Dum Paneer & Rumali Roti

Dear Foodies,

Paneer is a huge favorite of mine and in an odd way signifies a special occassion or a reason to celebrate in my mind. Whenever we eat out a paneer dish is a must on the order and being vegetarian almost an obvious choice. With its nuetral flavor and creamy texture there is hardly anyone who can say they hate it, just not possible. Made entirely from milk with no confusions about rennet or animal enjymes used in the process, its the most vegetarian friendly cheese available. Its the best use of milk thats close to its expiry date and sitting smugly in your refrigerator... but ofcourse that never happens in my place. (heh!)

Most regular north Indian restaurants here have a banal list of paneer dishes on their menu. I categorize them as Green/Orange/Red, and they progress just like the traffic signals, green you may take a chance, orange - give it a second thought, red - stay away! They taste of nothing familiar and are doused with ridiculous amounts of cream/grease and spices. The paneer also is often a chewy, rubbery mass and the whole purpose of eating out to enjoy a meal is lost right there. With such poor examples its hard explaining to the locals here that Indian food is nothing close to what these greasy/bland dishes represent. I was watching Gordan Ramsay's Great Escape on Netflix this past weekend, he sets out on a tour of India to learn about its curries and see what was done wrongly in UK kitchens. Though he does try some pretty dramatic variations of curries the show does focus on the true charm of India's cuisine. Each one has a rich culture and history associated with it based on where it comes from. Each curry has a pedigree of sorts attached to it and you can track down the various influences on the recipe. Its a shame that such rich heritage is then thrown out the window by these restaurants.

With my parents here as an excuse I got a telugu channel package installed at home and along with my mom we cover all the cooking shows on TV. Lots of new ideas with a good dose of weird combinations have filled up our recipes books, and by 'our' I mean my mom painstakingly writing them down and then re-typing them on the laptop for a soft copy! :D One of shows (Abhiruchi/Etv) now has a Iron Chef styled secret ingredient cook-off as one of its segments. The inspiration for this recipe came from one such episode that had paneer as the ingredient of choice. I have since modified the recipe a bit to suit our tastes but the basic idea came from the show. One ingredient that I think was missing in the original is Kasuri methi. It may sound insignificant but when used will surely trigger the 'aha! so this is what they use' moment when it comes to replicating restaurant favorites at home.

Kasuri Methi is regular methi leaves in their dried form. From wiki I learned that it gets its name from Kasur a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan, that grows methi in abundance. A small spoonful, crushed between your palms and sprinkled over the curry close to the very end of the cooking process will add an additional   layer of flavor to the dish. The leaves have a strong bitter/sour flavor and fragrance to them and when added to a gravy they compliment the strong spices really well.

Dum Paneer

Servings: 4
Prep Time: 30mins
Cooking Time: 30-40mins

Ingredients:

• 1 - Onion,large ~ 3 cups, sliced
• 3 - Tomatoes, medium sized
• 2 - Green chillies
• 12-15 - Cashews, whole
• 2-3 Tbsp - Oil
• 1/4 tsp - Turmeric
• 1 tsp - Ginger-garlic paste(~ 1 big garlic clove & 1" round of ginger)
• Whole Spices - 1 bay leaf, 2-3 1" shards of cinnamon stick, 2 Green Cardamom pods, 4-5 Cloves
• Spice Powders - 1/2 tsp each of - Garam masala powder, Dhania powder, Cumin powder, Red Chilli powder (optional)
• 2 Tbsp - Curd/Yogurt
• 1-1.5 cups - Paneer cubes
• 1 tsp - Kasuri Methi
• few leaves of Mint/Pudina (optional, I skipped it) and Coriander
• fresh/heavy cream for garnish (optional)
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. Make a shallow plus slit to pierce through the tomato skins and drop them in boiling water for about a minute to loosen the skin. When cool enough to handle, peel off the skin and grind them to a paste along with green chilies. Use some of the hot water to give the cashews a quick soak for a few minutes and grind to a fine paste.
2. Heat a tbsp of oil in a pan and add the sliced onions. Cook them on medium heat until browned evenly. This takes about 8-10mins, a few charred bits is totally fine, you don't have to slow cook them as you would for caramelized onions. When cooled, blend it to a fine paste too.
3. In a deep saucepan, heat 2 Tbsp of oil/butter and add in the whole spices and turmeric. Once they become fragrant carefully add ginger-garlic paste and cook for 15-20secs. Add brown onion paste and tomato-chilli paste next and cook on medium heat for 5-6 mins until the moisture is cooked out of it.
4. Reduce the heat a bit and stir in the yogurt. Bring the heat back up to medium and continue to cook for a few more minutes until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan as one mass. This is where you would also see the oil separate if you used more but the 2 Tbsp isn't quite enough to do that for the amount of gravy.
5. Add in the spice powders, salt, cashew paste and about ~11/2 cups of water to achieve  desired consistency. Make it a little looser than you would want the final gravy as it will continue to thicken a bit.
6. Taste test for seasonings now, once the paneer is added you don't want to stir it much. Toss in the paneer cubes, kasuri methi, pudina(if using) and coriander leaves and cover with a heavy lid to ensure that moisture does not escape out of the pan. (This step is crucial step in the recipe, the Notes section has more details.) Heat on the lowest setting on your cooking range for about 15mins.
7. Transfer to a serving bowl, garnish with fresh cream/coriander leaves and serve hot with roti or rice.

Notes: For the 'dum' part of the cooking process, I used a cast iron lid and it did a pretty good job of trapping steam. Another option is to cover the whole pot with aluminum foil and then press it down with the regular lid. If not try the traditional method by making chapathi dough, roll it out like a thick rope and seal the edges of the pan with the lid covered. - Make extras of the browned onion paste and freeze it for a quick gravy another night. - Instead of paneer you can try other veggies like potatoes, capsicum, cauliflower.

The flavors in this dish will take you by surprise. The browned onions that form the base of the gravy add a wonderful richness and depth. Cashew paste and curd mellow out the sharp flavors of the spices with the curd adding a tangy note at the end. Most recipes that use paneer call for it to be added at the very end. In this one though, paneer cubes blend into the whole dish instead of standing out like an after-thought. Cooking it in 'dum' forces all the flavors in the gravy to be absorbed by the paneer making them wonderfully moist and flavorful. If you are feeling awfully indulgent you can add cream and khoya to the gravy, both used in the original, but to me it was rich enough without them.

Feeling really adventurous I looked for a recipe for Rumali roti to pair with dum paneer. If I had to pick just one, then rumali roti will surely top the list of Indian breads for me. Being thin as a rumal/handkerchief it is the perfect vehicle for a rich gravy as it does not over power the flavors in anyway. It's rarely found in restaurants even in Hyderabad these days. I had requested our wedding caterer to make this for the reception dinner but he refused saying it would be tough to make them fresh for the crowd. No regrets though since I hardly got to enjoy a meal that day. It would have been distracting to think about the rumali rotis while sitting through the wedding ceremonies :D

Rumali/Roomali Roti

Serving: 12-14 rotis

Prep time: 10mins

Cooking time: 30mins

Ingredients

• 1 cup All purpose flour/Maida
• 1 cup Whole Wheat flour/Atta
• salt to taste
• 1 Tbsp oil
• Milk and Water to make dough (~ 1.5 cups total).
• Rice flour for dusting ~ 1/2 cup
  

Method:  Make a moist dough and knead it for 3-4 mins until soft and pliable. Cover the dough ball with a moist cloth and allow to rest for 1-2hrs. Roll two small dough balls the sixe of a key lime and stretch them to the size of a small poori. Spread oil on one side of each round and dredge/dust evenly with rice flour. Place one round over the other with floured sides facing each other and press around the edges to form a rough seal. Using a rolling pin stretch the dough to make a very thin roti, as thin as you can get without tears. Heat a wide, shallow pan on high heat and cook the roti for 20-30secs on each side until you see little brown spots on the surface. Any longer and you'll have papads! Transfer to a covered, serving dish and about a minute later when cool enough to handle, separate the two layers to get individual rumals!

Source: barely modified from here

The roti's are soft and melt in your mouth. You are gauranteed to lose count of how many you devour so make extras! I made this combination twice this month already and cannot wait to repeat it again. I served it alongside a salad of ripe tomatoes and onions sprinkled with salt, pepper and chaat masala because chaat masala makes everything better :)

Swiss Chard Paneer

Dear Foodies,


The colder temperatures outside make you crave for hearty, warm food that comforts the soul and the body. It could sometimes be answered by a hearty bowl of soup, or a piled up sandwich. But sometimes you just want to feel the warm grains of rice against your fingers and gobble it up with a side dish of your choice. Nothing can match the satisfaction of eating rice for me, I almost always tend to over eat when its around. And when its paired with greens, you can even convince yourself that its good for you :)

Most greens taste wonderful simply sautéed in your oil of choice, a little garlic and crushed chilli flakes. Spinach, swiss chard, collard greens all do great cooked this way. But last Tuesday at the farmer's market I noticed that huge piles of greens were being lapped up by the bag loads. I couldn't identify them immediately. Curious to see what they were I went to get a closer look and noticed tiny bell peppers growing on a few, while some others had squash flowers and others had little string beans growing on them. I have never seen these being used in cooking before and asked one of the ladies picking up yet another bag of them. And there it was again, sauté in oil with garlic! On my next visit I'm going to be grabbing some of those greens too, and yes, will report back to you :) I suddenly feel like I have many more options for my greens and not just spinach.

Matar Paneer

Dear foodies,

I did it again! I killed the second basil plant I brought home :( I had really high hopes for the second one, and it looked like it was thriving too. But I was away for the 4-day long weekend and when I got back, no amount of coaxing it back to life helped. I have now officially given up on my patio garden for this year. I am going to stick to the more robust herbs and see how far they go. The mint, thyme and rosemary don't seem to miss me at all, they went about doing their business - sprouting new leaves and growing longer and bushier. Good for them! So the basil pesto and pizza ideas are now on an indefinite hold. Just like my cable subscription. The apartment community that I live in changed their rules, no more permanent mounting of dishes on the deck. They gave us a 3 week time period to find an alternative. I had 3 different technicians come to take a look at it and none had a solution. The dish is now lying on the deck facing nowhere in particular and the TV is reduced to a black box. I am used to having the TV playing in the background from the moment I step into the house in the evening. I need the noise pollution to keep me sane, the silence freaks me out completely :( Do any of you share the feeling ?

Okay, getting back to cooking. I've been buying fresh English peas and fava beans and ramps and garlic greens and asparagus whenever I can spot them in the grocery store aisle. Thanks to the blog hopping I do, I now look for these so-far unfamiliar goods, nestled between the usual suspects in the store. The berries haven't yet arrived in full splendor, but that does not stop me from buying the strawberries. I can slowly, yet steadily taste the sweetness and the burst of flavor increasing in each batch that I buy. When at home in India, my father would buy a lot of peas in the pod from the market when in season. Once we, er he shelled them, my mom would take over and add them to every dish she possibly could - vegetable curries, sambar, mixed rice, upma etc etc I liked them, but not enough to enjoy it in everything! But just like everything else, I've come like them too and now look forward to the fresh peas in the store. The fresh ones have a bite to them and hold up to short cooking times without turning into a mush. Apart from salads, I made this quintessential desi restaurant menu item - Matar Paneer (or mutter paneer).

Matar Paneer - Indian cottage cheese with Peas

Ingredients:

• 2 cups - vine ripe Tomatoes, diced
• 3/4 cup - Onions, minced ( I am currently in the 'I-love-vidalia-onions' phase :D)
• 3/4 cup - Green peas, shelled
• 3/4 cup - Paneer cubes, thinly sliced
• 1 Tbsp - Oil
• 1 tsp - Cumin seeds/Jeera
• 2 nos - small Bay leaves ~ an inch long
• 3 nos - Cloves/laung
• 1/2 tsp - Ginger, minced
• 1/2 tsp - Garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp - Green chilli, minced
• 1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder
• 1 tsp - Tomato paste
• 1 tsp - Garam masala powder
• 1 tsp - Red chilli powder (optional)
• 2 tsp - Kasuri methi, crushed
• 5-6 nos - whole cashews, soaked in warm water OR 1 Tbsp - sour cream
• Salt to taste
  
• For garnishing - Coriander leaves, sliced onions and lemon wedges

prepping the paneer : If using fresh paneer, dice it into cubes, and broil to get a golden crust OR cut long slabs and pan fry it in a non-stick pan. Drain and cut into cubes. OR if using frozen cubes, soak them in warm water for 5-10 mins and broil for 2-3mins if you desire.

Method:

1. In a deep pan, heat the oil on medium heat. Add the cumin seeds, cloves and bay leaves. Once fragrant and toasted, add the minced onions and ginger, garlic and chillies. Sprinkle some salt and cook till the onions are softened and translucent.
2. Add turmeric, tomato paste and cook for a minute. (The tomato paste adds a nice color and tartness) The minced tomatoes go in next along with the garam masala powder. Cook this on medium heat until the tomatoes fall apart and the oil starts to separate from the edges. Stir every few minutes so the gravy does not burn.
3. At this point, you can fish out the bay leaves, transfer the whole gravy to a blender with the soaked cashews and blend to a smooth paste. ( let it cool before blending or leave room for the hot steam to vent while grinding) Transfer it back to the pan, add the bay leaves and bring it back to medium heat with the crushed kasuri methi and peas added. Check for salt.
   
4. If you are not in a mood to use the blender, start with finely minced onions & tomatoes and use a masher at this stage to turn it to pulp. Stir in a spoon of sour cream, proceed with the kasuri methi and peas, and simmer for a few minutes on low heat.
   
5. Add the paneer cubes, heat it through, and add a little water if needed. Take off the heat, garnish with coriander leaves and lemon wedges on the side. Serve with pulao/jeera rice or Indian breads like naan and rotis.

*Boiled (in salted water) and cubed potatoes could be used instead of paneer to make this Aloo matar. Add it to the cooked gravy in step 4 before adding the peas, simmer for 6-7mins allowing the potatoes to soak up the flavors.

I made a quick, microwave jeera rice to go along with the curry. The bowl that you see is the one I cooked the rice in, just a cup of it. I melted a thin slice of butter in the microwave, 30secs. Add a tsp of cumin seeds and heated it for another 30secs until it sizzles. I then added the washed rice and required amount of water and microwaved it for 8 mins, and then two more minutes with the bowl covered. Let it cool, fluff it up with a spoon and jeera rice is done :)

The gravy tasted fabulous, if I say so myself. I made it twice in the last 3 weeks, the first time was the lazy me, not touching the blender and using low-fat sour cream for the creaminess. The fresh home grown tomatoes I found at the store were bursting with juices and added a nice tang. The peas held their shape and tasted really good in the gravy. I could not take the photos as soon as the curry was done, and so the peas seem to have lost the bright green they had. I consciously stayed away from using heavy spices in this curry because I wanted to taste the peas and keep it simple/mild. The kasuri methi in the end enhances the flavor of the gravy and gives it a very nice flavor. The second time I made it was this weekend, when I had friends visiting. This time I brought out the blender and used cashews to add richness to the gravy. It tasted great both ways and I don't think I can pick one over the other, it comes down to your convenience.

Palak Paneer !

Dear Foodies,

Here is a simple recipe that transforms boring greens into a delectable creation, Palak Paneer. Just the addition of paneer to the word palak makes it a quick favorite :D I totally forgot about this dish after I came here. Palak Paneer's rich (& greasy) cousin, Saag paneer is a quintessential addition to any Indian restaurant here in the US. They drown the greens in tons of cream and butter robbing them of their natural beauty ! I've somehow never heard of this dish in India, it must be one of those Indo-American creations by some innovative chef !

So last week a friend of mine who reads my blog asked me why I had not blogged about this dish yet, it got me wondering too ! Its a clean, uncomplicated recipe that can be cooked in under 30 mins. Some jeera rice or chapatis on the side and your are all set to have a delicious meal. Thank you KM ! Its has been ages since I enjoyed this dish and it felt sooooo good. It brought back memories of the aloo palak my mom makes( need to get her recipe)

The recipe for palak paneer is very simple, its perfect for first time cooks. There are very few ingredients with the spinach being the star of the show. No heavy cream or butter or masala to spoil the fun here. Its also a very forgiving recipe, letting you use any form of the ingredients without ruining the flavor even a bit. Many recipes I saw online called for cumin and coriander powder, I had neither with no intentions of making them fresh either. So I just crushed the seeds in a mortar and pestle. I also had some leftover tomato puree from the gobi kheema. You can surely use store bought tomato puree or fresh tomatoes. So here's my recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch - Spinach leaves, washed (I used a packet of baby spinach)
• 2 nos - Green chillies, slit lengthwise
• 10-15 - Paneer cubes (I used frozen paneer cubes got from the Indian store)
  
• 1 tbsp - Oil (or butter/ghee if you are in a really good mood :) )
• 2 tsp - Cumin seeds/Jeera
• 1 tsp - Coriander seeds, crushed
  
• 1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
• 1/2 nos - Onion, sliced
• 2 tsp - Ginger & Garlic paste ( I minced fresh ginger & garlic)
• 1 nos - Ripe tomato, chopped or 1 Tbsp - Tomato puree ( I had some leftover frozen cubes of this tomato puree)
• 1 tsp - Garam masala
• 1 Tbsp - Yogurt
  
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. Boil some water in a vessel. Add the washed spinach, slit green chillies and some salt. When the leaves start to wilt strain them in a colander, storing the water. Wash the leaves under cold water, this I read helps retain the green color of the leaves.
   
2. Using a little of the strained water, puree the spinach and green chillies. I used a hand blender for this. If you choose to skip the blending part, then roughly chop the wilted spinach leaves to get a similar texture.
3. In a pan, heat the oil and splutter the jeera seeds and add crushed coriander seeds (or powder). As they brown, add the onions, ginger-garlic paste (store bought or fresh) and turmeric.
   Tip: Sprinkle a little salt on the onions to soften them faster. Salt brings out the water from the onions and helps them cook faster.
   
4. Once the onions are cooked add chopped tomatoes/puree. Cook until the tomatoes are tender and mushy. In my case I used 3 cubes of the frozen tomato puree and cooked it for 2-3mins. Add some of the strained water if needed.
5. Add the pureed spinach and let it simmer for a few minutes. Don't add too much water as there are no thickening agents in this recipe. I added some yogurt to get a nice smooth texture. When adding yogurt, lower the heat to avoid curdling.
   
6. Meanwhile thaw the paneer cubes in the microwave for a minute or two. Heat some oil in a pan and lightly brown the paneer. Don't toss them around too much as they break up very easily. I took the easiest route by spraying the paneer with some cooking oil and broiling them in the oven for 5 mins.
7. Add the paneer cubes and some garam masala to the palak; cook on low heat for a couple of minutes.
8. Serve hot with jeera rice or chapati. You can use the leftover strained water to make the chapati dough or cook rice.
   

I had some cooked rice in the fridge, so I microwaved it for 3 mins after tossing some jeera, a few drops of oil and a few spoons of water. Instant Jeera rice ready !! I absolutely loved this combo. Spinach in this form tastes sooo good. You even forget to feel guilty you are eating your greens !! :P So if its been awhile since you made this, do it tonight !

Happy cooking,

Veggie Burgers

Dear Foodies,


Inspired and motivated by the posts from Nandita and Bee, I finally got things together to make my own burgers. I loved the idea of using beans as the base for the burgers and Bee's pic was the final push I needed. Being a vegetarian I hardly have any choices in any of the huge fast food chains. Wendy's is the only place I can get a veggie burger and fortunately for me I like it (I do throw away the cheese slice though !) I also have a problem with the frozen patties we get in the stores. They are so full of cheese and lately I have a bad reaction to certain kinds of mushrooms and so avoid them as much as I can, I love them and so miss them though :(( With such a narrowed down list I hardly get a chance to enjoy a burger. The only burger patty I truly loved was the Indian burger patty from Trader Joe's. It was super delicious. It had a potato base and the blend of spices was just perfect. So when I decided to make a burger I knew I had to try and replicate that flavor somehow.


I tried two different flavor combinations and liked both of them. I used a variety of flavors and tried to make them a little different from each other by using different bases. The first is a Kidney bean & Corn burger, the second is a Potato & Paneer burger. To make them low-fat and also to avoid standing by the oil pan/tava cooking them, I choose to use the oven. I also froze the finished burger patties by simply wrapping the room temperature patties in aluminum foil. They have lasted upto a month now !! I store the sliced veggies in plastic containers in the fridge and so a nice snack or lite meal is just a few minutes away :)

Kidney bean & Corn Burger

Ingredients :

• 1 can - Kidney beans/Rajma
• 1/2 cup - Potato, boiled and mashed
• 1 nos - fresh Corn on the cob or 2 cups frozen corn
• 3 nos - Green chillies
• 2 tsp - Ginger, finely chopped
• Cilantro
• Salt, Red Chilli powder, Amchur, Cumin powder and Dhania powder - As per taste
• 1/2 cup - powdered roasted Almonds
• 1/2 cup -Sesame seeds
• Oil to coat the burgers

Method:

1. Prep Work: Wash and halve a medium sized potato. Place it in a microwave safe bowl, sprinkle with water and salt, cover and cook in the microwave for about 4-5 mins until soft. Peel the skin.
   ~Thaw the frozen corn. If using fresh corn you can either broil it in the oven with some oil brushed on it or use it raw like I did. Cut the kernels off the cob and reserve.
   ~Drain and wash one can of kidney beans. Pat dry with a paper towel to get rid of the moisture.
   ~Spread a handful of Almonds on a microwave safe plate and zap for 30-45 seconds. They will turn a slight golden color. Allow to cool and rough chop them or use a spice grinder to get a coarse powder.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 400deg C
3. In a huge bowl place the kidney beans, corn & boiled potato(when slightly warm) and mash with a fork or potato masher.
4. Place the green chillies, ginger and cilantro together and mince together to get a near fine paste.
5. Add this to the burger base and continue to add salt and rest of the spices. Amchur adds the tangyness without the addition of liquid through lime. Cumin adds a smoky flavor and dhania and red chilli powder add extra heat. I used approximately 2-3 tsp of each. I kept tasting it to adjust the flavors to my liking.
6. Add the almond powder and combine well to get a dough like mixture.
7. Line a baking sheet with tin foil and brush it with oil uniformly to avoid sticking of the burgers.
8. Spread the sesame seeds on a plate, shape the burger into a patty of desired thickness and shape, dip into the seeds so they stick well and place on the baking sheet.
9. Drizzle oil(I used olive oil) to coat all the burgers and place in the oven. I cooked them for the initial 6-7 mins on 400, then 3-4 mins on 450 and then once the edges were turning crisp I changed the setting to broil and cooked for 3-4 mins. Adjust the timings as per your oven temperatures and experience.

Potato-Paneer Burger
Ingredients:

• 2 nos - medium sized Potatoes
• 1/2 cup - crumbled Paneer
• 1 Tbsp - Besan
• 5-6 nos - Pudina leaves
• 3 nos - Green chillies
• 2 tsp - Ginger, finely chopped
• Salt, Red Chilli powder, Amchur, Cumin powder and Pav Bhaji/Garam masala - As per taste
• Oil to coat the burgers

Method:

1. Prep Work:Wash and halve the potatoes. Place them in a microwave safe bowl, sprinkle with water and salt, cover and cook in the microwave for about 4-5 mins until soft.
   ~Place the pudina leaves, chillies and ginger together and mince well.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 400deg C
3. Peel and mash the potatoes when warm. Add the crumbled paneer and the pudina-chilli-ginger paste to it.
4. Add the rest of the spices and salt, starting with 1 tsp of each first and then taste and adjust the flavors as you go ahead.
5. Mash the ingredients together and add besan to get a dough like mixture.
6. Follow steps from 10 to make the rest of the burger.

To assemble the burger:

2 slices of your favorite Bread - I used whole wheat
Lettuce leaves
Sliced Cucumber & Tomatoes
Sliced red onions, soaked in balsamic vinegar
Ketchup & Mint chutney
~Spread ketchup on one of the slices of bread and mint chutney on another. Place a leaf of lettuce on one and on it the burger patty. Pile on the veggies and top with the second slice of bread. Toasting the bread is optional. Combine the sandwich with fresh fruits, juice and chips to have a perfect little meal for yourself

This was the perfect bite of burger I have had in a very long time. Since I made the patty to suit my taste the final burger was just fabulous. The Kidney bean burger had everything in the right flavors. The crunch from the corn and the texture of the beans and not to forget the nutty crunch of the almonds. I absolutely loved it. The best part is the choice of topping too...luscious cucumbers instead of pickles and the mellowed flavor of red onions instead of the white onions, fresh leaves of lettuce, juicy tomatoes....there was absolutely nothing to not love in this one. You can just not go wrong with home made burger patties. I will try them next time with roasted fresh corn.

The potato burger was my favorite of the two. It came extremely close to the Trader Joe's patty and may be even better than that :) I loved the flavors in this one with the more dominant mint here rather than the cilantro in the bean burger. I left the potatoes and paneer a little chunky and loved the tang from the amchur and pav bhaji masala. I was just waiting for meal times so I could make myself a guilt free, flavor loaded burger. Having all the veggies pre-cut and stored in boxes and pairing it with orange juice and fresh fruits made it a ultra satisfying meal :)

I strongly recommend all of you to try making your own burgers. You need no strict recipes, just a basic idea and you will be all set. And like I already mentioned, these store really well, nearly more than a month when frozen. Just pull one out, microwave for 30 secs and toast on the pan if you want it crisp. Thats is all !! So get set and GO !

As Nandita has rightly suggested in the comments, I'm going to pack a couple of burgers for Anupama's Fun in the Sun event :) These burgers can surely be made on the picnic site if you have a grill or you can make them at home and carry them in an ice box.

Wanna Puff ???

Dear Foodies,


Any body interested in a Veggie Puff ???

--------------------------------

I have always liked vegetable puffs more than samosas, though it was the samosa that was considered the Badshah of snacks !! And more the people around me raved about them, so much more my love for puffs increased ! I have no reasoning for it, probably a kiddish emotion, but it has stuck to me until now. I miss eating them here....you can somehow manage to get samosa's in restaurants or the frozen sections of Indian grocery stores...but the puffs somehow chose to stay away from it all, they were happy sitting on the local bakery shelves hot out of the rustic ovens :-(

A few months back the craving for these beauties sky-rocketed, I guess due to their appearances in the blogs and also because it was so damn simple to make them if you had the pastry sheets !! But finding those sheets turned out to be the most difficult part for me. I looked and looked and looked ... for them in the grocery stores near my apartment and surprisingly none of them stocked those sheets, either they never had it on their list, or just stopped ordering them :-(( Finally last weekend, on my trip to Meijer's I found something similar, I was actually looking for Pepperidge puff pastry sheets, as that was what all the bloggers had mentioned, but Meijer's chose to stock only the shells !! Luckily they had this other brand which was for phyllo sheets and I blindly grabbed two boxes of those. I had no idea what they were meant for and chose to experiment with them.

The phyllo sheets are really really thin white sheets of flour dough, about 2 rolls of 8-10 stacked sheets in each box. They reminded me of the famous Andhra sweet, putharekhulu or paper sweet as I call it. Since they were that thin, I cut the long sheets into 3" rectangles and used 6 of those for each puff.

For the stuffing, I drew a blank. It felt like ages since I had a veggie puff and I totally forgot what the stuffing was. I knew it had to have potatoes and onions. After a lil consultation with my mom, I added in some green peas and carrots. It wasn't the perfect stuffing, but was surely good enough.

I made another stuffing too :-) I have been wanting to make Saffron's Paneer Burji for a looooonggg time now and since I had a near half gallon of milk close to its expiry date in the refridgerator, it was just puurrrrfect :-) hahaha

So well, here goes the recipes

Click on image to enlarge

Potato filling:

Ingredients:

microwave till cooked:
2 nos - Potatoes; 1/2 cup - Green Peas; 1/2 cup - Carrots, grated; the last two were from the from frozen packs.

2 Tbsp - Oil; 1 tsp - mustard seeds; 1 tsp - Cumin seeds; 1 tsp - Saunf(optional); 1 inch - ginger piece, julienned; 2 nos - Green chillies, finely chopped; 1 nos - Onion, finely chopped; 1 tsp - Turmeric powder; 1 tsp - Coriander powder;

Procedure:

1. Heat the oil in a pan and toss in the mustard seeds, once they start popping add the cumin seeds, saunf, ginger and green chillies, fry for a min and add the chopped onions, turmeric powder and coriander powder.
2. Once the onions turn translucent add the boiled and peeled potatoes. Mash the potatoes with the back of the spoon or a potato masher. Add some salt and water(if needed) and cook for a few minutes.
3. Next add the carrots and peas and cook till the spices blend in.
4. Garnish with coriander leaves and some lemon juice.
   

* You can add tomatoes too after step 1 and cook for awhile before adding the potatoes :-)

Paneer stuffing:

For the Paneer Burji I followed Saffron's recipe, with the addition of tomatoes and some coriander powder instead of pepper.

Getting the Puffs ready:

1. Thaw the pastry sheets by moving them from the freezer to the refrigerators main section.
2. Things to have ready at hand before getting the pastry sheets out:
• Have your stuffings ready (and photographed ;-)
• Pre-heat the oven to about 250C
• Clean your counter top and dust it with some flour to get rid of moisture.
• Melt some butter and have a brush by the side if you have one
• Have two moist tissues or a cloth ready to cover the sheets that you won't be working on immediately and a plastic wrap, cut to the length of your pastry sheets.
• Finally, dry your hands, as any water will spoil the sheets :-)
  
3. Doing all the above is really important and I learnt after loosing 1-2 sheets. On exposure to air these sheets get really brittle and cannot be shaped or used !!
4. The pastry roll has about 8 sheets in it, un-roll and take out 4 sheets first and roll up the rest and send them into the refrigerator again.
5. Spread out the 4 sheets and cut into 3 equal portions along the length.
6. Place the plastic wrap over 2 of these portions and cover with a moist cloth/tissue. Placing the cloth directly will make the sheets too sticky and dough like and render them unusable !!
7. Now carefully separate the 4 sheets of the 1st portion and brush a little butter on each and stack them up again. This is to ensure that you get your layers. You have to be really fast in all this, notice the sheets getting brittle and cracking in the pic below !!
8. Spoon a little filling into the center or the sheets and then fold the corners onto it so as to completely cover the filling.
9. Seal the edges by pressing them together and applying some more butter or a lil water.
10. Brush a little butter on the top of the puff and place it on a greased and flour dusted baking tray. Immediately send the tray into the oven and bake for about 15-20 mins or till you see a uniform golden crust.
11. As and when you have your puffs stuffed send them into the oven, keeping them out for even for a minute will make the outer sheets brittle !!
    
12. Once done try to hold yourself till the puffs cool down a bit as the stuffing will be extremely hot. I had some Maggie Hot n Sweet sauce which is my favorite and it was just the perfect sauce for the puffs.

Click on image to enlarge

I initially made separate puffs for each filling, but slowly added a layer of both into each puff. You can see that in the picture above showing the stuffing on the sheets. They taste really really gooood and the ketchup was just amazing !! I finally got to eat puffs here in the US and I am sure that I will be making them more often.

You can also use sliced hard boiled eggs to make some egg puffs or use a meat filling too.

If you get the Pepperidge puff pastry sheets I would suggest you use them to make puffs. I think they are sheets of thickly stacked layers and all you will have to do is flatten them a bit, stuff them, brush a little butter on the outside and bake them. You will not have to take the trouble of buttering each sheet and seeing that they don't dry etc etc

Once you have these little wonders ready with some yummy ketchup, set yourself on the couch with some hot chai as Chandrika & Anupama have suggested in the comments and enjoy the gloomy weather outside :-)

And now, the these two veggie puffs are off to Pooja's Potato week :-), have your cup of tea ready Pooja !