Palak Paneer

Got this recipe from my maid, who prepares this dish really deliciously.

Ingredients:

Spinach - 1 bunch

Tomato - 2

Garlic pods- 5-6

Ginger - An inch

Green chilly - 2 nos

Jeera - 2 tsp

Coriander powder - 2 tsp

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Chilly powder - 1 tsp

Paneer - cut in cubes - 200 gms

Salt

Method:

1) Wash the spinach leaves thoroughly and remove the roots. Boil the leaves for about 5 mins in little water.

2) Meanwhile, grind the tomatoes, garlic pods, ginger, green chillies after adding water. 

3) In a frying pan, heat oil. Add jeera and allow them to splutter. Add coriander powder, turmeric powder and chilly powder. Now, add the tomato ground mixture. Heat for a while until oil starts showing up.

4)  Grind the spinach leaves to a mixture. Add the ground mixture to step 3 and keep it boil. 

5) Finally add paneer cubes and add salt  

And its done.

Nellika Uppilittathu..

There is this movie called Achuvinte Amma starring Meera Jasmine and Urvashi. It has a melodious lullaby song - Enthu paranjalum nee ente thu alle vaave..
One of the scenes of the song has Meera Jasmine showing a sour face on eating an upillitta nellika from a road side vendor. Somehow, whenever I see gooseberries, this scene flashes in my mind as I too get tempted to taste salted gooseberries. Each time, I buy gooseberries, I plan to pickle them or soak them in salt water. The plan never materializes, thanks to my memory.

Came across a recipe and found that it was very easy to prepare uppilitta nellikai. The otherwise untouched gooseberries were finished to half by husband in two days, when I prepared uppillitta nellikai. The best  part is gooseberries are loaded with Vitamin C, and if this was a way they could be consumed, then why not?

Here goes the ingredients:
1) 500 gms of Indian gooseberries -
2) 6-8 Indian green chillies slit or 8-10 dried Kanthari mulaku slit (Thai pepper) or 4-6 fresh kanthari mulaku.
3) 3 cups of water
4) 1 + 1/8 cup of crystal salt
5) Vinegar (optional)

Salt and water ratio (2 cups of water:3/4th cup of crystal salt)
Process:

1) Mix the salt with water in a vessel and place it for boiling.
2) Once the water boils, simmer it for 4-5 minutes under low flame.
3) Fill the glass bottle with amlas and green chillies layering by alternately.
4) Pour the boiled hot water into the glass bottle. The hot water softens the gooseberries. As an alternate, place the gooseberries and slit green chillies in the vessel where water was boiled, after flame is switched off.
5) Add a dash of vinegar as a preservative. - I did not add any. I knew they would be finished before long. :)

End of  two days, my salted amlas have been reduced to half the bottle.

Red Wine Contd...

Exactly 14 days before, grapes were placed in the earthenware pot for fermentation.

It looked like this on the first day.

And 14 days later, they look like this...

The pulp of grapes has started to show up. According to my parents, we could take it after 20 days and filter it out. 

But I decided to keep it until Maundy Thursday. I am planning to filter the mixture on that day. Two days are required for the filtered mixture to settle down. 

The last part of the red wine series - to be continued...

Red Wine from grapes

As per the Syrian Orthodox calendar, we are one week past into the holy fasting period. We follow typically 50 day period of fasting. Fasting implies no non vegetarian dishes allowed. Fasting not only implies in diet, but also in living a life sans worldly pleasures. This includes no movies, no extravagant shopping, living modestly and with prayerful days.
This Easter, we decided to ferment grapes and extract some grape wine. And now is the right time to do it. Here goes the recipe for the same.

Ingredients:
1 kilo grapes
1 kilo sugar
3 bottles of boiled and cooled water (1 bottle = 750 ml)
1 tsp yeast
1 egg white
100 gm of broken wheat

Preparation:
1) Place water to boil
2) Wash grapes thoroughly.
3) Place water in a bowl and microwave it for 10-20 seconds. Add yeast and allow it to ferment for 10 minutes.
4) Once the water is boiled, allow it to cool. Meanwhile, wash the broken wheat.
5) In a earthenware pot, add in the grapes, sugar, broken wheat, fermented yeast, egg white and boiled and cooled water.
6) Stir nicely using a wooden spoon.
7) Cover the earthenware with a cloth and fasten it tightly with a rubberband or thick thread.
8) After every alternate day, stir the mixture using wooden spoon. Cover it and store in a cool and dark place.

More to come in the coming days...

Spinach soup

Ingredients:
1) Spinach leaves(w/o stem) - 100 gms
2) Small onion - 50 gms
3) Coriander leaves(w/o stem) - 25 gms
4) Mint leaves(w/o stem)- 25 gms
5) Garlic cloves - 3
6) Salt, Pepper - to taste
7) Water - 1/2 ltr
8) Butter
Method of preparation:
1) Wash spinach leaves, coriander leaves, mint leaves thoroughly with water.
2) Chop spinach leaves, coriander leaves, mint leaves, small onion, garlic finely.
3) Heat pan. Add 1/2 ltr of water. Add the chopped greens, small onion and garlic finely. Add salt and pepper.
4) Simmer heat and allow water to boil. Cook for 10-15 mins.
5) Allow mixture to cool. Blend the mixture using a blender.
6) Heat pan. Add a dollop of butter. Pour the blended mixture to the pan. Allow it to boil. Switch off.
The soup was tasty, though it was not very pleasant to look at(dark green in color). The only mistake was that the soup was a little salty. Else, it was a change to savour.

Vegetable soup

I am back after a really long time. Soups were always a favorite with Haniel. Chicken, Vegetable, any kind of soups, he relished at restaurants. I tried making soups at home. But somehow, it din't taste that good. One such recipe I found in Vanita(mag for women by Manorama), tempted me to try. It sounded nutritious and yes, it was tasty.
Ingredients:
1) Tomato - 50 gms
2) Carrot - 50 gms
3) Cabbage - 50 gms
4) Sambhar onion - 50 gms
5) Garlic - 2-3 pods
6) Salt, pepper - to taste
7) Butter/Oil - 1 small tsp
8) Water - 1/2 ltr

Method:
1) Chop tomato, carrot, cabbabge into small pieces. I used to a food processor to chop all of them, that includes carrot, tomato, cabbage, sambhar onion, garlic pods. They looked colorful enough to served as a salad, in fact.
2) Heat a deep pan. Pour oil/butter into the pan. Add all the vegetables to the pan and saute for a while.
3) Add salt and pepper and mix well again.
4) Add water and simmer in low heat, until water starts boiling and vegetables are cooked.
5) Turn off the stove and allow the soup to cool. The magazine suggested to have the soup in this form. However, I allowed the soup to cool, blended it using a blender. I heated little butter in the same deep pan and poured the blended mixture to the pan, heated it for a while and finally garnished it with some coriander leaves.

My bro who tried it said, it was nice. Haniel also had his share of soup completely. So, this one is added to my share of favorite recipes...

Bake a Cake

Now is Christmas time. Being the first Christmas at our new home, I thought of baking a cake myself. My father is quite an expert in baking a cake. So, here, I present the basic recipe of baking a cake.
Ingredients:
1) Maida - 200 gm
2) Powdered Sugar -200 gm
3) Butter - 200 gm
4) Eggs - 200 gm
5) Baking powder -1 1/2 tsp
6) Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
7) Cooking soda - 2 tsp

Method of preparation:
a) Sieve the maida -baking powder mixture at a first level. Keep it aside.
b) Mix powdered sugar and butter in a large mouthed vessel until they are mixed well. This should ideally take around 30-40 minutes if mixing by hand
c) Separate egg yolk and egg white. Whip egg white. Whip egg yolk.
d) Add vanilla essence, whipped egg yolk and cooking soda to item (b). Mix well.
e) Add item (a) and whipped egg white to the item (d) gradually and mixing them.
f) Pre heat oven at 180 degree C for about 10 minutes.
g) Place a butter paper or greased paper with butter/ghee in a baking dish.
h) Place the batter prepared at step (g) to baking dish in such a way that the baking dish is half filled.
i) Bake at 180 degree C for 20 minutes. Bake at 160 degree C fir 30-40 minutes.
j) Prick the cake with a tooth prick. The tooth prick would be clean if the cake is baked completely. Else, bake at 160 degree C for another 10 minutes.