Paneer (Cottage Cheese) Home made

Wanted to make some dish with paneer. Checked my kitchen refrigerator and realized that the half packet had gone stale. I did not want to go all the way to the Desi market just to buy a packet of panner. And then let half of it go stale again, although this was the first time that it happened. So I decided to make paneer at home. And this is my method. The measures are mine.

Homemade Cottage Cheese Recipe

Things Required:
milk (full cream) - 1 and 1/2 glass

half a lemon

Directions:
Place the milk on medium flame and bring to a boil.
Take 1/2 a cup of water and dissolve lemon juice in it.
Pour this mixture onto the boiling milk and keep stirring.
Lower the flame and continue stirring till the milk gets thickened.
Once the curd chunks start floating in the yellowish whey/milk plasma and gets completely separated, remove the bowl from the heat.
Next, strain or filter the mixture through a clean muslin cloth.
Now, remove the excess water and hang the cloth for about 20 minutes, so that the whey is completely drained out. Now, put it in a container and press the paneer to give it a solid shape. Finally, take out the slab and cut small cubes out of it or simply scrape it into thick pieces.
Refrigerate or grab your recipe book, as desired.
I did not need to make any cubes since I wanted it for a veggie chochori.

This is what I made of the home made cottage.

Saute Veggie Mix

Kaanch Kola r Chochori

Last weekend was fabulous. I had a wonderful dinner invitation and that inspired me to no end. This week I made Kaanch kola r chochori, an Indo-Chinese dinner, Blueberry smoothie, a mixed veggie and an elaborate omelette breakfast on the work from home Day, that was on Monday.

But today I will give the Kaanch Kola r chochori recipe. But before that I will give the inspiration of the dish. Just by chance I watched "Bizarre Food" on travel channel. I love travel channel but generally I skip this particular program simply because they show too much of bizarre food. As I was about to change the channel I realized they were featuring India. I stopped had to. What was bizarre about Indian food? I must know and so I sat and watched the whole show.
They featured O Calcutta and their Head chef Joy Banerjee cook Banana flower (mocha), and Banana stem. That's how I was inspired to make kaanch kola r chochori. I knew how to make mocha. quite tedious, I wasn't sure if we had banana stem in the market, but I knew kaanch kola is available. So, I went and brought fresh banana squash and made this dish. It came out nice and I have been asked to repeat my feat.

Can I call this my original since I did not follow any one's recipe?
So this is my original, Yeppeeiiii

Kaanch Kola r chochori

Ingredients -

fresh Kaanch kola
one medium potato
half onion
dry chilli
mustard seeds
turmeric powder
pepper crushed
salt n sugar
green chilli
coriamder powder
garam masala
zeera powder

Procedure-

Cut the banana squash and potatoes into tiny slices.
Heat the oil and add the dry red chillies, mustard seeds. let them splutter, then add the onions. once the onions turn transparent and start turning golden at the end, add the potatoes and banana squash. keep frying them in the oil add salt and sugar. some water will start coming off the bananas and potatoes. let that evaporate and keep frying. In the process mash the whole then and keep stirring to make a mixture of it all in the wok. Now add the masalas, turmeric, cumin powder, coriander powder, pepper crush, all of them.
DO not put the garam masala right now.
keep mixing. now sprinkle some water i it starts getting too dry and sticks to the wok bottom. keep mixing. once you can smell all the masalas and feel the who mixture soften and all the ingredients mixed add the green chillies and garam masala.
it takes about 25-30 min to make the whole thing.
You can garnish it with fresh coriander.

PS- you can use boiled potatoes instead of frying like I do. But I like it mashed while fry cooking.

Its fun.

Weekend Invitation Menu

Yesterday we were invited to a friend's place. This was not the first time we were invited to their place. This needs a mention on my food blog because of the menu that was set for the dinner. The menu was fit for a Royal Loyal Bengali !!
This is the menu 12- course dinner that the 8 of us who were invited feasted. Everything was homemade.

Appetiser- Drumsticks

Main Course
1-Masoor dal
2-posto bora
3-sorse kumro
4-palak paneer
5-phulkopi-allo
6-Puti maach r kaalo jeera jhol
7-ruhii maache r kaliya
8-kosha mangsho
9-dimer dalna
10- aam r chatni

Dessert- Ras malai

Its important to mention that this was the first time ever among my counterparts, that I had such a stupendous meal where each dish was as good as the next. The dishes were pleasing to look at and even better to taste. Needless to say the conversation after dinner was just as wonderful.
No one can complain after such an excellent meal.
This week I am much inspired.

4-course on a week day

Been long since I did some cooking. Last couple of weeks have been quite lazy in the kitchen front. Last week our meals in general consisted of grilled chicken, fried fishes, eat outs and barbecue. But today I was am ready for some elaborate meal time. SH must also be ready for something more than just dim er dalna and dal.

So the menu today is -

-Muro diye Bandhakopi

- Maach bhaaja

-Cholar dal

- Aloo potol dalna

Muro diye Bandakopi

We had the ilish maach fried and sorshe jhol. Generally I throw the head but this time I did not want to. SH's dida told me that I could make bandha kopi with it. I wasnt too sure about it. But then decided to try it. Called my mother and took the recipe. She has warned me that Ilish has a lot of "kaanta" even in the head. But then I know that ilish kaanta can just be chewed away. So, Ultimately I made it.

Ingredients

Fish head- 1

Bandhakopi (cabbage)- half

red chilli - cumin Powder - pepper crushed - dhania powder - Green chilli
cilantro - garam masala - salt to taste

Procedure-

Wash and clean the head of the fish and rub it with turmeric.

Heat Oil in a wok. Add the fish head and let it fry. deep fry it until it turns golden. In the mean time clean and cut the cabbage. In the same oil. add crushed ginger, and the cabbage to fry. Add turmeric, salt, dhania powder, cumin powder, pepper, chilli powder. Also add the fish head. keep stirring and frying. let the water of the of the cabbage evaporate. keep stirring and frying till the cabbage turns transparent and golden. add the required salt with taste. fresh coconut, Green chillies, fresh cilantro and garam masala.

Aloo Potol Dalna

I used frozen potol for this recipe.

Ingredients

Potol (pointed gourd) - 1/2 pack
Aloo - 2

Bay Leaf

dry red chilli - Ginger - Green Chilli - Turmeric - Coriander - Red Chilli - Cumin Seeds

Salt, sugar ( To Taste )

Procedure-

Wash and cut ptatoes and potol thin, and in length.

Heat oil in a wok. Add the potatoes and potol slices. Once they start browning add the bay leaves, and all the dry masalas. and now mix it till all the water evaporates. now add 2 cups of water and let this sim. When the oil starts floating and the curry color come. This means the curry is done.

Always enjoy your meal.

All new bee Bengali cooks who were at a lose because Sutapa's Milonee.net no more exists.
Well! its back with a new domain.
I did not give up and went on a search again. And here it is.
Have a wonderful Royal Bengal cook time.

Grilled chicken and Veggie!

Weekends are lazy. I don't feel like cooking. SH has a two week break from his books so I have loaded him with the kitchen responsibilities. That's the reason there has not been an update from me in a while.
The following is SH's speciality. I am a big fan SH's grilled chicken. Its makes a wonderful meal if you are lazy and tired and want to finish up quick.
The white sauce is prepared by me.

Grilled Chicken and Veggies with White sauce

White Sauce

Ingredients-

Maida- 2 tbsp

Butter- 2 tbsp

Milk- 1/2 cup

salt and pepper as preferred

Procedure-

Heat the milk and add the butter and maida. Keep stirring so that the mixture has a smooth consistency. Add salt and pepper. Heat enough so that the smell of milk and maida is gone. Simmer and let it thicken but still have a liquid consistency.

Strawberries dipped in chocolate

If you have extra strawberries in the fridge and don't know what to do with them, because you feel lazy to make a smoothie or a salad and don't feel like eating them just the way they are, below is a wonderful and easy way to a delicious dessert.



Make any occasion extra special.

..wash and clean the strawberries. Remove all the stems and leaves if any.
..Hersey's liquid chocolate is a good option for a dip.
drench the strawberries in the chocolate.

PS- If you are in a mood for even more of the indulgence spray some whipped cream and sprinkle some sugar powder.


Eat Merry!!

Chola dal

No one at my house is a big fan of chola dal. But I make it a point to rotate all the pulses and lentils and not get stuck at the favorite which is masoor dal for both of us. One of our acquaintances who have now moved to Japan were really good at this particular dish but I never asked for the recipe because I was too busy eating and praising the dish.

This week I made a chola dal the way I wanted to.
Ingredients:
Chola dal- 1 cup
mixed vegetables (beans, carrots, peas and corn)- one cup
onion- quarter of a medium
ginger- 1 in slice
tomato- 1 small one or medium
dry red chilli- 2
turmeric- 1 tsp
cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp
coriander- 1 tsp

coconut shredded and sliced

garam masala- 1 tsp
pepper- crushed a pinch
green chillis
salt to taste

Procedure:
Boil the dal with a pinch of turmeric, salt and a green chilli.
Heat a wok, add oil let the cumin seeds splutter, then put the onions and dry red chilli's. when the onions have softened and turned transparent add the tomatoes and let them fry. keep stirring for balanced cooking. add the turmeric, coriander powder, crushed pepper, crushed ginger slices. let this fry for a minute or two. Now add the mixed vegetables. and fry for a couple of minutes. Also add the sliced coconut which will get fried and cooked along with the veggies.
When you feel that the vegetables are slightly fries add the dal and a glass of water or as needed.
this dal is just as good when made slightly dry or with more gravy. Add salt to your taste and the green chillis. Also add the shredded coconut. this makes the dal slightly crunchy and tasty.
Before serving add some ghee to make it even more delicious. A simple meal becomes just a fabulous experience on the dining table.

Shukto

Sometime ago one of my acquaintance's mother came to visit them and she had prepared a typical Bengali meal for us. The first course in a normal Bengali lunch is something bitter and boiled/steamed. Shukto is one such dish. It is bitter and made of boiled vegetables. And it is such a wonderful dish. It was after such a long since I has tasted it that I felt I was at home for an instance. Well, I knew there were certain specific vegetables used to make Shukto, like sojne data. So I never tried making it. But the acquaintance's mother had substituted the sojne danta with phul kopir data, which i think is brilliant. The end result is fantastic. People use Hing in seasoning but I do not like the smell of hing and so I do not use it. Also using bordii ( vadi) which is usually made of moong Dal, is usual but I did not have them at home so I did not use it. Its a tasty option.

Ingredients: (the veggie list ):

phul kopir danta, bitter gourd, carrot, potatoes, beans
2 tsp mustard and 1 tsp posto
coriander powder- 1tsp
garam masala- a pinch
Seasoning:
paanch phoron
methi seeds
bay leaves
dry red chillies

Procedure:
put the mustard seeds and posto in a warm cup of water for 2-3 hrs and then grind it to a thin consistency.
cut all the veggies to about 1 inch squares or rounds. slice the danta into thin long strips.
Heat oil in a wok and add the seasonings all together. when it starts spluttering add the vegetables and stir it for a few minutes. Once the vegetables soften add the mustard-posto mixture. mix everything and then add some water if needed.
Some people like it dry, some people like it with some gravy, and some love it maakha maakha!!
*wink*wink*