Addictive Chilli Paneer

I absolutely love Chilli Paneer. In fact, I love paneer, fullstop. Whether it's Paneer Tikka for starters, or a Muttar Paneer curry for mains, to the ultimate - Chilli Paneer. My mouth is already drooling! I found this recipe on Google. As usual I typed in 'Best...recipe' but this was actually on the second page of the search results. The reason why I sifted through the front page recipes was purely down to the amount of ingredients and complexity of those recipes. As you know by now, I like quick and cheerful.

If I am being completely honest, I am off this chilli paneer dish for the time being. When I made this recipe for my friends, it was so yummy that I cooked it from scratch THREE MORE times in the SAME WEEK. Yes - that's right, I had a lot of chilli paneer that week. In fact, that is all I ate for 7 days in a row. I am an 'all or nothing' type of girl.

So cook this recipe at your own risk. You have been warned - it is delicious and completely addictive!

Ingredients
200g Paneer (cubed)
1 Green Pepper
1 Onion
5 Green chillies (you could add more depending on how hot you like it)
2 teaspoons Soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chilli sauce
2 tablespoons Lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon Pepper powder (black)
1 tablespoon Garlic and ginger paste
Handful of Chopped coriander
Salt as needed

Batter for frying Paneer cubes:
Vegetable oil as needed for frying
1 & 1/2 tablespoons of Plain flour
1 & 1/2 tablespoons of Corn flour
Pinch of Bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon of Salt

Method
Make a thick batter of plain flour and corn flour with salt. The batter consistency should be enough to coat the paneer smoothly.

Fry the paneer cubes by dipping them in this batter, drain in paper towel.

Cube the onion, green pepper and slit the green chillies

Heat a pan with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and add the crushed garlic and ginger paste and green chillies. Fry for 2 minutes. BEWARE - you get a lot of oil sparks and the garlic and ginger paste pops everywhere. I recommend you use a tea towel in front your body when stirring the pan.

Add the onion and fry till transparent.

Add the green pepper and stir in high flame.

Reduce flame and add the sauces, pepper amd salt and mix well.

Add the deep fried paneer cubes and mix in the lemon juice and mix well until everything blends evenly.

Lastly add the coriander leaves and transfer to the serving dish.

Paneer frying in batter

                               

Et voila!

Risotto with Hidden Vegetables

My 18 month old son loves Risotto. Its mushy, soft and he often gobbles it up without chewing - perfect for weaning actually! 

As usual, I add whatever vegetables I have in the fridge and freezer. This time around, I used a courgette, carrot and some frozen broad beans (random, I know). This is so easy to make and literally took 5 minutes to prepare. I left everything in the pan for 20 minutes, took the vegetables out, blended them and then put them back in the pan. 

I also give this to my husband as it has so many hidden vegetables and pretend I didn't make it just for Aaren but that its part of his dinner too!

Vegetable Oxo cube with some salt and pepper

Et Voila!

Chicken in a Bag

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this previously, but I am a Pescatorian. This essentially means that I eat seafood but no meat or chicken. I gave up meat about 5 years ago, as a challenge to myself and have stuck with it ever since. I don't miss it all and am happy to be making the little contribution to an animal's welfare. Saying that, I don't have a problem with cooking meat and I make it all the time for Ian.

His favourite dish of mine is 'Chicken in a Bag'. I am certain this is because it doesn't require me to do any real cooking except chop up a few vegetables. It is so simple and effortless to make (preparation time is about 10 minutes) and I therefore end up making it once a week and it lasts for two dinners. Easy.

You can buy different varieties of these 'bags' nowadays in most supermarkets. I use the Colmans brand and have also started using Maggi. I tend to use the Paprika flavour as that usually gets the most compliments!

The best thing about the 'Chicken in a Bag' recipe is that naturally, I don't follow it and just use all the vegetables that I need to get rid off.

Sweet Potato

My secret ingredient - Chorizo

Hearty Carrots

A plethora of colour

Skinned Chicken

The star of the show

In the bag, with the spices mixed in

The Finished Product

The smell is divine

Rice and Daal with Vegetables

Coming from Indian parents and a state in North India called Bihar, it would be impossible to make a dish without rice and daal (lentils). I remember when I was growing up (and even to this day), my parents would have Kitcheree every Saturday like a ritual. We weren't allowed to eat it on any other day for some superstitious reason. I grew up with so many Indian hocus pocus old wives tales (more on that to come later down the line). We had to have Kitcheree on Saturdays and that was that.

Maybe now would be a good time to explain that Kitcheree is essentially a mixture of rice and daal with vegetables of your choice (my parents usually put peas and cauliflower in theirs) infused with select Indian spices, particularly haldi (turmeric).

The only thing was, I hated it. I never ate it and luckily, the side dishes my parents made with it, spicy mashed potato, poppadoms and raita was enough to get me through the meal. I think the distaste towards Kitcheree was caused by two main reasons:

(i) it was probably more psychological than me not actually liking the taste of it
(ii) my parents used to put cauliflower in their Kitcheree and I hated cauliflower. I hated everything about it - the look, the texture and the taste. I still do

Although, this has now changed and I can happily eat Kitcheree (minus the cauliflower).

Cooking Kitcheree is actually really simple - throw a cup of uncooked rice, a cup of daal and whatever vegetables you want in a pan of boiling water. Put some spices in the pan and let it simmer for about 30 mins and hey presto. It's almost 0% fat as you boil everything and don't need oil to fry anything beforehand.

When it came to making food for my 18 month old son, I decided to experiment with Kitcheree - the results are below and delicious. I didn't add any spices this time around, but simply put in a vegetable Oxo cube, a teaspoon of Maldon sea salt and freshly ground pepper. I also took out the chunky vegetables after 15 mins, blended them and then put them back in the pan. Just so it's easier for Aaren to chow down on as he doesn't have any molars yet.

Note: Kitcheree is usually far more yellow in colour, because of the lentils and haldi. However, because of the lack of colourful spices and the fact I blended the mushrooms and carrots, it ended up being a more woody colour.

A few mushrooms with a peeled carrot. Rice and Daal

                                   

Oxo cube, Salt and Pepper

About to blend the vegetables

Blended Carrot and Mushrooms

Simmering with a knob of butter to taste

My presentation is somewhat lacking

               

All gone!