Palak Paneer/ Cottage Cheese in Spinach sauce

The recipe is a restaurant style Palak Paneer recipe which is thick, creamy and mildly spiced.

Ingredients:
For onion paste

1. Onion sliced - 1 cup
2. Green chilli - 3
3. Cashew nuts - 12-15
4. Water - 1 cup

For palak paste

1. Palak/Spinach leaves - 1 bunch
2. Water to cover palak leaves - 6 cups

For curry

1. Oil - 1 tbs
2. Tomato, chopped - 1/4 cup
3. Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
4. Ginger, minced - 1 tbs
5. Garlic , minced -1tbs
6. Salt to taste
7. Paneer cubes - 300gm
8. Kasuri methi/dry fenugreek leaves - 1 tbs
9. Creamy greek yougurt - 1 tbs

Method:

1. Cook all the ingredients under onion paste till onion is translucent
2. Grind it into a thick paste
3. Boil water for spinach paste
4. Add spinach to boiling water and cook for 4 minutes
5. Right after 4 minutes move the spinach leaves to a tub of cold water or running tap water  to retain its bright green colour
6. Grind the blanched spinach to a paste (yields around 1/4-1/2 cup spinach puree)
7. For making curry, heat oil in a pan
8. Saute ginger and garlic for 30 sec
9. Add copped tomato and saute till tomato is soft and mushy
10. Add onion paste and saute for 2 more minutes in medium low flame
11. Add spinach paste and some water if the gravy is too thick
12. Add salt, crushed kasuri methi and garam masala and mix well
13. Add paneer pieces and cook for 1 or 2 minutes till paneer is cooked well
14. Switch off the flame, and garnish palak paneer with creamy yogurt. Palak paneer is ready to be served.

Note: Original recipe called for cream or malai instead of  yogurt
The recipe is adapted from Spiceupthecurry site.

Vendakka moru curry/ ladies finger in coconut yogurt sauce

Simple moru curry with vendakka!

Ingredients:

1. Vendakka/ ladies finger, cut into small - 10
2. Yogurt - 1.5 cups
3. Coconut shredded - 1 cup
4. Cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp
5. Coconut oil - 2 tbs
6. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
7. Salt to taste

For tempering

1. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
2. Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
3. Curry leaves - few
4. Dried red chilli - 3
5. Garlic cloves - 2
6. Coconut oil - 1 tbs

Method:

1. Heat 2 tbs of oil in a pan
2. Sauté ladies finger with turmeric powder in the oil
3. Blend coconut, 1/2 cup yogurt and cumin seeds into paste
4. Once slightly browned, no more sticky, add coconut paste and 1/2 cup water in low flame
5. Let it come to boil in low flame
6. Add salt
7. Whisk the remaining yogurt
8. Once the curry starts to boil, add the whisked yogurt and and half cup water if curry is thick
9. Switch off the flame
10. Heat coconut oil for tempering
11. Splutter mustard seeds and  fenugreek seeds, add crushed garlic , curry leaves and red chilli and switch off the flame. Take care not to burn the tempering. 
12. Add the above to moru curry and close the lid and keep it like that for sometime before mix it using a ladle. 

Simple moru curry is ready to be served with rice and roasted potato or fish fry. 😊

Gongura Chicken/Sorrel Leaves Chicken

Have you tasted the gongura chicken at any Andra style restaurant ?? It tastes so good. We have tried gongura chicken some time back. But I didn't have any idea about what this gongura is. The curry had dark green color, so I assumed it to be some kind of leaves.

Last day when we went to grocery store, where they usually have all those Indian veggies displayed outside the shop for sale. As usual we bought some veggies and other grocery items and reached back home. I was looking for some new recipe to cook chicken which was left in our freezer. 

During recipe search, I bumped on to a gongura chicken recipe. Since I didn't know what this gongura is, I thought I will  just look for images of gongura. And yes, it is the same leaves which I saw next to coriander leaves at the grocery store. 

I went to the store next day itself to get ghongura leaves and made this yummy green chicken curry😊

Ingredients:

1. Gongura/Sorrel leaves - 2 cups
2. Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup
3. Chicken, cut into small pieces - 250gm
4. Tomato - 1 big
5. Green chilli - 3
6. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
7. Chilli powder - 1.5 tsp
8. Yogurt - 3 tbs
9. Ginger, minced - 1 tbs
10. Garlic, minced - 1 tbs
11. Onion chopped - 2 medium size
12. Coriander powder - 2tsp
13. Oil - 1tbs
14. Salt to taste
15. Curry leaves - few

Method:

1. Blend gongura leaves (blanching is recommended before blending sorrel leaves, but I didn't blanch mine), coriander leaves and 1 green chilli with minimum water
2. Marinate chicken with salt, yogurt, chilli powder, ginger and garlic for 30 min
3. Heat oil in a pan and sauté onion in it
4. Once onion reaches golden brown colour, add coriander powder and turmeric powder and give a toss
5. Add marinated chicken and cook chicken in medium-high flame with closed lid for 3-4 minutes
6. Add gongura mixture and let the chicken cook fully
7. Add Salt if needed
8. Cut tomato into wedges after removing the seeds
9. Add tomato and curry leaves to the chicken and cook for 3 more minutes with closed lid
10. Switch off the flame and gongura chicken is ready to be served with steamed rice.

 

Coffee layer cake

This is a quick and easy recipe to make a butter cake with layers of coffee in it. I made 2 cakes using the below recipe. I frosted one with buttercream icing and the other one I shared with my colleagues without any frosting.

Ingredients:

1. Cake flour - 4 cups
2. Baking powder - 3 tsp
3. Sugar - 2 cups
4. Egg - 6
5. Butter - 300gm
6. Milk - 1+1/4 cup
7. Vanilla extract - 2 tbs
8. Instant coffee powder - 1 tsp
9. Brown food color - few drops
10. Orange food color - few drops

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 145 deg Celsius
2. Place parchment paper in your pan( I used a 8x8 inch square pan and 9 x 3 inch loaf pan. )
3. Mix all ingredients which are in room temperature
4. Beat on medium for approximately 3 minutes in a hand mixer
5. Move half of the batter to a bowl(A), divide the rest into two seperate bowl ( B and C)
6. Leave first half there
7. Mix coffee powder and brown color to the bowl B
8. Mix orange color to bowl C
9. Pour half of bowl A batter to the center of the pan. If using rectanglular pan, pot the batter in line at the center
10. Pour bowl B batter to the center of the pan above the bowl A batter
11. Pour bowl C batter similar to above
12. Pour the remaining bowl A batter similar to above
13. Place the pan in the oven without shaking the pan
14. Bake for 1 hr 15 min or until the skewer comes out clean when dipped in cake center.

Note : If you are using a big deep single pan for cooking, you might have to bake for longer

Stuffed Bun

Here is my first attempt to make stuffed bun. It is an easy to make snack or breakfast or even serve as dinner !

Ingredients:

For stuffing:

1. Potatoes, cooked - 1 big
2. Paneer - 1 cup
3. Onion, chopped - 1 medium
4. Ginger, chopped - 1 tsp
5. Garlic , chopped - 1 tsp
6. Green chilli - 1 or 2
7. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
8. Oil - 1 tbs
9. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
10. Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
11. Coriander leaves, chopped -1 tbs
12. Salt to taste

For bun

1. Wheat flour - 2 cups
2. Instant yeast - 1.5 tsp
3. Salt to taste
4. Italian herbs - 1tsp( optional)
5. Sugar - 1 tsp
6. Milk, warm - 1/2 cup
7. Baking powder -1 tsp
8. Olive oil/ coconut oil - 2 tbs
9. Chia seeds - 1 tsp (optional)

Method:

For stuffing:

1. Heat oil in a pan
2. Splutter cumin seeds
3. Sauté ginger, garlic, green chilli and onion in it
4. Add turmeric powder and give a toss
5. Mash potatoes and paneer
6. Once onion is translucent, add mashed potatoes and paneer and mix well
7. Add garam masala and coriander leaves to the above and switch off the flame
8. Once stuffing is in room temp make balls out of it using your palm

Note: The stuffing should be dry otherwise bun will be soggy
The above recipe for the stuffing is not much spicy, For a more spicy stuffing you may use the Cutlet Recipe mix for stuffing.

 

For bun:

1. Mix yeast in warm milk along with sugar for 5 to 10 min until you see some froth on top
2. Mix flour, salt, baking powder and herbs well
3. Knead the dough by adding milk and oil to the flour mixture
4. Keep dough in a bowl. Cling wrap the bowl and keep for 30 min for the dough to rise
5. Preheat the oven to 150degree Celsius 
6. Knead the dough again to release the air
7. Make balls out of dough and flatten it using your palm
8. Like stuffed parathas, keep a stuffing masala ball in to the flattened dough and close it properly
9. Brush the stuffed bun with oil and keep for 5 minutes
10. Brush with milk and sprinkle some chia seeds on it
11. Bake the bun for 20 to 25 minutes 
12. Once baked, move the buns to a wire rack for cooling

Note:
The buns can be served warm 

It can be stored in fridge for 1-2 days