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...

Paakam pappu / Peanut sweet

My all time favourite snack. In fact, I love any sweet that is made up of jaggery. The roasted peanuts are soaked in the jaggery syrup and form them into balls. The combination of peanuts and jaggery in any form is excellent.

Ingredients:

Roasted and skinned peanuts - 3 cups

Jaggery Powdered - 3 cups

Grated coconut - 1/4 cup

Water - 3/4th cup

Makes about 40-50 balls

Method:

Before making the recipe, one must have a small plate with cold water to test jaggery syrup readiness.

In a big, thick-bottomed vessel or even in a non-stick pan, add water and jaggery.

Keep in low flame until the jaggery melts completely. Then, increase the flame to medium-high. Jaggery water begins to concentrate. When it starts foaming as shown below, it reached the consistency we want for this recipe. This whole process takes about 15 to 20 minutes.

To test, add few drops of jaggery syrup to the cold water. When pushed with fingers, if the syrup can be rolled to a round and keeps share without melting in spite of tilting the plate to different directions, it is done and the syrup is ready.

Actually, by the time I washed my hands and clicked my camera, the soft ball has been melted a bit.

Constantly stirring, add the peanuts. In 1 minute, the peanuts starts to soak in to the syrup and comes together in to dry mass. Turn off the heat.

If you want to make them into squares, grease a tray and pour the mixture. If you want to make them balls, allow the mixture to cool down a bit.

Take a spoonful of mixture into hands and press gently into round shape and quickly roll them in grated coconut. Keep a bowl of cold water on the side. Dip your hands in-between laddu making to keep hands unsticky and cool.

Tip:
If you didn't get the desired consistency and unable to make balls, spread the mixture in a tray and keep it in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours and then cut into squares.

Daffodils

I have brought this Daffodils plant from the store. Was bit lazy to change it to a bigger pot. I simply placed it in a bigger ceramic pot and filled it with the coloured dried flowers.

A vibrant look.......

Can't resist to post this as well......taken under low light... still came out very well.

Runner beans stir fry

These runner beans are big and tough looking pods. For the stir fry, you need to choose the tender ones with few seeds inside. I just tempered them and steam cooked. Finished the recipe with the touch of spicy powder.

Runner beans thaalimpu

Ingredients:


Runner beans - 250 gms
Onion – Large – 1 chopped into small pieces
Mustard – ½ tsp
Cumin – ½ tsp
Curry leaves
Dry chilli – 2
Chana daal / Bengal gram – 1 tsp
Oil – 2 tbsp
Salt


For the spicy powder -
Roasted chickpea - 2 tbsp
Dry coconut chopped or grated - 2 tsp
Garlic - 1 clove
Chili powder - 1 tsp
Salt little bit, as we will be cooking the runner beans using salt.


Grind all the ingredients in a blender into coarse powder

Fresh and tender runner beans

Method:

Wash and peel the runner beans and cut them into small pieces.

Steam cook the runner beans until they are just done, either in microwave or on stove top by adding just enough water and salt.

Heat a pan with oil and add the seasoning items like Mustard+cumin, chana daal, dry chili and curry leaves one after the other.

When the chana daal changes to golden colour, then add chopped onion.

When the onion turns tender, add the steamed runner beans, mix every thing and cover it with the lid for 2-3 minutes to allow runner beans to absorb all the seasoning flavours.

Remove the lid, toss the runner beans. Allow the extra moisture to get evaporated completely.

Finally sprinkle the spicy powder and remove from the fire.

Served with warm roti