Home made Paneer / Cottage cheese

This is so simple to prepare at home. It has a fresh quality and a dense, crumbly texture that goes beautifully with strong flavours. We can make n number of recipes using this home made paneer.

Ingredients:

Milk - 2 litre

Vinegar / Lemon juice - 3 tbsp

Method:

Pour the milk into a heavy-bottomed pan that allows plenty of room for boiling.

Set it over high heat and bring the milk to a full foaming boil, stirring often to prevent scorching and sticking. 

Reduce the heat to low, and before the foam subsides, drizzle in the lemon juice or vinegar.

Very gently and slowly move the spoon through the milk in one direction. After 10 or 15 seconds, remove the pan from the heat and continue to gently agitate the milk until large lumps of soft curd form. 

If the cheese has not formed after 1 minute, place the pan over the heat again momentarily until the milk coagulates and leaves the pale yellow-green whey. If necessary, add a little more lemon juice.

Remove the pan from the heat as soon as the cheese forms. Cover it and set it aside for 10 minutes. It you want a very soft cheese, gently pour in 1 or 2 cups of hot water. When the cheese has settled under the surface of the whey, it is ready to drain.

Line a colander with cheesecloth or some clean white cloth that has been dipped in water and wrung dry. Drape the corners and edges of the cloth over the sides of the colander. 

If you want to collect the whey, set the colander over another pan, like I did; otherwise place it in a sink. You can use the whey in making chapathi dough or use it in curries or even in steaming rice for biryani.

Whey that is collected during the process

Remove the large lumps of cheese with a slotted spoon and place them in the colander. Gently pour the smaller pieces and remaining whey into the colander.

Add any fresh herbs now and fold in well.

Gather up the corners of the cloth and twist it around. Hold the bag of cheese under a gentle stream of cold running water for 5 to10 seconds. Gently twist the cloth to squeeze out the excess whey.

Drain the cheese slowly, allowing it to compact under its own weight by hanging the bag to drain. To get the hard paneer, you can place the bag of cheese under a weight until firm (about 20 minutes). 

Unwrap the cheese and keep it in the fridge for 1 hour to solidify more and then cut into cubes.

You can preserve it in the fridge for upto 1 week.

Paneer cubes

Flower Arrangement

Rabri / Rabdi - Milk sweet

Rabri is a traditional Rajasthani sweet, made by boiling whole milk on medium heat for a long time till it becomes dense and changes its colour to creamer.   In the whole process, the dense cream layers are collected and added at the end. Other than sugar, nothing else is added to this. It is chilled and served as a desert. A tongue licking dessert.

Ingredients:

Whole milk - 2 litres

Sugar - as per taste (Roughly about 3/4th cup)

Method:

I have chosen gold top milk as they are rich with cream. More or less, it requires, same effort for 1 litre or 2 litre, so I planned to prepare 2 litres at a time. As we boil the milk for longer period, this sweet will be preserved up to 10 days in the refrigerator. But, I doubt it., as it is difficult to stay away from it.

Take a big vessel to avoid the over flow of the milk whilst boiling. Also, the main thing in this sweet is the cream layers. If is recommended to use  wide bottomed vessel, so that we can collect more cream layers.


Boil the milk in medium high flame for about 2 hours by stirring occasionally. 
Every time, when ever the layer is formed remove it and keep it aside.


Make sure to scratch the edges to avoid burning. Also remember to scratch at the bottom of the vessel. When it has reached the desired consistency, add sugar and the collected cream layers and boil for few more minutes and turn of the heat. It gets thicker when becomes cold.

Whole milk boiled into dense creamy texture

No matter, how the consistency is., the result is a lip smacking desert.

Baapu gaari bommalu

బాపు గారి పేరు చదవగానే మొహం పైన చిరు నవ్వులు వెలుస్తాయి .......

అసలు నాకు తెలుగు భాష మీద మమకారం కలగడానికి కారణం బాపు గారి గీతలే నండి ...

ఆయన పలానా అని లేకుండా., రాజకీయ నాయకుడి గురించి అయితే ఏమి., సామాన్య పౌరుడి గురించి అయితే నేమి.,కొత్త అల్లుడు గారు , ఒక గృహిణి, ఇల్లాలు, ఒక బల్ల, పిల్లి, ఎలుక, తాబేలు., ఆకరికి ఆయనని పుట్టించిన బ్రహ్మ గురించి కూడా గీతలు గీసేస్తుంటారు... 

మన కోసం కొన్ని ఇక్కడ పోగేసాను   ........

Courtesy: Bapu cartoons

Kachori

This is a Gujarathi snack. There are different varieties of the fillings. I have used toor daal in this recipe. A perfect kachori is flaky outside and hollow inside. 'Khasta' actually means 'Flaky' and this flaky kachori is filled with a delectable toor daal mixture and then deep fried. Remember to fry the kachori on a very slow flame just like samosas, so that the crust is crisp and gets cooked deep inside as well.

 

 

 

Ingredients for the dough (Crust) -

 

2 Cups plain flour (Maida)

1/4 cup melted ghee

Salt as per taste

 

Ingredients for the filling -

2 cups fresh or frozen whole toor daal (Pigeon pea / Kandulu)

1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera) - roughly ground
1 tsp Green chilli paste
1 tsp grated garlic

1 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp Fresh coriander chopped

Salt to taste

Oil for deep-frying

Kandulu / Pegion pea / Toovar

Method

For the dough (crust)
 

Combine all the ingredients, plain flour, ghee and salt and knead into a stiff dough using enough water. Knead very well for 5 to 7 minutes.

Divide the dough into roughly 25 equal parts and keep covered under a wet muslin cloth.

For the filling

 

Boil the toor daal by adding just enough water. Drain the excess water and use it in kneading the chapathi dough or in any other curries.

To the boiled toor dall, add grated garlic, garam masala, lemon juice, salt, cumin and chopped coriander.

Now mash the toor daal along with all the added ingredients.

Cool and divide into 25 equal portions.

For the Kachoris -

Roll out each portion of the dough into a 50 mm. (2") diameter circle.

Place one portion of the filling mixture in the centre of the rolled dough circle.

Surround the filling mixture with the dough by slowly stretching it over the filling mixture.

Seal the ends tightly and remove any excess dough. Roll it again in between the two palms to make it round.

Repeat with the remaining dough and filling to make all the kachoris.

Deep fry the kachoris in hot oil over a slow flame till golden brown all around. Same as Samosas.

These take a long time to fry as the crust is thick and needs to be cooked on the inside also. Serve warm with any chutney.

Kachoris with sweet and sour Tamarind chutney

S

Plain Paratta / Kerala Paratta

This is a traditional kerala recipe made up of with unbleached wheat flour A soft roti with multiple layers. You need to have good expertise in kneading the dough, as the softness of the parattas rely on making the dough. How ever, we can all make them easily by practising for 2-3 times.

Ingredients:

Unbleached plain flour / Maida – 2 cups

Luke warm Water – as needed to prepare the dough roughly 3/4th cup 
Veg Oil or melted Ghee – 3-4 tbsp
Salt – to taste

Method:

Sieve maida and salt into a mixing bowl.

Add oil and mix it with the flour thoroughly. Now add sufficient water and knead it well to make a soft dough. Cover it with cling film or with a wet cloth and keep it aside for 1 hour.

Divide the dough into 10 portions and shape them into balls. Smear each ball with oil and roll out into a flat disc.

Place on a well greased surface and stretch evenly on all sides until the disc is very thin. If you are not good at stretching, you can roll it into thin disc.

Dough is rolled into thin disc

Brush the entire surface of each disc with melted butter and dust with flour, then pleat together ensuring there are many folds.

Roll up in a spiral movement. Compress with palm and set aside. Prepare the rest of the rolls in the same way.

Press each roll lightly into discs of six-inch diameter using your palm. Alternatively, you can press them using rolling pin.

Heat a tawa. Place the paratta on the hot tawa and cook on medium heat on both sides. Pour a little butter all around and shallow fry till both sides are golden brown.

When 5 parattas are done,place them in a flat surface and holding them between hands ,beat the hands together.(Just like clapping) by doing this, the layers of the paratta gets separated.

Serve immediately with any curry.

Broccoli rice

Broccoli is considered as one of the most nutritive and delicious vegetables. It is highly recommended for vitamin C, and it is also believed that broccoli helps in preventing cancer. Why not we add this in kids diet. I have added this vegetable to the rice along with moong daal, which forms a healthy meal to the growing children. Serves 1 toddler Ingredients: Broccoli - 2 small florets Skinned moong daal - 1 tbsp Rice - 1 tbsp Broccoli, skinned moong daal and rice You can increase the proportions as per your child's capacity Method: Wash and roughly chop the broccoli into big chunks Mix and wash the rice and moong daal. Add 1/2 cup to 3/4th cup of water and cook till they are soft. Remove from the fire, add pinch of salt and mash the mixture. You can also add little bit of ghee to this. Feed the baby when it is still luke warm. ఎవరికోచ్.... ఈ ... గోరు...ముద్దా...