Palak Paneer

Being a punju how can I not cook/like palak panner but as a kiddo I used to hate this since I did not like spinach but then now being a mom myself I try and find different ways to make my son eat his greens and well I end up making egg in spinach gravy, potatoes in spinach gravy and since SD loves shrimp, I even cook shrimps in spinach gravy.


Ingredients

1. 1 pack of baby Spinach (Sam's).
2. 1 onion
3. 2 tomatoes
4. Ginger about 1 teaspoon
5. 1 tablespoon oil
6. Pinch of hing
7. Salt as per taste
8. 1 teaspoon garam masala
9. Red chilly
10. ½ teaspoon Coriander powder
11. ½ teaspoon Amchur powder
12. Sugar a pinch
13. Paneer.
14. 1 cup chopped mustard leaves
15. 1 teaspoon Jeera

Optional

1. Besan
2. Heavy whipped cream.


For Paneer

1. 1/2 gallon Milk
2. ¼ cup Lemon juice.

Steps to make paneer

1. Boil the milk Keep stirring it to avoid burn. Let it cool. Once it is warm re-heat and keep adding the lemon juice till it curdles.
2. Wrap the curd in a cheese cloth or a clean white cloth. Squeeze well. Tie a knot and place something heavy on the paneer still wrapped in cloth. This will help squeeze out extra water and also give a shape to the paneer.
3. Let it stay for 30 min to an hour. Once done cut the paneer in your desire shape.
4. I prefer not to fry the paneer but AD likes it fried so for this recipe I fried the paneer.

Steps to cook the gravy

1. Boil the Spinach and mustard leaves. Drain excess water and make a paste of the greens.
2. Make a paste of Onion, ginger, tomatoes
3. Heat the oil.
4. Add hing, Jeera and the paste of onion, ginger, tomatoes
5. Once the puree leaves the oil. Add all the dry masalas expect for garam masala and sugar.
6. Add the spinach and let it boil
7. At this time if you think that the gravy is too watery then dry roast besan and add it to the gravy. (If you are using only spinach this might be the case but with mustard leaves generally the gravy is thicker).
8. Add paneer (or below substitutes) and let it simmer in the gravy, add a pinch of sugar and garam masala and leave for about 5 min.
9. If you like you could add heavy whip cream to it at this point of time. I did not.
10. Enjoy it with Nan’s or rotis.

You can also substitute Paneer with

1. Fried Potatoes to enjoy aloo saag.
2. Fry shrimps and add them to the spinach gravy. Marinate the shrimps with salt and turmeric before frying.
3. Boil eggs, cut them in halves and add them to the same gravy.

A Good weekend

Thanks to silver dollar city, celebration city I was a kid all over again, enjoying the rides, roller coaster, the giant swings. All I was busy thinking was which ride to go next, absolutely carefree for the time I was inside the theme park.

After a long time enjoyed a great holiday I did not want to go to any of those nature places this time not that I do not enjoy them but this time I am missing people, the crowd, the noises so I wanted to go to a place full of people and activities plus enjoy a lazy weekend the last minute plan with SP,SM, AD, Me and SD was the best thing to happen. Small group of like minded people no expectations we were going to enjoy and relax.

A friend of mine just that day updated his orkut OMGIF ( Oh my god it is Friday and things invariably go wrong at work on Friday) it was true in my case. I tried my best to solve the things I could and rest well …. Done Packing, cooked some spicy pav bhajji while SP,SD, AD did some shopping all set to go on Friday evening.

We reached our Condo (Notch INN) in Branson and it was very cozy, small yet beautiful one. Enjoyed the evening being lazy unpacking and next day we left for silver dollar city and celebration city, SD enjoyed the rides to much and I can’t wait for him to grow up and come with me on all the rides that he could not go now. We all enjoyed the rides,we had planned a barbecue in the evening.

The 9.30 laser show at celebration city is captivating and fun a must watch. After the show we all tried our hands in the games and guess what even SD won a fish for now it is his prized possession and is carrying it around everywhere.

All set for the barbecue, fed SD put him in a portable crib and he slept in peace after a tiring day. While I threw some blankets, pillow and a fleece on me the rest sat on chairs and started cooking. Enjoyed talking about all the old movies, the songs, pulling each others leg, some funny comic/interesting incidents of our lives and finally the food arrived.

The next day again was full of roller coaster rides, fun frolic and thrill of the moment. SD broke the camera :( but all I could think of was my friend's (NN) quote “breakable things will break” and the next ride. After the rides we went to the downtown for a rock show and food. Landing is a beautiful place, the board walk is pretty romantic though it is filled with people and the location beautiful.

The next day icing on the cake shopping at the factory outlet, the joy of spending on your husband’s credit card is unbeatable :). All good thinks come to an end and this vacation of mine ended too.

SD is a big boy now, no diapers on the trip. He has not been using diapers for almost 3-4 months now but I was worried if during the trip he would tell me and he did. Watching him during the trip I just realized that time does fly feels like y'day when he was born and now he is talking, walking, no more diapers. Life sure is a roller coaster every time the ride is high it is fun but when low it isn’t.

hmmm My food blogs would have to wait till I get a new camera.

Happy Memories

I have been tagged and this is my first one :) yet I have taken a long break Sorry about that Laksh.

The one I remember still, I was maybe 3.5 or 4 years old. Dad was on a tour in Chennai and we in faridabad staying alone with mom, my granny was suppose to join us but I don’t remember why she did not. Anyway mom needed some milk but my baby bro and household work did not allow her to leave the house so she requested me to buy the milk from the nearby mother diary mentioning that I was a big girl. She gave me the exact change, a bag to carry the milk bottle and asked me to hold on to it tight so that I don’t break the bottle, she also requested the near by big kid to accompany me. I followed her orders and proudly went down met all my friends, we all decided to go together, the mother dairy was very close to the house so none of them bothered to tell their parents it was our play time anyway. We had a small park in between we all started playing and then I bought the bottle of milk, to amuse ourselves while walking back we decided to play chook chook train I was the last one so I told myself that the bag could also be a coach holding on tight I dragged the bag behind me and we all reached home.

Meanwhile a couple of uncles had all gone searching for us, the mothers all standing in front of the houses and as soon as we reached we all including the big kid had to listen to all the elders advising us and of course the scolding from everyone. My mom holding my baby brother saw me gave a sigh of relieve and then scolded me for being irresponsible while the onlookers felt that she was the irresponsible one nevertheless I was so proud of myself for being useful. With a sheepish smile I pompously handed the bag to my mom wondering what is dripping from the bag she looked at it did not know should she laugh or cry, the bottle was broken :) She decided that she needs to carry me, my bro and buy the milk herself and till today she rags me about the incident and laughs at herself thinking what was she thinking to send me!!!!!

Thanks once again Laksh for tagging me

Ram- Ravan ?

Politics at work, everyone seems not to like that. I just read a good blog which was titled “Even Rama, Still being Rama, had to kill Ravana!!!".This name wedged my eye and I went ahead and read the blog though I am neck deep when it comes to work but it is driving me crazy and I really needed a break.

After reading the blog, I had to pen down my thoughts. The big question that lingered in my mind was in today’s world who is Ram and who is Ravan everyone is ready to kill but then who should they kill. Everyone at the face value is good; everyone you talk to seems like a friend. Politics affects the victim with a back door entry and the people who are near to you are often the culprit and sometime it can even be circumstances and innocent people. So you actually can’t pinpoint the reason, the person. At that moment whatever the victim feels is the truth for him/her is the real truth.

Today I got a friend request from the most unexpected person and on seeing his profile; he is nothing I have imagined. This blog, the friend request all made me wonder what we imagine and what one turns out to be is so different. So when there is politics all around and we do not want to be the victim and consciously not make someone else the victim how do we actually identify and how do we know if we are ram or the ravana.

Everyone seem to be nice as humans but everyone are on our best guards when it comes to official communication wondering what is the intention of the other people, watching our every step, trying to speak our best, type our best but an unofficial communication is so different though in the background we can never forget whom we are talking to.The model that we work on we never get to meet/see the people in real life.

Yes, it is true that lord ram the good guy had to kill the bad guy ravana but I still don’t know if this would work in the generation today since every other person would claim to be Ram and you just can’t identify who is true and who not. I am a strong believer of god and trust that Hinduism is a way of life but the blog actually made me reflect on the fact that lord ram killed Ravan to save his wife and in turn save the others and wasn’t ravana killed due to his own brother, who later was crowned the king.

Phew instead of a cooking blog I am writing everything else, but then again this is soul food for my thoughts :)

It still feels sad

An old manager of mine left the PCM group and when I read the mail for a moment I was not happy about it though I had always thought I would. I personally do not like her much nor do I dislike her. She has been there with me through my ups and down as my manager not done anything bad or good but most of all my association with her goes back to the time when the group was just formed.

With her most of the old timers have left the group and it is filled in with new people who maybe are more capable but still things have changed so much that there is no warmth of late or I do not feel it.. I could reach out to her for all the concerns I had, probably write a personal mail if required, invite her for a coffee, talk about family, work, share my happiness but now with all the new people around I don’t think I share the same association.

It really feels sad to see her go.

Kochu with Shrimp

Ingredients

1. Arbi - 10 pieces
2. Shrimps - half a bowl
3. Onion - 1/2 large
4. Ginger - small piece
5. Garlic - 3 cloves
6. Green chilies - 3
7. Oil
8. Salt
9. Tumeric
10. Red chilly powder
11. sugar a pinch
12. Tej pata
13. Hing
14. Panch poran
15. Water 1 cup
( you can make this at home, the ingredients are Jeera, Sauf, Kalo jeera, Methi seeds, Poppy seeds. The ratio is 2:1. 2 are for Jeera and rest all 1)


Steps

1. Marinate the shrimp with salt and turmeric for about 10- 15 min
2. Boil, peel and cut Arbi
3. Slit the green chilies
4. Chop onion, ginger, garlic very finely
5. Heat oil in a kadai
6. Fry the shrimps and keep them aside
7. In the same oil Add in hing, tej pata, panch poran
8. Add garlic, ginger, green chilies
9. Add in the chopped onions and fry till golden brown
10. Add in a pinch of sugar
11. Add salt, tumeric powder, red chilly powder
12. Add the arbi, shrimps and fry for a while
13. Add in little water and let it boil
14. Serve it hot with rice

Besan wali Arbi

Ingredients

1. Jeera – 1 tbs
2. Ajwain – ½ tbs
3. Methi seeds – ½ tbs
4. Sauf – ½ tbs
5. Besan – 4 tbs
6. Oil
7. Salt
8. Turmeric a pinch
9. Red chilly powder
10. Dhaniya powder
11. Amchur
12. Hing
13. Arbi
14. Garam masala


Steps

1. Boil arbi, peel and cut and keep it aside
2. Heat oil in a kadai
3. Add hing, Jeera, sauf, ajwaain, Methi seeds.
4. Add the besan and keep stirring
5. Once the besan is brown in color
6. Add salt, dhaniya, amchur, turmeric and Arbi
7. Stir for sometime and keep it on low flame add in garam masala
8. Once the arbi is fried well t is ready to be served with dal and rotis.