water as possible

Knead well by hand to make it like dough

Make equal sized balls (about 12 to 14 numbers) ensuring there are no cracks

In the meantime heat the sugar and water, starting with four cups of water. Make sure it begins to boil

Add the prepared balls and cook covered for about 5 minutes. Check to see if more water is needed, if so, add half a glass. It is important that the water remains boiling so do not add too much extra. The balls will double in size so make sure there is enough room in the saucepan, about 5-8 more minutes cooked covered
You know it is done when the balls float and are almost double the original size.

Serve with the sugar syrup

Paneer Makhni

Paneer Makhni

Paneer is an ingredient I would love to keep handy as it is quite versatile. However, sometimes I just have to finish using up what is in the fridge else it would rot. I do stick to the use by dates on dairy products so was looking for a simple yet nice paneer dish. It was one of those days when I said to myself that a little bit of indulgence is ok. So I thought I will make paneer makhni that I saw on Sanjeev Kapoor’s website. I tweaked the recipe slightly for simple reasons like I did not want to use many dishes. The list of ingredients seems long but it is a simple dish with an outcome that would beat restaurants.

3-4 tomatoes, pureed
About 180g paneer (I used 3/4th of a regular pack of paneer)
2 dry red chillies
1 teaspoon grated ginger
3-4 cloves garlic crushed
1 teaspoon chilly powder
½ teaspoon kasoori methi
1 teaspoon corn flour
1 teaspoon coriander powder
½ cup milk
2 tablespoon butter
Cooking oil
4 cardamoms
4 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
Handful of chopped coriander leaves
Turmeric powder
Salt to taste

Heat a kadai and add oil. Fry all whole spices i.e cinnamon, cardamom, cloves

Add ginger, garlic, chilly and fry until raw smell goes

Add tomato puree and cook until 25% has reduced

Add kasoori methi, crushed, then turmeric powder, coriander powder and cook further

Once mixture thickens a bit, add corn flour and about half cup water, allow to boil

Add salt, chilly powder, coriander leaves, some butter and simmer until it comes to gravy consistency. If you chose to blend, cool the mixture and blend. You could fish out the whole spices and not blend or even simpler, leave it as is

In the meantime heat little oil in a pan and fry the paneer until golden brown on both sides. Then cut into bite size cubes

Add paneer and required amount of milk and simmer briefly

Serve hot with roti/naan/rice

Paneer Kaliya

Paneer Kaliya


I have noticed that for paneer dishes and potato dishes, I get a lot more likes than for other dishes. I think it is quite understandable with potatoes but with paneer it sometimes surprises me. I think what lends so much credit to paneer is its ability to blend well and absorb the flavours from what it is added to despite being bland on its own. I had mentioned in my previous post on a paneer dish (shahi paneer) that I will try semi skimmed paneer. This dish used paneer made from semi skimmed milk and because it was home made, it was a bit more crumbly than store bought. I did not shy from adding the crumbs to the dish because it is still paneer! The basic recipe is based on Sanjeev Kapoor’s recipe but I chose to add dry red chillies because I like the heat. It is optional and am sure you can appreciate the almond sauce without the chillies as well. It did turn out to be a nice dish and different from more common paneer dishes.

1cup cubed paneer
1/3 cup blanched almonds, ground to smooth paste
1 onion, chopped
2-3 dry red chillies
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
4 cloves
10 black peppercorns
1 small cinnamon stick
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder
Cooking oil

Powder the cloves, black pepper and cinnamon together

Heat some oil, add the powdered spices and fry the onions until it begins to change colour

Add the red chillies and coriander powder and fry until it is aromatic. Cool the onion mixture and grind to fine paste

Heat little oil, add the onion paste and turmeric powder, some water if needed and give a quick stir

Add the almond paste and required salt and mix well and allow to boil

Add the paneer cubes, add water if needed and simmer for few minutes and serve!