Paneer Bhurji / Scrambled Indian cottage cheese

I made some paneer (Indian cottage cheese) at home from whole milk. After cutting out the cubes (with the intention to make matar paneer), I had some crumbled pieces left out from the edges. So I changed my plans, I froze the paneer cubes for later use and made Bhurji out of the crumbled paneer.

So here's the recipe. It's quick and easy to make and goes well with roti or you can use it to stuff parata or make sandwich out of it.

Here is what you would need:
1 1/2 cup - crumbled paneer
1 onion - finely chopped
2 green chillies- finely chopped (use according to your preference)
1 tomato - finely chopped
1 tspn- Ginger-garlic paste
1/4 cup green bell pepper- finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon - cumin seeds
1/2 tsp red chilli powder (use depending on the heat)
1/4 tspn  turmeric powder
1/4 tsp -  garam masala powder
4-5 tbsps  milk
salt to taste
1 tbspn -oil
fresh cilantro leaves to garnish

How I made the bhurji :
Heat oil in a vessel, add cumin seeds, when they splutter add chopped onions, saute till onions turn transparent.
Add green chillies, bell pepper, ginger-garlic paste and fry for few minutes.
Then add turmeric powder,  red chilli pwd, salt and mix. Add the chopped tomato and cook till all the ingredients are cooked well and the oil starts to separate.  Add crumbled paneer and stir well to combine and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Add milk and gently mix the contents, make sure the paneer does not stick to the vessel. Once the milk evaporates, sprinkle garam masala powder and mix.
Garnish with fresh cilantro leaves ( I was out of cilantro so did not add) and serve hot with rotis.

Valentine Heart Cookies

"Mom, I need to paint a red heart and make some heart cookies", for whom I asked. "For My daddy for Balentime's day....",  and so we baked some cookies and it had to be black because daddy favourite color is Black.

Years just fly by, my little one is growing up so fast, she is so involved in baking and making neat little crafts.  She made a pretty card for dad and cookies and proclaimed, "I made this for you dad, with a little help from mom." This year valentines day is all about her. She wore a pretty pink outfit and admired herself in the mirror. 

We decided on simple chocolate cookies. These cookies are so easy to make and can be cut into any shape you like. 

Recipe : Martha Stewart

What you need:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick), cut into pieces

1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar

1 large egg

How I made:
In a bowl, mix together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
In a double boiler, place chocolate, butter, and brown sugar, stir frequently until all the ingredients melt. If the sugar doesn't dissolve completely don't worry about it. Remove from heat, and stir until it gets smooth and shiny,  let cool slightly.

Add egg to the cooled chocolate mixture (don't add when the chocolate is hot unless you plan on making scrambled chocolate egg ) and blend it well. Gradually stir in flour mixture. The dough will form a ball.

Divide dough in half and roll out each half by placing the dough in between two sheets of parchment paper to about 1/4-inch thickness. Transfer each half (still on the paper) to a baking sheet, freeze until firm. I left it overnight but you could get done in 20 minutes too.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Take out one sheet of rolled out dough peel off th etop layer of parchment paper. Using a  heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out the cookies, place on baking sheet  1/2 inch apart. Follow the same with remaining sheet. Bake for about 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool. Enjoy

Other recipes for valentines day:
Chocolate dipped strawberry
Chocolate cups with berries

Sweet Pongal

 Wishing everyone a very happy Pongal/ Makarasankranthi /Lohri. 

I thought this would be a perfect time to pick up the thread from where I left last year. I have not  been having enough motivation to do any thing, let alone blogging. But I do confess that I checked my blog almost everyday to see the updates. The last one year I cooked some new dishes, clicked some random pictures to post but it never made it to my blog.
So here I am back with a recipe for sweet pongal for a new beginning and hope to keep up my enthusiasm to post regularly.

This year I made Venpongal, chutney and Sweet pongal. Since it was a working day, I made it in the evening and offered prayers. Though the traditional way of making pongal is to boil milk and let it spill over and than add rice to it, I opted the quicker way of using a pressure cooker.

What You need: (serves 4)
Raw Rice - 1 cup
Moong dal - 1/2 cup
Jaggery - 1 cup crushed
dry nuts( cashews, almonds)  and raisins - 1/4 cup
Ghee- 3 table spoon  ghee
Milk- 2 cups
Water- 2 cups + 1 cup

How I made :

In a pressure cooker, dry roast the moong dal till it changes color and gives out a nice aroma. Wash it along with rice and keep it aside.
In the same cooker heat 2 tablespoon ghee and fry the nuts and raisins. Once done remove and set it aside.
Into the remaining ghee in the cooker add the washed rice and dal, milk and 2 cups of water. Close and cook for 3 whistles. You can cook it over stove top the traditional way, Heat the milk and water once it starts to boil add rice and dal and cook until it gets mushy.
While the rice is cooking , in a seperate pan add jaggery and 1cup water and cook till it starts to boil. Lower the heat and the jaggery syrup cook till it thickens. To test for doneness, add a drop of the syrup into a bowl of cold water, if the jaggery syrup dissolves in water it needs to get thickened further if it stays intact than it is done. Let it cool a bit.
Once the rice and dal is cooked, add into the jaggery syrup and mix well. Cook it for few more minutes on low heat till the rice gets well blended with the syrup. Keep mixing frequently. Once cooked to desired consistency, add the nuts and raisins. Drizzle the remaining ghee on top and serve hot.

Tips:
- Use sona masuri or ponni raw rice. Other rice varieties will change the flavor of the dish. 
- You can use brown sugar in place of jaggery.
- You can add cardamom for added flavor.
- You can reduce the amount of ghee if you need but remember, more ghee = better taste :).