As a food enthusiast I had drawn a lot of flak from my personal physician, my wife and a lot of my friends. Although I feel guilty at times for digging my tooth into stuffs that can be a dieter’s nightmare, yet I feel so much helpless in front of delicious food. It is such an irony that food stuffs which are delicious are usually high calorie food. Anyhow, I would like to share this delicious recipe with you. It is known as Paneer Lababdar and is an absolute treat. So, once in a while if you wish to treat your self with good food, then Paneer Lababdar is an excellent option.

Paneer Lababdar is an excellent Indian recipe, which can be an excellent way to treat your guests. It is a vegetarian dish made from Paneer (Indian cottage cheese). Paneer Lababdar consists of rich gravy flavored with carom seeds with Paneer cubes tossed in to give you an experience of a lifetime. As the soft Paneer cubes melt into your mouth and the rich gravy tickles your senses, you are charmed into an entirely new world which you may never like to leave. So, pretty soon, you are asking for more.

Ingredients

• 200 gm Cottage cheese
• 3 tbsp ghee  or vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp carom seeds
• 2 chopped onion
• 2 chopped tomato
• 3 tsp tomato puree
• 1/2 tsp chilly powder
• 1/2 tsp Garam masala
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin seeds
• 1/4 tsp kasuri methi
• 3 tbsp gm white butter
• 50 gm fresh cream
• salt to taste
• Chopped coriander, shredded ginger, sliced tomato peel.

Preparation

1. Take a pan and heat oil in it. Now, add cumin seeds and carom seeds to it and sauté for half a minute. Now, toss in the chopped onion in the pan and sauté till the onions turn brown.
2. Add chopped tomatoes and stir well.
3. Now, add some tomato puree over it for color and cook over low flame for a minute.
4. Now, add the cumin seed powder, red chilly powder, Garam masala and a pinch of kasuri methi. Keep on stirring for some time.
5. After this, add in the Paneer cubes and stir for some time. Now, keep it for cooking over low flame for 10 minutes.
6. Now, add the butter and cream over the top.
7. Garnish with shredded ginger, chopped coriander and sliced tomato peel.

Your Paneer Lababdar is ready to serve. Paneer Lababdar makes an excellent combination with Paratha, Kulcha and Rumali Roti.

Paneer is a very popular food of India and is liberally used in many recipes across India. However, a major use of Paneer has been in preparation of various desserts. Bengal (a province in India) has been very much experimental with Paneer. ‘Chhana’ as it is known here; is the backbone of the sweet shops of this region and is used for preparing a variety of desserts and sweet dishes. As it is, several mouthwatering recipes are made from this wonderful stuff called Paneer. It is simply amazing to find Paneer being used in such varied way. The Paneer Kalakand is one such recipe, which is a part of this long list of mouth watering recipes made with Paneer.

Paneer Kalakand is an excellent recipe and is a very popular dish in North and East India. It is known for its exquisite aroma and mind blowing taste. It is a solidified, sweetened milk powder preparation that is extremely tasty and it is due to this reason, it is famous in entire India. Although Paneer Kalakand is something people enjoy round the year, but it is also a special preparation and is an important feature during the festivals. Due to this reason, I took this opportunity to bring the recipe of this wonderful dish for you.

Ingredients

• 200 fresh Paneer (Indian cottage cheese)
• 1/2 cup milk powder
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp fresh curd
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
• Silver sheets
• 50 gm chopped pistachios for decoration

Preparation

1. Take a large mixing bowl and mix the paneer with the milk powder. Add to it the sugar, along with the curd and the cardamom powder.
2. Now, mix all the above ingredients properly, to form thick dough. After this, put it in a greased tin and close the lid tightly
3. Now, put this tin to steam for 15 minutes and then allow it to cool down.
4. Now, take this mixture and shape them in different sizes, such as square, triangle and circle.
5. After this, refrigerate this mixture for some time. Now decorate it with silver sheets and pistachios.

Your Paneer Kalakand is ready to serve. Paneer Kalakand can be an excellent way to end a very ordinary meal. Paneer Kalakand is a regular feature in most festivals in India. In many parts of India, the bride is treated with Paneer Kalakand by her mother in law, when she enters the household, for the very first time. Apart from that, Kalakand is also a part of many religious ceremonies in India.

My initial memories of Palak or spinach have not really been particularly encouraging. I and spinach had never been the best of pals. My initial memories of childhood had bitter tales of my tryst with this awesome green stuff, which way back then seemed to be a leftover from Satan’s kitchen. So, it took me an hour and a half to gulp down a bowl of spinach; and evry morsel was washed down by a glass of water.

“Oh God! It is good for your health.” Mom would exclaim. But I was more in love with my taste buds that any God Damn health. Eventually this cat and mouse juggling with spinach continued for many years. Swept beneath the carpet, washed down the toilet, or simply dumped into the waste-bin, this discreet saga continued; until one day I discovered Spinach in a whole new way.

It was in 1994 when I first had a brush with Palak Paneer. It was hard to keep aside my apprehensions, but since I was invited for a birthday party, I had to gulp it down. As I had my first morsel I was shocked. It definitely did not taste like spinach. A few minutes later, I was asking for more. Just imagine! Me, the all time spinach-hater doing so. More than the recipe, I was simply amazed as to how Spinach could taste so heavenly.

Any how, since then I have been simply in love with Palak Paneer. Later on I discovered more facts about it, such as it originated in Punjab, a province in India. I soon was able to get hold of the recipe and voila! I was there with my own preparation. Now for those of you, who are still to discover the magic of Palak Paneer, I would like to share this wonderful recipe, which I am sure you would enjoy.

Ingredients

• Spinach: 1 kg
• Paneer: 200 grams
• Onion: 2
• Butter: 6 table spoon
• Oil: 2 table spoon
• Cumin seeds: 2 tea spoon.
• Black pepper powder: 1/2 tea spoon
• Ginger-garlic paste: 1&1/2  tea spoon
• Green chilly paste: 1tea spoon
• Garam Masala Powder: 2 tea spoon
• Salt to taste

Palak Paneer Recipe

1. Mix ginger-garlic paste, green chilly paste and some water with spinach and cook it in a pressure cooker for 7-8 minutes.
2. Now, grind this mixture into a fine paste.
3. After that, cut Paneer (Indian cottage cheese) into small cubes.
4. Heat oil in a pan and fry the Paneer pieces until they turn light brown.
5. Set the Paneer pieces aside.
6. Heat 3 table spoons of butter and fry cumin seeds for half a second. Now add chopped onion and fry until the onions become pink.
7. Add salt, black pepper powder, Garam Masala to it and sauté well.
8. Now, add the fried Paneer pieces and cooked spinach paste and mix well.
9. Now put Palak Paneer in a baking tray, add rest of the butter and bake for 1/2 hour at 180 deg C.

For garnishing you can use grated cheese along with a butter cube in the center. Palak Paneer perfectly goes with Kulcha, Naan and Chapathi. My personal favorite, although is Naan.

This is one of the most famous Guajarati recipes. This is low fat high protein, high fiber and highly nutritious recipe perfect for the evening snacks. This is one of the variations of the most common dhokla which we prepare in our home.

Servings: four
Preparation time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

• One cup or about 250 gram of beasan.
• Two to three palak leaves (finely chopped).
• 100 gram of paneer (grated). And 50 gram of paneer in form of thin slices.
• Green chillies three in number. Cut them long or chop them finely.
• Ginger about one inch ( finely grated)
• Half a cup of water for a cup of besan.

Spices:

• One fourth tea spoon of red chilly powder.
• One fourth tea spoon of fruit salt.
• A pinch of hing.
• One tea spoon of vegetable oil or ghee.
• One tea spoon of lemon juice.
• Salt to taste.
• Two tea spoon of sugar.

For flavoring:

• Half tea spoon of mustard seeds.
• Two green chilies slit lengthwise
• A pinch of hing.
• Few meethi neem leaves.

For garnishing:

• One table spoon of grated coconut.
• One table spoon of finely chopped coriander.

Method

1. In a bowl take besan, palak, paneer, chopped chilies, ginger, sugar, salt, and all the spices taken. To this mixture add water. Mix well to form a smooth batter free of lumps.
2. Add fruit salt to the batter and keep it aside undisturbed for about five to ten minutes. You can also add the fruit salt to the water which you use to make the batter. For this bring the water top boil and add to the boiling water the fruit salt. Pour this water over the mixture and form a smooth batter. Keep it for few minutes till the batter appears a little bubbly.
3. Heat about one cup of water in a cooker.
4. Now grease the pan in which you want to prepare the dish. For this pour few drops of oil and spread it evenly on the surface of the vessel.
5. Pour the batter in the greased vessel and place the vessel in the cooker.
6. Steam the preparation in the cooker for fifteen to twenty minutes. Make sure that you remove the vessel.
7. The preparation is ready and it needs just a little tempering and flavoring.
8. Remove it from the vessel and cut it into even pieces. Make the pieces thin so that you can sandwich thin pieces of paneer between dhokla pieces.
9. For tempering, heat two tea spoons of oil in pan and in this heated oil add hing, green chilies, mustard seeds and leaves. Fry till the mustard seeds pop.
10. Remove the preparation from the flame and then add two tea spoons of water and lemon juice.
11. Pour it quickly over the even pieces of dholka.

Garnish the preparation with coriander leaves and grated coconut. Serve it with spicy chutney.

India has long been known as the land of spices. In fact many colonial traders made rich profits, by trading spices from India.  India’s association with spices continues till date. My first brush with authentic Indian cuisine dates back to 1991, when as a kid I was introduced to the Indian cuisine. It was an amazing experience and since then it has been a long lasting love affair with the Indian cuisine.

Most Indian recipes are marked with lavish use of spices. In fact the aroma is often so strong that it arouses your appetite, well before the preparation is actually over; and you can not simply wait to dig yourself in the dish. As it is, no cookery book on the Indian cuisine is complete without mentioning Masala corn and Paneer. It is a spicy recipe, which is excellent as far as the taste is concerned. Apart from that, it carries the goodness of corn as well.

So, I took this opportunity to share this recipe with you, which until recently was one of the most well kept secrets of all times. As it is, Masala corn and Paneer is a relatively recent discovery; yet is able to capture the senses of a number of people. Its recent popularity is a glowing testimony to its rich taste.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of Sweet corn
• 50gm or 1/2 cup Paneer (Indian cottage cheese)
• 3 to 4 onion stalks
• 1 tomato
• 2 to 3 green chilies
• 1 tsp powdered pepper
• 1/2 tsp red chilly powder
• 2 tsp Chaat Masala (Indian spice)
• 1 tbsp butter
• salt to taste

Preparation

1. Add 1-cup water to sweet corn and put it in microwave for 9-10 min
2. Once the sweet corns are tender enough, set them aside
3. Now, take a pan and add butter along with the green chilies and onion stalk
4. Stir fry for approximately 2 min. By this time the onion stocks would be tender enough
5. Now, add the sweet corn, Paneer cubes and all other ingredients. Sauté well for some time, till the Paneer pieces turn slightly brownish in color.
6. Mix it up well and transfer it into the serving dish
7. Now garnish it with onion stalks, tomatoes
8. Your Masala corn and Paneer is ready to serve

Masala corn and Paneer is an excellent recipe and it is becoming very popular, especially among those who are in love with spicy food. If you do not like spicy food, then in that case, you can make adjustments and reduce the amount of spices to suit your taste.

This is a famous north Indian recipe. Kadai paneer tastes great with chapatti or butter Nan. Kadai paneer is a combination of three vegetables of three different colors mixed in right proportion.

Servings: four persons
Preparation time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

• Paneer : 100 gram
• Capsicum: green: one: chopped in long thin strands
• Capsicum: red: one: chopped in long thin strands
• Capsicum: red: one : chopped in long thin strands
• Tomatoes: two finely chopped
• Onions: two: one finely chopped and one chopped in long thin strands.
• Ginger: half inch: finely chopped
• Green chilies: two: finely chopped
• Ghee or butter: three table spoon

Spices which you have to take are:

• Cumin seeds: one tea spoon
• Coriander powder: one and a half tea spoon
• Garam masala: two tea spoon
• Salt: to taste
• Turmeric powder: one tea spoon
• Asfoetida: one pinch
• Tomato sauce: two table spoon

How to prepare?

1. Take the pan and add one table spoon of butter or ghee. As the ghee heats up add cumin seeds and asfoetida. Stir and as the seeds pop add the finely chopped ginger and finely chopped onion. Stir till light brown. Remove this preparation from the pan.
2. Again add two table spoon of ghee or butter add to the hated butter the finely chopped thin strands of capsicum and onion. Sauté till they are slightly done. Sauté for about five to seven minutes. You don’t have to cook them too much. Remember that they are still somewhat crunchy. Sauté till light brown in color.
3. Remove the preparation from the flame. In the flame again add a table spoon of ghee or butter and to this add the chopped preparation of all the ginger and onion prepared before. To this add all the spices and finely chopped tomatoes. Heat and stir till the tomatoes melt and the mixture emits an aroma. Stir for about seven minutes.
4. Now add the prepared strands of capsicum and onion.
5. Stir for five minutes and then add tomatoes sauce and paneer cubes.
6. Stir for five minutes and then add whipped cream to the preparation. Heat for five minutes and remove from the flame.

Garnish with freshly chopped coriander leaves and serve hot with butter nana or chapatti.

No discussion on Paneer recipes is complete without Mutter Paneer. Mutter (green peas) when combined with Paneer (Indian cottage cheese) along with several ingredients and cooked up in a proper way ends up in a magical recipe. Mutter Paneer is by far one of the most popular dishes in India. In fact, you will hardly come across a North Indian wedding, which does not serve Mutter Paneer.

With the passage of time, several variants of this finger licking recipe came up and amazingly most of them were equally good, in fact at times surpassing the original recipe in taste as well as nutrition value. As it is, after tasting several variants, I was pretty impressed with this particular recipe, which I found to be particularly appealing.

Therefore today I would like to discuss this recipe with you. As it is, Paneer Mutter is not a very complex recipe and is relatively easy to cook. Yet it does not compromise on quality or taste.

Ingredients

• 1 kg Paneer cubed into small pieces
• 400 gm of  shelled peas
• 4 large onions
• 5 medium tomatoes
• 2 tbsp ginger paste
• 4 tbsp garlic paste
• 4 tsp coriander powder
• 2 tsp cumin powder
• 4 tsp Garam Masala
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 4 green chilies chopped fine
• 12 tbsp of oil
• 3 cups water
• Salt to taste
• 6 tbsp fresh cream
• Coriander leaves chopped fine to garnish

Preparation

1. First of all, grind onions into a fine paste and set aside.
2. Now grind the tomatoes into fine paste and keep aside.
3. After that, heat 4-6 tbsp of oil in a pan and fry the Paneer cubes till they turn golden. Set the cubes aside once they turn golden in color
4. Now heat 4-6 tbsp of oil and add the onion paste. Fry till it turns light brown.
5. Add tomato paste, ginger and garlic paste and fry for another 2 minutes.
6. Now, add the coriander, cumin, turmeric and Garam Masala powders, green chilies and fry. Keep frying till the oil begins to separate
7. After this, add the peas to it and fry for 2-3 minutes.
8. Now, add the paneer cubes, water and salt. Cook on a low flame, till the gravy turns thick.
9. Now add fresh cream to it and stir well

Garnish with coriander leaves. Your Mutter Paneer is ready to serve.

Mutter Paneer is an excellent recipe and goes well with Naan, Paratha and chapatti. So, enjoy this recipe from the kitchens of India.

Grilled Paneer is one of the most popular barbeque dishes in India. Although it has been there for a fairly ling time, its popularity was enhanced in a big way in recent times as a veggie alternate to Chicken Tikka. In the course of time, we had several cousins of the Grilled Paneer coming up to tickle our palates. As we discover several versions of the Grilled Paneer, we see our selves nowhere at loss, as long as they taste good.

Another aspect of these versions has been the hot debate as to which recipe is the original Grilled Paneer recipe.  Frankly I do not give a damn to authenticity as long as it tastes good.  So, I decided to taste a number of versions and was able to zero in on a few versions, which I loved the most.

The following is one such recipe, which has been able to capture my imagination, the way, not even Cindy Crawford did. As I gobble up a plate of Grilled Paneer, an idea struck me as to share the recipe with you. So, here I am sharing this wonderful piece of culinary delight.

This version of grilled Paneer is known as the Paneer Kebab. Although it is a relatively simple dish, yet no one can undermine its exotic taste. As you roll over your tongue over it, it simply melts into your mouth; and soon you are asking for more. This particular recipe is easy to cook and can be the perfect appetizer, as well as the evening snack.

So, ladies and gentlemen I present before you the Great Indian Paneer Kebab

Ingredients

• I kg of Paneer (Indian cottage cheese) chopped into medium sized cubes.
• 15 cherry tomatoes
• 3 green bell peppers, chopped in medium size
• 1 cup yogurt
• 2 tsp garlic paste
• 1 tsp chilly powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp roasted cumin seeds powder
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 lemon to garnish

Preparation

1. Take all the ingredients, except the Paneer, the cherry tomatoes and green bell pepper. Mix them up properly. Now, add salt to taste. Beat it up properly, to get a smooth paste.
2. Add the cubes of Paneer to this paste and coat well. Marinate for several hours.
3. Now, alternate cubes of Paneer with the cherry tomatoes and green bell peppers squares on barbeque skewers.
4. Grill on a barbecue or in the oven until the vegetables are soft as per your liking.
5. Garnish with a squeeze of lemon and serve.

Paneer Kebabs can be an ideal evening snack. As you enjoy the evening with your friends, Paneer kebab can be the best option to treat your friends.

This one is the most popular north Indian recipe. Here I will share with you the secret how the north Indians prepare this very nutritious, mouth watering, spicy paneer recipe.

Servings: for four persons.
Preparation time: 30 minutes

The ingredients that you need for chatpata paneer recipe

• 250 gm of paneer.
• Three to four tea spoon of chopped garlic or one tea spoon of garlic paste (either finely chopped or in the form of paste)
• One to two onions of medium size or five table spoons of onion paste (either finely chopped or in the form of paste).
• Five table spoon of vegetable oil or ghee.
• Half cup or about 100-150 ml of curd( beaten to a fine paste so that there are no lumps and it appears smooth)
• Three tea spoon of kaju paste.
• Two tea spoon of badam paste.
• Four table spoons of cream( whipped)

Spices:

• Three tea spoons of coriander powder.
• One tea spoon of kasuri methi.
• One tea spoon of jeera.
• Half tea spoon of red chilly powder.
• Half tea spoon of kalimirch powder.
• One table spoon of lemon juice.
• One tea spoon of garam masala.
• Salt to taste.

For garnish:
One table spoon of finely chopped coriander leaves.

Method

1. Heat the oil or ghee in the pan.
2. Add jeera and finally chopped garlic and sauté till they are golden brown in color.
3. Add onion paste to the pan and sauté again till it is light brown in color.
4. To this onion paste now add coriander powder, red chilly powder, salt, garam masala, kalimirch powder, kaju paste, badam paste, kasoori methi and sauté well for five minutes.
5. Once the paste is done and the spices begin to emit the aroma, add to the paste paneer cubes and whipped curd. Simmer the flame and stir for five minutes. Add lemon juice and stir again.
6. Finally add whipped cream. Stir for one minute and turn off the flame.

Pour the preparation in a serving dish. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. The dish is ready to be served with bread, chapattis, butter Nan or missy roti.