Chilli Paneer, Veg Fried Rice and Kofta Curry

Chilli Paneer

I love chinese and its been ages since I had it outside. Yeah we had gone for it couple of weeks back but whatever we had ordered wasnt upto the mark and hence didnot count :) Hence yesterday I thought lets give it a shot at home. I have earlier tried these stuff at home as well, but then the taste wasnt authentic. But yesterday I can say I mastered it. So here is the recipe for you.

Ingredients

400gm Paneer

1 Onion

6 Chillies

15 Garlic Cloves

A Pinch of Black Pepper Powder

2 Spoon Dark Soy Sauce

1 Spoon Tomato Ketchup

1 Spoon Corn Flour

2-3 Strands of Spring Onion

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Cut the paneer into medium sized cubes and fry them in oil over medium heat till light gold in color. Keep aside
• In same oil fry onions till translucent.
• Add chopped chillies and garlic and cook till fragranant
• Add black pepper powder and Soy sauce and cook for a minute
• Add paneer cubes and tomato ketchup. Cook for 2-3 minutes
• Mix corn flour in a cup of water and add it to the paneer mixture.
• Add more water if needed and cook the paneer with closed lid for 3 minutes.
• Garnish with chopped spring onions and serve

Notes
Chop the green chillies in slanted fashion for this so that you get the same look and feel that you see in restaurants.
Do not fry paneer till its completely crispy from outside. You want to keep it as soft as possible and yet fry it so that it gets the proper texture.
Also if you are looking for it as starter which is dry, add little less water and cook for some more time if required so that the final result is dry :)

Veg Fried Rice

In Chinese I love Soft noodles. But, I havent yet been able to prepare them of the level of nice chinese restaurant. So most of the time I end up preparing fried rice instead. So here is recipy for the veg fried rice.

Ingredients

2 Cup Rice

1 Onion

1 Cup Cabbage Shredded

1/2 Cup Carrot Shredded

1/2 Cup Muttor

A pinch of Black Pepper Powder

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Cook rice and keep aside
• Heat oil and add chopped onion and shredded carrots. Saute till onions are translucent
• Add and cook till cabbage is done
• Add muttor, black pepper powder and salt and cook for another minute
• Add cooked rice and mix well. Cook for 2-3 minutes

Notes
Adding carrot at start makes sure that carrot is cooked well as it will take longest time to cook.

Kofta Curry
Whenever we get bottle gourd, ajoy has this demand of Koftas and so yesterday was the day when I obliged and made it for him. Here is the recipe.


Ingredients
4 Cup Grated Bottle Gourd
1.5 Cup Bason
2 Tomatoes
1 Onion
1/2 Spoon Garlic Paste
1 Spoon Jeera
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1/4 Spoon Garam Masala
1/4 Spoon Aamchur Powder
1/4 Spoon Corriander Powder
Corriander Leaves for garnishing
Salt to taste

Method

• Apply salt to the grated bottle gourd and keep aside for few minutes.
• Squize out water from the bottle gourd and mix bason, 1/2 spoon jeera, 1/2 spoon red chilli powder, garam masala, aamchur powder
• Prepare lemon sized ball out of this mixture and deep fry them in oil over low-medium heat. Keep aside
• Heat little oil in a pan and let the jeera splutter.
• Add the finelly chopped onion and garlic paste and cook till golden brown
• Add turmeric powder, remaining red chilli powder, corriander powder and salt
• Add tomatoes and cook well. Add water and bring to boil. Once the tomatoes are cooked well keep the mixture aside to cool down a bit
• Put the mixture into the mixie and grind to fine paste
• In a pan add this grinded mixture, enough water to make running gravy and koftas and bring to boil
• Garnish with corriander leaves and serve

Notes
I tried to keep the kofta spicy and gravy very less spicy so that one can enjoy koftas rather than gravy. You can vary it to your taste though

Eggplant Bhaji

Pakoda - Bhaji is quite famous in Maharashtra. All weddings must have these, when guests are invited, you have to have this item. Its been quite long time since we had bhaji so i decided to make them on Monday but decided to give it a twist. Given that eggplant is so easily available here i thought why not use it. The experiment was quite successful so here is the recipe.

Ingredients

2 Cup diced Eggplant

1 Onion

1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder

1/2 Spoon Coriander Powder

1/4 Spoon Jeera Powder

1/2 Cup Besan

Handful Coriander Leaves

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Mix in diced eggplant, diced onion, chilli powder, besan, turmeric powder, jeera powder, coriander powder, finely chopped coriander leaves and salt to taste. Add in some water to make the paste.
• Heat oil. Add couple of spoon of oil to the paste and mix well.
• Take a small lemon sized ball from the paste and flatten it a bit
• Fry on medium heat till done on both sides. Serve immediately

Notes

Normally i would wait around 5 minutes after mixing all ingredients but before adding water. The salt with all the veggies secrets water so if you wait your paste doesn't end up loosing consistency later on while you are in the middle of frying.