Paneer Makhani

Paneer Makhani (Butter Paneer)

There is actually no butter in this dish, at least the way I make it. The richness comes from ground cashews, and not from cream and butter the way it is traditionally made. I like it better this way, not just because of health reasons, but I think that the cream dulls out a lot of the flavor, and adds quite a bit of richness.  That is not to say that I omit the cream completely, because if I do have some around, I add a splash of it in just as a final touch.  But it is absolutely not necessary.

I do make my own paneer typically. You can of course buy it at any Indian grocery store, but I live rather far from the nearest one, and since I can get curry leaves  at my local Thai grocery (yeah, go figure !), I rarely make the trek all the way to the Indian grocery. Also note that the onions have to be quite finely chopped, (I do mine in the food processor), and the cashews should be finely ground to a paste. The best thing for the cashews is to do them in a blender, rather than a food processor.  Do not use your spice grinder, because like me, you will break it, and now it just sits there like a showpiece like those in an 80s glass cabinets all Indians tend to have in their house.  (Why oh why !)  

 

Ingredients

3 T sunflower oil

1 cup onions, chopped fine

1 cinnamon stick

3 bay leaves

1 T ginger and garlic paste (I do this in a food processor, or you can use a mortar & pestle)

2 green chillies, chopped

3 T tomato paste
11/2 t cumin powder
1 t coriander powder
1 t red chili powder
1/2 t ground cloves
1/2 t ground fennel
1/2 t haldi

2 T cashew paste

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

3 cups of water

1 t kasthoori methi (Dried fenugreek leaves)
1 t nigella seeds

1/2 t garam masala

1 cup paneer, cubed

Add oil to a pan on Medium Heat.  Add the onions, and sautee until golden brown.  Add the cinnamon stick and bay leaves.  Add the ginger and garlic paste, green chilies and sautee for a few minutes.  Add the tomato paste, and the spices:  cumin powder, coriander powder, red chili powder, haldi, ground cloves and ground fennel.  Let this sautee until the tomatoes are cooked. You know this when there is oil towards the sides of the pan.  Next  add the cashew paste and let that sautee for 5 minutes or so.  Add the chopped tomatoes, water and let it simmer away for 15 minutes.  Crush methi in your hand before adding it, add the nigella seeds, and a pinch of garam masala, and it is at this point you can add some cream if you like. It is at this point you can add some cream for richness... Add pieces of paneer, and in about 5 minutes, you are ready to dig in.

Lebanese Fattoush Salad with Z'attar Chicken

Of late I have been trying to come up with lighter dinners to adhere to the rules that my mom has put in our heads since we were little:

• Eat Breakfast like a king
• Eat Lunch like a prince
• Eat Dinner like a pauper

From my experience, the most challenging aspect of eating a light dinner is that after a long day at work, you want to come home and eat something comforting, so it is generally hard to come up with something that is satisfying to you, and doesn't break the rule of eating light.  I wouldn't necessarily label this meal as a pauper's, because what a lucky pauper he would be!

The first thing I want to discuss is the Ingredients before I go into the recipe.  These are ingredients that even I do not generally find in my pantry so my initial reaction was that I would need to go on a search in my local grocery stores.  Here is what I found:  it is not that hard to find what you think of as exotic ingredients at all !  The most obvious choice to start off my search is usually Whole Foods, since I do not live in a major cosmopolitan city, this is the most convenient. However, when I used to live in San Francisco, I would definitely go to the local middle eastern stores, and thoroughly enjoy it !

So please don't let the availability of ingredients get the better of you, because you really don't need to go that far to find them anymore.


Ingredients
Z'attar Chicken
1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs, pounded ( I prefer using thigh meat rather than breast because it stays moist during grilling, and I grilled these on my stove top grill pan), Or Tofu
2 T harissa
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp dried mint
2 tsp z'attar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 green chili, chopped
1 T fresh thyme
2 T lemon juice
1 T olive oil
1 tsp salt

Pita Chips
1 whole wheat pita
1 tsp olive oil
Sprinkling of salt
Sprinkling of z'attar
Sprinkling of sumac

Salad & Dressing
2 cloves of garlic, pounded in a mortar & pestle
1/4 cup olive oil
4 T lemon juice
2 tsp sumac
salt & pepper to taste
1 head romaine lettuce, chopped
a handful of flat leaf Italian parsley, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, cubed
1 small red onion, sliced thinly into half moons
1 cucumber, sliced thinly into half moons
Feta cheese, cubed (Optional)

Preheat oven to 400F, and preheat stove top grill pan on Medium High heat

First thing we have to do is marinate the chicken.  Add all the ingredients for the marinade to a bowl or a large ziploc bag, and refrigerate for at least one hour, and at most 8 hours. Before adding the chicken, if the pieces are a bit uneven or thicker than 1/2 an inch, place some cling film on top of the chicken, and pound away with either a rolling pin or a heavy bottomed pan. This will do two things: it will ensure that the chicken is tender once it is cooked, and also ensure that all of it cooks evenly.

Once you are ready to prepare the salad, I generally start with putting the chicken on a stove top grill right away.  The chicken should take a total of 15 minutes to cook depending on the size of the chicken pieces.  I start with 7 minutes on one side until it has some nice charring before I flip them over.

Next I put the pita bread on a baking sheet and brush it with olive oil.  Then I sprinkle the seasonings and put it in the oven for 15 minutes, or until it is crispy.  Once it is taken out, I cut the pita into 1 inch squares and add it to the salad bowl.

Next I prepare the dressing.  I pound the garlic cloves in a mortar & pestle, add olive oil, lemon juice, sumac and salt and pepper and mix thoroughly until it is emulsified.  As a general rule, I like my dressing tangy, so it is upto you how much lemon juice you want to add.

Chop the lettuce, cucumber, onions and tomatoes and add to the salad bowl.  Add pita chips, and toss together with the dressing.  Serve with the grilled chicken on top and Enjoy.

For some good ole South Indian Comfort - Upma

Can you think of those mornings when you just don't feel like thinking about it and you just want something that is quick and simple, but of course it has to be satisfying and delicious?  My answer is usually Upma.  This breakfast dish is made all over India, although it has its origins in South India, and it has become a staple in my kitchen as well. 

 

The main ingredient used here is suji (or fine semolina), and the finished product has the consistency of creamy polenta. So you can imagine that this is also a comforting dish, and depending the time of year, or your mental state of mind, it does the job.  And you can pretty much throw in whatever leftover vegetables you have lying around - I usually put in tomatoes, bell peppers, peas, beans.. you get the point.  In this case though, I just added tomatoes for their tang.

Upma

Ingredients

1 cup Suji

1 medium onion, chopped fine

1/2 inch of ginger, chopped fine

1 sprig of curry leaves

2 t vegetable oil 

1 t whole mustard seeds

1 t haldi

1-2 chillies, depending on how hot you like it

3 cups of water

salt to taste
Squirt of lemon juice

In a pan that is heated on Medium heat, add oil.  Add the onions, ginger and chillies and sautee until onions are translucent.  Add mustard seeds, curry leaves and haldi, and let the seeds cook for 30 seconds.  Add the suji. Let it sautee for a few minutes. Add water and keep stirring to avoid lumps.  Once it has a smooth consistency, cover and let it cook for 5 minutes, but be sure to keep stirring it every minute. You want to avoid lumps.  Once all the water is absorbed, it is done ! A squirt of lemon juice and a sprinkling of chopped coriander, and you are ready to dig in.

Summery things: Strawberry Jam, Sunflowers & Bumble Bees

Our teddy bear sunflower!

I absolutely love summer.  The days are so long, that even after my 12 hour day, which includes a horrid commute to work, and the breakneck speed working hours in between, it still gives me time to step out into my garden and enjoy the extra bit of daylight.

It is during these moments, I am rewarded by looking at the most perfect teddybear sunflower, which I did not know it was until my friend Julie pointed it out, and admire the loveliness and the cushiony teddybearness it embodies.  Who knew it would stand so tall and greet everyone who walks through to our cottage, shining its sunny face at them?  And then there are these bees that graze from flower to flower in the calendula bush.

And then there are those luscious berries in the Sunday farmer's market that are overflowing at the seams of the stands, proudly sitting there warmed by the sun, with their berry tasty goodness.

But no, we did not buy those berries that the farmers and their helpers had picked that very morning, but instead we drove the Swanton farm and picked some ourselves. And by some, I mean a whole 8 pounds of them.

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon, and Swanton farm just happens to be situated in a beautiful spot across from the Pacific ocean.  We picked berries, we ate their yummy strawberry shortcake, and went home and made jam 2 days later.  Right at this moment, I have 8 jars of strawberry jam sitting in my fridge, and I cannot wait until we are able to open them up in 25 days.



Yes, the unfortunate part about this process is that you have to wait a whole month to open the jars !  A small price to pay what I can guarantee will make me very happy in 3 and a half weeks, because I decided to experiment with my strawberry jam, and infused half of it with vanilla and mint and black currants from our local UCSC farm stand ( yes, I am boasting ), and the other batch was infused with basil and black peppercorns. And did I tell you how easy it was?

Strawberry Jam

2 lbs strawberries, rinsed & hulled
11/2 cups of organic cane sugar

1 T lemon zest
2 T lemon juice
Optional:
black currants
1 t vanilla
2-3 stalks of mint

OR
2-3 stalks of basil
1 T whole black peppercorns
4 jam jars, sterilized by boiling open faced in a full pot of water for 15 minutes. Note: the lids are just put in simmering water for 10 minutes.  The ladel and tongs used in this are also sterilized in the same lot as the lids.




In a large pot, add the sugar, lemon zest and juice, and strawberries until dissolved.
Let Cool and refrigerate overnight.
Next day, sterilize jars, fill jars, and tightly close the lids.  In a pot full of water, insert the filled jars for 10 minutes, or until you hear the jars go "pop".  At this point, take the jars out of the pot, and rest on the counter overnight.  The next day, label and stick into a fridge for 1 month.

One month later, Open and spread over a warm biscuit or scone.  Yum !

A Birthday and a Cake

      It was my fiancee's birthday a week ago, and he unfortunately spent it on a very long plane ride returning from my sister's enchanting wedding in Stokholm.  So I surprised him with a cake and a surprise in Dolores park this past weekend full with unexpected and delightful visits from his friends.  I decided to make him a Black Forest Cake, particularly because I had never made one before, and cherries are in season right now.  I used fresh cherries in the cake, and although most recipes for this cake call for sour jarred cherries, I think the fresh ones give the cake a much lighter and a tangy, summery taste.  The cake was absolutely delicious, apart from being stunning to look at.

Surprisingly it was also quite simple to prepare.  I used a recipe that was on NY Times, although I did change it up quite a bit.  The original recipe asked for the batter to be spread amongst 3 different cake pans, but I do not own that many same-sized cake pans, so I used one spring form pan.  The original recipe also used butter (and loads of it) in the whipped cream topping which I omitted.  I think this cake has a fresh, summery feel about it, despite the layers and the rich, delectable chocolate ganache layer which took some people by surprise while eating it.

Black Forest Cake 

(adapted from a recipe by Johnny Iuzzini)

Ingredients:

2 cups cake flour, sifted (or, like I used, 2 cups of all purpose flour + 2 T cornstarch)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs at room temperature
13/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 pound semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
3 1/2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons sifted confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup kirsch
1 cup fresh cherries, pitted and halved

 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use 1 tablespoon butter to grease the 9 inch spring form pan. Line bottom with circle cut out of waxed or parchment paper and use a little more butter to grease paper. Dust pans with a little flour. Sift remaining flour with baking soda, baking powder, cocoa and salt.
2. Beat eggs until very frothy. Gradually add all but 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, beating until mixture is thick, light and falls in a ribbon when beater is lifted. Whisk in vanilla and mayonnaise. Add dry ingredients alternately with 1 1/4 cups water, mixing just until combined. Spread in pan and bake 45 minutes, until springy when touched, and a wooden skewer comes out clean when poked. Cool on a rack.
3. Place chocolate in a bowl. Bring 1/2 cup heavy cream to a boil, pour over chocolate and mix until it makes a smooth and shiny ganache. Refrigerate until cooled and thickened but still spreadable, about 30 minutes.
4.Whip remaining cream with confectioners’ sugar until softly peaked. Refrigerate.
5. Place remaining 2 tablespoons sugar in a small bowl and add 2 tablespoons boiling water. When sugar dissolves, stir in kirsch. When cakes have cooled remove them from pans and peel off paper. Halve the cake into two layers and once cooled, drizzle with kirsch mixture.
6. Place one layer on a flat cake plate for serving. Spread with half the chocolate ganache. Spread with cherries. Spread with 2/3 cup of the whipped cream. Top with another layer and spread with ganache, and whipped cream.  Frost cake with remaining whipped cream and dust with grated chocolate. Wipe rim of cake plate clean.  Top with a few whole cherries with stems.  Refrigerate cake until ready to serve.  Or in my case, drive in your car with the cake plate on your lap, and have the birthday boy carry it onto the train to San Francisco and walk through the crowds of celebrating people at the Gay Pride parade, until you get to Dolores Park, and dig in.

 

My Garden and a Wildflower hike

It's been a year since we started working in our little garden behind the kitchen door, and I'm happy to report that the flowers are blooming at this time of year, and the lettuces are abundant.  It is a pleasure to walk through it in the evenings knowing that you have planted these yourself and cared for them (to which my fiancee would say "you mean me, don't you" ). So here are a few photos of the garden, and also the picturesque hike we went on just south of Monterey while all the widflowers were in bloom.

It is delightful to see these johnny jump-ups peeking in from amongst the tomato plants

 

And the Hike....