Paneer Bhurji

It is here! This curry demands hard work but it's worth it. If you are
like me you would delegate all cutting/chopping.grinding parts to somebody else and still claim the credit for the dish. ;)
Ingredients
paneer 150 gms.(homemade or packaged)
3 onions
5 tomatoes
2 fresh yellow corn cob or 1 bag frozen corn kernels
2 potatoes
2-3 garlic cloves (if you want really strong flavor go with 4)
3 chilly
2-3"Ginger
3 tbs vegetable/sunflower/corn oil
1 tbs red chili powder
1/2 tbs cumin seeds
1 tbs cumin powder
salt to taste
lemon zest

If you want to be adventurous like my sister you could make paneer at home. she just heats up the 3 cups of milk on stove and when it comes to boil she adds half to three quarter worth of lemon juice. I tried to get exact proportions but this the best she could do. When curd starts separating she turns off the gas and takes paneer in paper napkin and squeezes out water in a strainer. This does not give nice little cubes like packaged paneer but it works for this recipe. Caution: it won't look as pretty as packaged paneer.

ok the Bhuraji part:
  1. Pressure cook/Microwave potatoes and corns or alternatively use frozen corn. Then microwave only potatoes.
  2. Microwave potatoes: Dent the potatoes with fork and microwave it for 3-5 minutes/potato, depending on size. When skin starts peeling out it's done. peel them and cut into cubes. I prefer pressure cooked potato.
  3. Chop up the onions in really small pieces. it needs to be small, no cheating allowed. If you don't want to chop onions you could just grind them in a blender with little water. keep aside.
  4. Chop up tomatoes and grind them to make puree (I don't like taste of canned puree in Indian cooking, tomato puree is quite easy. little messy, yeah.)
  5. Chop up ginger, chillies and garlic in fine pieces, no cheating. Again, you can use ready made paste too.
  6. Take a heavy bottom pan, heat up the oil, add cumin seeds and wait until it starts spluttering.
  7. Add ginger-chillies-garlic and saute it for about a minute.
  8. Now add onions and saute it until transparent.
  9. Add tomato puree, keep stirring for about 4-5 minutes
  10. Add all the seasonings, red chili powder, cumin powder and salt.
  11. Add potato and mix it into the sauce.
  12. Add corn and paneer to it. Stir it frequently so paneer is broken down in fine pieces, almost like in grain size.
  13. Cook for about 7-8 minutes more, stirring it frequently.
Additional options for you:
  1. Use the bag of mix vegetables instead of potato or even with potato. I hate green peas so I can't use frozen mix vegetables. 
  2. Substitute soft tofu for paneer. I hate tofu too. This will make it VEGAN! Huzzzah! If I did not love milk-tea, butter, yogurt, cheese and hate Tofu, I'd go vegan. So yeah no chance of going Vegan in this life time.
It makes an awesome dish. What's more it provides protein in a same dish! No need of cooking dal or leaving out protein from your diet.

2 comments:

  1. Yum!! I am going to try when I have a chance - especially the paneer bit! Paneer is expensive in western countries (I used to buy it frozen in Oman). And sometimes I mix tofu in with the (not very tasty) palak paneer mix I get from the Asian grocers - so, I like paneer and tofu - win/win - depends on how it's cooked with tofu, but I bet you've been told that before. I also use Beechers' curds sometimes. Not the same, but yummy.

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  2. Yeah paneer is expensive but I have not mastered the art of making it yet. So I prefer ready made. Tofu is a good substitute too.

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