Curry-Palooza: Muttar Paneer

Muttar Paneer reminds me of one of my closest friends. It used to be her favorite thing to cook. I haven't seen her in a few years so while I was stirring up a pot of it for Curry-Palooza this week, I wondered if she still likes to make it.  

I'm not very fond of peas but my husband and kids are. I had a bit of a disaster with the paneer that I burned over-fried but otherwise this was a fragrant, flavorful curry that my family enjoyed very much. My curry had a thinner consistency than the ones Rocquie & Margie made and I served mine with Pita breads instead of Rice.  I had planned on making my own Paneer but was then short on time so I used a bag of cubed, frozen paneer. For those who don't know - Paneer is simply cottage cheese that has been drained, pressed into a container with something heavy placed over the top for a couple of hours so that it retains a solid shape. I did a post on making homemade cottage cheese early last year & will hopefully get around to making my own Paneer soon!

Please check out Rocquie's blog for the recipe for Muttar Paneer, or the original source at A Pot of Tea and a Biscuit. 

Curry-Palooza is a monthly event & we take turns picking random Indian recipes each month. If you'd like to participate, please email either Rocquie or myself. I hope you will join us!

Curry-Palooza: Rajmah

As far as indian food goes, Rajmah is one of my favorite things to order when we eat out at Indian restaurants. I'm also guilty of throwing in the occasional packet of 'Gits Rajma Masala' into the grocery cart, unhealthy as it might be.

I have actually never tried  making it myself & simply presumed that I wouldn't be able to get it right. The thing about Subcontinental cooking is that some recipes seem simple and unassuming yet getting the right flavor can seem so elusive.

For this months' currypalooza I wanted to pick something flavorful yet simple that could be put together quickly. I've been back home for over two weeks but things have been so chaotic that I simply don't have the time to make anything labor-intensive in my not-yet-quite-functional kitchen. Blogger croquecamille had introduced me to the Quick Indian Cooking website and after testing out one of the other recipes there last week, I decided to pick Mallika Basu's Rajmah curry for this challenge.

Since it uses canned kidney beans, it was a snap to make this morning though I let it simmer longer than needed so that the masalas would really infuse the beans. The only down side of using canned beans is that they tend to remain quite bland regardless of how deeply flavorful the base-curry itself is. However, simmering them on low heat for almost an hour seemed to do the trick for me. And the resulting curry was almost like the one I eat at restaurants. I had been aiming for a thicker sauce and had added only just enough water to cover the beans. This was a mistake and I should have simply added more and gotten a slightly thinner sauce. That said, the flavors in this curry were spot on & we enjoyed it as part of a more elaborate indian-themed meal this evening. 

Please head over to Sage Trifle to check out Rocquie's version of this curry and for the recipe please follow this link. Currypalooza is a monthly event and we take turns picking random Indian recipes instead of following any particular book . I hope others will join us!

post-note: I've been unable to upload photos because blogger keeps telling me my post cannot be saved. I'm publishing this without them for now & will try uploading tomorrow morning.

Taste & Create: Aloo Fry (a Potato Curry)

This is my first time participating in Taste & Create & I've been paired with Padmajha of Seduce Your Tastebuds. Padmajha has a treasure of Indian vegetarian dishes featured on her blog and I would have loved to try some of the ones I've never heard of before. But I had to pick something simple due to time constraints & so I went with Aloo Fry.

This is a simple, flavorful side dish that requires little preparation. I followed Padmajha's recipe exactly and the only minor changes I made was to add a squirt of lemon juice to the potatoes at the end. The other thing I did differently was that I waited till the onions were light brown before adding the whole spices (mustard seed, coriander seed, cumin - and a pinch of kalonji/black onion seed, which was my own addition) - quite simply because I thought if I added them in the reverse order, the spices might burn by the time the onion was browned.

You can find the recipe for Aloo Fry here.

I figured Taste & Create was a good way to shake me out of my complacency & try out new recipes. I'm looking forward to my next challenge next month! You can find out how it works here.