Paneer Burji Quesadilla / Paneer Crumble Quesadilla

I recently had a friend over for lunch who just wanted to just hang out with me catching up on gossip and things. When I asked her what I can cook for her, she said  as usual, " don't worry, we can order some sandwiches!". I had some paneer that I bought from Indian store recently and I thought making a grilled paneer sandwich. But, Once my friend was here, we were busy chatting and completely forgot about the grilling part.

I ended up making a paneer burji and put it inside a flour tortilla and made it as a quesadilla. I served with some curried carrot and butter nut squash soup. My friend said the food was " out of the world". I made the same for my kids after school snack and they loved it. My daughter who does not eat cheese, ate a whole quesadilla with out any squeak!


It is so easy to put together and you can try this and see.


Get Ready

• Store brought paneer 3/4 pack, crumbled with hands. ( use a food processor if you have one)
• 1/2 white onion very finely chopped
• Lots of cilantro, i did not measure it
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1/4 tsp garam masala powder
• 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
• finely chopped green chillies ( optional)
• Grated ginger ( optional)
• Mission Flour tortillas medium sized
• olive oil to to cook the quesadillas

Go:

• In a bowl add the crumbled paneer, chopped onions, cilantro, all masalas and salt. combine them all well and set aside.

• Take a tortilla, spoon the mixture on one side of the tortilla. fold the tortilla over.

• You can cook them immediately or assemble them, cover with a damp cloth and refrigerate.
• In a  hot skillet, add a little oil and place the folded tortilla. Cook till golden and flip the other side.
• Cook till golden on both sides.

• Cut into any shape you want and serve with ketchup, sour cream or even a mint chutney

Variation

I used the same filling inside  bread and made them as bread rolls for he kids. Cut the edges of the bread out. With the rolling pin, roll the bread nice and flat. Spoon the paneer burji filling inside. Roll the bread tight and apply a little water to the edge and press down. Apply some butter on the bread and cook a tawa, seam side down first till golden and crispy.

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A perfect school lunch, after school snack or quick week night dinner. if you don't have tortillas, one can also use left over chapathi's.

Try this out and tell me if you and your family likes it.

Cauliflower Paratha / Gobi paratha

I recently found this pack of "Riced Cauliflower" at Trader Joe's and immediately thought, " woe, that would be perfect to use in a paratha! And that is what I did and it came out so well and I saved some time grating or food processing the cauliflower. they are not expensive and only $1.99 at TJ! love TJ!<3 p="">

If you don't get the riced cauliflower, just wash, clean the florets of cauliflower and grate them. Don't include the stem, save it and use it in a soup.


My kids loved them and they are perfect for breakfast, dinner or school lunches.



Get Ready ( makes about 8-9 parathas)

 For the filling

• 2 cups riced/ grated cauliflower
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp sambar powder
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro and (optional) mint leaves
• salt to taste
• oil/ ghee to cook parathas

For the outer covering

• 1 cup atta/ wheat flower
• a pinch of salt
• 1 cup warm water
• oil to rub

Go

• Make the dough, cover it with a wet cloth or saran wrap and set aside.

• Next, let us make the filling.

• In a dry pan, add the riced cauliflower, grated ginger, turmeric, chili powder, sambar powder salt and fry them till all the moisture evaporates.
• Add cilantro, chopped mint and set aside for it cool completely. This is very important as you don't want the stiffing to be warm and it will be hard to roll the parathas.

• Take a lemon sized ball of the dough, make a small disc. Take a small key lime sized filling.
• Add the stuffing inside and pull the edges in a pleated fashion to close. Make  the ball smooth, and flatten the dough with your palm.

• Dust a surface and gently, I mean very gently roll the paratha.
• You can also do the second method, which is much easier by making 2 discs out of the dough. spread the filling on the first one, cover with the second disc, seal the edges and roll. This method makes less mess and reduces the chance of filling seeping out.

• Heat the tawa, and add the rolled paratha. Once you see small bubbles on the surface of the paratha, flip them over.

•  Add little oil or ghee and cook the parathas till golden on both sides.

Serve hot with raita, yougurt or pickle. My kids love to eat them with ketchup!

Variations:

Add cumin, dhania powder,or green chilli according to your taste for the filling.

Crispy Onion Rava Dosa ( Restaurant Style)

Here is a very simple and easy recipe for a crispy, hotel style Onion rava dosai. We recently were in London and my daughter loved the onion rava doasi served at Hotel Saravana Bhavan. We ate there 4 times during our stay and every time, my little girl wanted to eat the same dosa. She does not care for chutney, sambar for dipping and is just happy with a little bit of rasam. I make this so often and was actually surprised that I had blogged about it before.

So, Here is the recipe. Use equal measure of rice flour and rava and 1/2 measure of maida or all purpose flour. The other ingredients are all per taste and you can tweak it the way you want. You don't have to soak the rava, rice flour in any thing. It so happened to me that, I made the batter and let it sit for 30 mins before making dosa.

This dosa cannot be spread the same way as regular dosa. Since the batter will be watery, you have to pour it in a circle on a hot tawa slowly from the outside and then slowly fill up the insides.


Get Ready ( makes 10- 15 dosa)

• 1 cup Rice flour
• 1 cup Rava/ sooji
• 1/2 cup All purpose flour/ maida
• 1 cup butter milk
• 2 tsp jeera/ cumin seeds
• 1 tsp black pepper corn/ milagu
• 3.5 - 4 cups of water (add more as needed)
• salt to taste
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• Lots of curry leaves and chopped cilantro
• 1 small onion  pretty finely chopped.
• 2 small green chilly chopped ( optional)
• oil to make dosa

Go:

• In a bowl add all the flours, salt, jeera, pepper, grated ginger, curry leaves and cilantro.

• Add butter milk, water and whisk them all well without any lumps. 

• If you batter is going to sit for a while, make sure to whisk them all again as the rawa will sink at the bottom and the batter will thicken. Add more water so the batter is watery, but not too thin.

• Add the chopped onions, salt to taste.
• Heat your tawa or skillet. Sprinkle some water on the tawa to make sure it is pretty hot. The water should sizzle right away.
• Pour the batter first forming a outer circle and gradually fill up the inside. It should looks lacy with lots of holes.  I used a rectangular skillet and hence all weird geographic shapes !

• Add oil and a little bit of ghee for the dosa to cook till brown and crispy. One does not have to flip them to the other side, but you can if you want to.
• Serve hot with chutney, sambar or molagapodi. I served with Almond chutney which can be found here !

Enjoy the crispy onion rava dosa without counting how many you eat! They taste so good piping hot!

Paal Payasm , Kerala style / Milk Kheer

I have another post on Paal Payasam, where I cook it on a open vessel method. Check out my previous recipe here Paal Payasam

 It takes a little time, but totally worth it.

This version is an easy method of making paal payasam in the pressure cooker. It does not involve a lot of stirring and the final product has a light pinkish color and tastes so good. You need a big pressure cooker and a tall vessel to go inside it. My mom used to make this type a lot, however my mother in law will always make the open vessel type. The rule of thumb for paal payasam is 1 litre milk needs a hand full of rice and half sugar. Kerala red payasam rice gives a great authentic flavor. I did not have that and used sona masoori rice.


Kerala Pal Payasam does not usually have any cardamom, cashews or raisins and just has the milky flavor.

This payasam served during special feasts goes very well with Poli!

Get Ready

• 2% milk 2 cups  ( 500 ml)
• 1/2 handfull of raw rice 
• 1/2 cup sugar

Go:

• Wash the rice
• Add the rice to the milk in a tall vessel.

• Add little water than normal inside the pressure cooker.
• Keep the vessel with milk and rice inside the pressure cooker.

• Cover and cook for 3 whistles and simmer for 25- 30 mins.
• Turn the heat off. let it rest for 15 mins and then open the cooker.
• You will see the milk changed color and rice cooked well.
• Add the sugar to this and cook directly on low flame for 10 -15 mins till the sugar completely dissolves, stirring in between.
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• Turn the heat off and serve. This payasm tastes even better when chilled.

Cheese and Onion Sandwich

I recently took a break from blogging and am back now. The family went on a few trips, made some memories and back to the glory land.

During our trip, we had some amazing sandwiches from Marks & Spencer's. My son's favorite was the cheese and onion sandwich and mine was the carrot and Wensleydale sandwich.

I wanted to recreate those sandwiches as I thought they would be perfect for school lunches. I made the cheese and onion one today and quickly took a picture of it on my i phone.

My teenage son liked it and will be in his packed lunch for sure. Pair it with a fruit, yogurt, chips and a drink, you have a pretty filling lunch for the kid.

Get Ready

• Spring onion/ scallion 2, washed and very finely chopped both green and white part
• 1-2 tbsp of Mayonnaise
• 2-3 tbsp of grated sharp cheddar cheese | add more if you like it)
• cracked black pepper
• 2 Bread slices ( I used Nature's own honey wheat )

Go

• In a bowl add the chopped spring onions, mayo, cheese, black pepper and mix until well combined.
• Spread the mixture on the bread slice and and cover it with another bread slice.
• Cut the sandwich diagonally and serve.

Enjoy the sandwich and remember to eat some mint after  :))

Creamy Grilled Eggplant Dip

Recently I had a few friends over and made this grilled egg plant dip to serve with appetizers.
This is a make ahead dip and can be put together very easily.
Serve them with pita chips or any chips of your choice. Mine served a lot of people and you can reduce the quantity if you are making for a few people.


Get Ready: ( serves 20 plus people)

• 2 large eggplants
• 1 small tub of sour cream
• Lots of finely chopped cilantro
• 2 tsp Cumin seeds
• 1 Red chilli powder
• 2-3 thai green chilli finely chopped ( optional)
• Salt to taste
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Go

• Wash and dry the egg plant. Poke a couple of holes on them with a fork. 

• Cover with foil and grill them on a medium gas flame turning them multiple times.

•  Keep the grill closed. Cook them till the are soft. One can also roast them on open gas flame to get a nice smokey flavor. Let tit cool well, peel the skin off, it comes easily and take the flesh of the cooked eggplant.

• Mash the cooked flesh with a fork into a nice pulp.

• This can be made ahead and kept refrigerated.
• Before serving, add the sour cream, desired salt, chopped cilantro and mix.
• In a pan, add the oil, add the red chilli powder and cumin. once the cumin seeds sizzle, pour it over the dip.

Banana Bread ( Version 2)

Here is a very easy, no nonsense banana bread recipe to make. This is a second version and it was as good as my previous one.

Best Banana Bread


Kids are at home for the summer and they are always hungry. I am sure, you like me must be getting tired of providing healthy snacks for them when at home.

 Get your kids involved in baking this and they will love this. This can be made in no time.

Last Sunday, we decided to make this in the afternoon and my kids loved in cracking the eggs, mashing the banana saying" eew, eew", licking the batter and had so much fun. The recipe can be easily halved and that is what I did. So, it filled only half of the loaf pan and was ready in 40 mins of baking.


The final product tasted very good and was soft after 3 days too.



Get Ready

• 1/2 cup butter at room temp
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs beaten
• 4 ripe bananas mashed 
• 1 & 1/2 cup all purpose flour ( maida)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract ( i did not have this, but original recipe calls for it)

Go

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Grease your loaf pan with cooking spray
• Sift the flour, salt, baking soda and set aside.
• Cream butter and sugar. You can use a spatula or an electric mixer.
• Add the eggs and beta well till frothy.
• Add the mashed banana , vanilla extract and mix well
• Add the sifted flour mixture and fold with a spatula. Do not beat this mix.
• Pour into the greased loaf pan and bake for 50 mins - 1 hr or till an inserted tooth pick comes out clean.

Remove it out of the oven, let it cool well, slice and enjoy for breakfast or an evening snack with a cup of chai!

Sorry, could not do step by step pictures with little helpers in the kitchen!

Other options:

Adding chocolate chips, chopped walnuts would be tasty too.

Grilled Paneer & Vegetables

Tucson is very popular to enjoy year round sunshine. Every house has an outdoor grill and people have a lot of outdoor parties.
Come memorial day, there is a lot of outdoor grilling and barbecue here. I have been grilling corn, Trader Joe's masala veggie burgers 9 they are da bomb ), zucchini etc and enjoying them. I recently wanted to try grilling paneer and was pleased with the results. My teenager and DH loved it as well.

I made them a paneer and vegetable skewers. It is simple and just needs some prep work done.

I used store bought " Gopi" brand paneer, red bell peppers, red onions and zucchini. One can use mushrooms, tomatoes or even pineapple chunks to go in the skewers.

I used bamboo skewers and I recommend soaking them in water for 1 hr as it helps them from not burning while on the grill. I used them before without soaking and the whole skewer stick was charred. Other option is to use metal skewers.
You need good amount of cooking spray on the skewered paneer  and on the grill

Get Ready ( made about 6-8 skewers)

• Paneer 1 big block as sold in Indian stores  ( used 3/4 of it) cut into medium sized rectangles
• 1/2 red bell pepper cut into big chunks
• 1/4 red onion cut into big chunks
• 1 Zucchini sliced into 2 inch rounds
• Non stick Cooking spray  ( your best friend for this)
• Skewers soaked in water

For the Marinade

• 1/2 cup mint leaves
• 1/2 cup cilantro
• 1 small green chilli
• 1 tbsp ginger chopped
• 3 tbsp  plain Yogurt
• 1 tbsp besan/ Kadalai mavu
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• salt to taste
•  1/2 tsp of  chaat masala
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder

Go

Put all the ingredients for marinade into a blender and make a  paste.

Cut the paneer chunks and soak them in the marinade for at least 8-10 hrs in the refrigerator. 

Marinate the veggies in the same marinade. You can do it together with the paneer in a zip lock back or separately as I did.

Soak your skewers in water for 1 hrs.

Before Grilling

• Take the skewers and insert a veggie, onion, paneer or in any order you want. keep them aside

• Set your grill on the medium setting till everything gets heated for few mins
• Spray your grill grates and the skewers with cooking spray.
• Place them on the grill, cover and cook for 5-7 mins, turning the skewers so all the paneer and veggies are cooked
• Once you seethe paneer golden, with grill marks you are all set to enjoy them.
• Serve them hot with mint/ cilantro chutney or ketchup.

Enjoy and happy grilling!

Tiramisu / Eggless Tiramisu

Tiramisu is very popular Italian dessert made with lady fingers dipped in coffee, marsala wine and layered with a mixture of mascaporne cheese, eggs,cream.
I made this recently for a get together and avoided the raw eggs and alcohol. It is very easy to put together and is crowd pleaser.

This can also be made ahead, say a day before and will taste good. I was rushed to get everything ready for the party and could not get very good pictures.
Don't get carried away by the not so great pictures, the final product tastes very very good!


Get Ready

• 1 tub/ 8 oz Mascaporne cheese ( I used Trader joe's)
• Lady finger cookies ( I used whole foods brand, 1.5 packets)
• 1 small carton of heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup Powdered sugar ( adjust sugar as per taste)
• 1 & 1/2 cup warm Coffee/ Coffee decoction to soak the lady fingers ( used Kothas coffee)
• Unsweetened Cocoa powder for dusting the top layer

Go

• Keep the mascaporne cheese on the counter to get soft for about 15- 20 mins

• Make your coffee and add about 1/4 cup of powdered sugar and mix
• Beat the heavy whipping cream and remainder powdered sugar till soft peaks. Took about 10 -12 mins

• Fold the mascaporne cheese into the beater whipped cream mixture.
• Take the bowl/ casserole in which you are going to make the Tiramisu.
• Gently dunk the lady fingers one by one in the slightly warm coffee and arrange on the bottom of the dish. Don't over soak the lady finger s in coffee as they get way too soggy.

• Spread a layer of the cheese and cream mixture over them

• Repeat the lady finger cookies and cheese till the top

• Cover with saran wrap and refridgerate for 6- 8 hrs

• Before serving or 1-2 hrs before serving,dust cocoa powder with a sieve on the top.

Make slices and serve!

How easy is that to make, and trust me it is very easy to eat a lot!