Shahi Paneer

Before leaving Asheville I was quite sad about leaving our favorite restaurants and micro brewers behind. Mela was my favorite indian restaurant, and the Shahi paneer with Spinach and goat cheese Naan is my favorite meal at any restaurant. Before leaving I made sure to get my fix of Shahi as much as I could. Alas, that wasn't enough to keep the heartache at bay and there was a need to replicate this favorite dish of mine.

When traveling Europe Logan and I ate indian food in many of the countries we visited. While in germany we went to two different Indian restaurants and made multiple meals with our Indian friends including celebrating their holiday the festival of lights. We also had indian food in Amsterdam, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Canary Islands, Ireland, Rome, Vienna... Now that we are in Tallahassee and not supposed to be spending much money, its time to roll up the sleeves and roll out that Naan dough.

We have had much success with mimicking 3 dishes from Naa's Thai food in Chanhassen Minnesota, so why wouldn't we be able to make good Indian food? Armed with the gift Logan's parents gave us, Indian spices and cookbooks, we set out to make all scrumptious Shahi Paneer and Naan we could handle.

Shahi Paneer is dish where Indian cheese (paneer) and vegetables are simmered in a rich tomato sauce. The sauce was made by pureeing the heck out of onions, garlic, and ginger and adding it to tomato paste and other tasty spices. Paneer is often described as a homemade Indian cottage cheese. Uh no. I do not like this description as I am repulsed by cottage cheese, and Paneer is up there with Goat cheese in my books.

The other part of this meal is the Naan, an Indian flat bread. The Indian restaurant Mela, does an amazing job with the bread, fresh and chewy. Naan is easy enough to make if you plan a little ahead. All it is is flour, baking soda, yogurt, yeast, water, salt. After some good ol'fashion kneading it needs to rise for 3-4 hours. Throw it in a broiling oven and you have perfection.

I have made Naan probably 5 times now, dabbled with stuffing it and have made it as a meal in itself. As for shahi paneer, I believe this was our third outing with the dish and I want some more.

Namaste

Ps logan ate all the Shahi paneer and naan left overs. Im not a happy camper.


Due to Popular Demand Here is the recipe for the shahi paneer as seen from the blog Sunada's Kitchen
sunandaskitchen.blogspot.com/2009/08/shahi-paneer.html

I adapted this Naan Recipe from the cook book "From Mom with love, Complete guide to Indian cooking & Entertaining" by Pushpa Shargava

Ingredients
3 c flour
1/2 t baking soda
1 t. dry active yeast dissoved in 2 Tablespoons warm water
2 t. salt
7 Tablespoons yogurt
4 teaspoons of oil
6 ounces of warm water
Goat cheese (optional)
Sauteed Spinach (optional)

Method
Mix flour, salt, oil and baking soda in one container while combining the water yeast and yogurt in another. Combine them both and knead until dough is not too sticky. Set aside for 3-4 hours. Knead again and divide into 8 equal balls. Roll until flat. If making spinach and goat cheese naan add the cheese and spinach to center and fold over. Spread aluminum foil in oven rack and preheat to broil. Cook 4 naans at a time and flip when golden brown and cook the other side. Each side only takes a few minutes so watch carefully.

pickle me.

Pickles? Personally, i could take 'em or leave 'em. I know that some people love them. love them. There was this girl in middle school that used to drink pickle juice for a snack. I'm really only in love with the idea of making pickles (though, dunk one in a bloody mary and watch my eyes glaze over). I can't really figure out why, of all things, the need to ferment a jar of cucumbers has been the most persistent thought in my oh-so-monotonous mind. But, I decided it best to succumb to my obsession, and assumed it wouldn't be much of a trouble. Making classic kosher dill pickles requires a few very simple steps:

1. Sterilize mason jars with boiling water.
2. Make a brine by combining water and salt.
3. Make a pickling spice (or buy one pre-made).
4. Pack cucumbers into sterile jars and add pickling spice, dill, garlic, and bay leaves.
5. Pour brine over cucumbers to fill jars.
6. Place cheesecloth over jars and secure with twine or rubber band. Let sit on counter for a few days. Taste a pickle. Let ferment until to liking, then refrigerate.


In reality, my problems set in before step 1. Apparently nobody cans food in the south, despite common belief. I could not find a damn mason jar for the life of me, and settled on a glass screw-cap cookie jar. This, I immediately broke upon attempt to sterilize. Yes, I just graduated with a biology degree, but I seem to have slept through the chemistry course when they taught us that adding hot liquid to cold class will cause it to shatter. shucks.


In the end, I evened the score with those pickles that just didn't want to be. I followed a recipe from David Lebovitz's blog, which it turns out is easy. Now that the pickles are resting in their briny fluid, I've got time to attend to more important matters, like cocktails and Iron Chef re-runs.

so long.
logan

Tex Mex Chili

I have come to the self-realization that I have a tendency to hoard food. Well, actually it was pointed out to me. I have always like to think of myself as keeping a well stocked pantry and this strategy has served me well over the years. However faced with the hard reality of all the non-perishable food I have stockpiled I have decided it was time to "eat down" my hoard. Tonight I have combined this effort with my project of cooking my way through Madhur Jaffery's "World Vegetarian" cookbook a la "Julia and Julia" only less systematic. It has been a fun adventure to shake up my routines and learn to use exotic herbs and spices such as kafir lime, curry leaf, culantro (like cilantro but not).

Tonight I mad a big pot of Tex Mex Chile to bring to work for lunches and only needed to purchas one green pepper! Had I not had my Madhur Jaffrey project I would not have come to such a flavorful and light Tex Mex Chili. Thank You Madhur!

Pasta ala Salsiccia

Inspired by Joe, I am making Pasta Ala Salsiccia tonight for supper, I am also roasting eggplant (for Gina) and making some fresh fish. Neal Hulstrand brought me over some fileted sheeps head fish he caught in the Gulf of Mexico, I am baking them with lemon, panko crumbs, parmesean and Pecorino Romano, olive oil and S & P. YUM BUTTON!

Ugly Ravioli

Probably one of the best things I've made, (not much of a compliment because anything is better than mac-n-cheese) I would highly recommend making this dish. It is a sweet potato ravioli in a white wine shallot sauce. Playing the house-husband/boyfriend roll perfectly, I concocted this whilst Logan was away. I started by making a really thin homemade pasta (white pasta this time, none of that odd whole wheat texture) while sweet potatoes were a-baking. The recipe called for wanton wrappers... who would want wanton wrappers over fresh home-made pasta? Nicht mir! The filling was simple sweet potato, butter and brown sugar. As for the sauce, the recipe called for an all butter sauce, but as my teen metabolism is waning and I'm chunking up a bit I replaced a good portion of the butter with white wine and Parm. The recipe also called for me to "deep-fry" the shallots till brown, but I simply sauteed them in the butter and wine. Perfecto. Logan came home to a great meal, if I do say so myself. My one complaint is my presentation skills. Boy were the raviolo ugly as sin. I had no ravioli cutters so i resolved to doing the old "shredder" technique which I have much practice in, not pretty but absolutely tasty.

I've never played with a sweet/savory dish, as I am very new to this whole thing, but darn it was great. The filling was sweet, while the pasta and sauce was delectibly savory. The parm and white wine added a great Twang (as they say here in the south). Thin is in and making the fresh pasta as thin as possible made the texture quite the pleasure to devour.

Joe
Ps See pictures for the ugly pasta, and how I manage to make the biggest mess when I cook.
PPS The end product looks a bit "white" like a wanton soup at a regular Chinese Restaurant, but in real life it was a wee bit different.

While Logan napped

Last night while logan slept, I biked to the local Publix to pick up some ingredients for my Chorizo pasta. The pasta was a homemade whole wheat thick fettuccine-like pasta. While sautéing the sausage I added chopped garlic, sauteed onions and red wine (on logan's request). Finally I added a heaping amount of Parmesan that would make any Italian blush, red pepper flakes, seasoning and some spinach. Mixed it all together and I had a dish that caused the once vegan Logan to clean her plate. The pasta was a bit too thick and firm, next time I will nix the whole wheat thing or make dough much thinner.

Based on Mom's Pasta Al' Salsiccia.

Ciao Bella
Joe