Recipes from India (ingredients, chicken, carrot, vegetarian)

[Rakhi]

I love cooking and I am delighted to find a forum where people actively share their recipes. I am from India (well, was from India and relocated years ago) and mostly I make Indian at home for dinner. I am going to share a few recipes here. Look forward for more recipes here...

Hope some of you like my recipes. The first recipe is Palak Paneer. Paneer means Cottage Cheese or unaged cheese. Palak mean fresh spinach. You should be able to find paneer in any Asian or Indian grocery store.

Palak Paneer: (Spinach and Cottage Cheese)

Palak Paneer is an authentic North Indian recipe. Its as famous as jerk chicken in Jamaica, Steak in America! Palak paneer is fairly easy to make and the quantity I had taken serves 4. This can be used as a dip for pita bread or any Indian bread (Naan bread).

Ingredients:
Spinach: 1 big bunch
Paneer (unaged cheese or cottage cheese): 300 grams cut into small cubes
Green Chilies: 1 large or 2 small (if you want this hot, make it 2 large)
Cumin: 1 tbsp
garlic: 5 cloves
Sour/fresh cream: 3 tbsp
salt and oil to taste

Method:
Wash the spinach thoroughly and immerse them in boiling water for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and run the cold water over the spinach. Wet grind spinach and green chilies and keep them aside.

Cut paneer into small cubes. Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds followed thinly sliced garlic. Stir garlic for about a minute not letting it burn. Now add spinach puree and salt and bring this to a boil.

After it boils, check for salt and make sure that the raw taste of spinach is gone. Now add paneer and simmer for another 5 minutes. Then switch off the heat and add 2-3 tbsp of sour/fresh cream. that's all!

[quiet walker]

Thanks for this I never thought about making it with cottage cheese and this would make it a lot more convenient for me. I have always bought it at a restaurant or commercially made from the grocery store.

[Rakhi]

Originally Posted by quiet walker

Thanks for this I never thought about making it with cottage cheese and this would make it a lot more convenient for me. I have always bought it at a restaurant or commercially made from the grocery store.

I am glad you liked this. I will most more recipes later. I take pictures of what ever I cook so that I can show them to my cousin, who loves eating but still learning how to cook . The pictures are coming in handy now.

[Tnhoneypot]

Sounds wonderful Rakhi! My boss is from India and she makes alot of foods and lets me try them. So far, I love it! She tones down the heat usually for me. She makes something like a corn bread that she calls an appetizer, and it has small crunchy garbanzo beans in it and black mustard seeds. Its delicious! She told me there wasn't any cornmeal in the recipe. I love the combo of spices that she uses on everything. She is also a vegetarian, so its mostly veggies and rice with her spices mixed in.
Looking forward to more of your recipes!

[nALgirl]

Thanks, Rakhi. I am looking forward to more recipes!

[Rakhi]

Thanks honeypot, James nALgirl. I am glad you liked them.

Well, the otherday I was kind of bored. It was a long weekend and my husband was working. So, I thought let me make something nice...Here is the outcome. I have made fish fry, spicy shrimp and dessert (carrot pudding). See next post for the recipe.

If you happen to go to an Indian grocery store, do pick up the below powders, Rasam Powder (helps in making soup), Garam Masala (spices blended together and ginger and garlic paste. Its time saving if you buy it ready made. Usually they stay good for at least 6-8 months after you buy/make it. So, dont worry too much about quick expiry. I will be using these powders often in my cooking.

[Rakhi]

Fish Fry Recipe: In South India (Tamil Nadu State) we call fish, "Meen". pronounced exactly like it is spelt. In Hindi (India's national language) we call fish, "machi", again pronounced like its spelt.

Fish pieces: 6 small (I used Salmon)
Ginger garlic paste: ½ table spoon
Pepper powder: 1/8 table spoon
Red chilly powder: 1/8 a tsp (make it 1/4 tsp if you like spicy)
Salt
Oil for frying

Method:
Dont worry if you dont have ginger garlic paste. Just take 2 inch fresh ginger and 6 cloves garlic and make a fine paste out of them. This will serve fish's purpose but usually I make it large quantity so that I can store and use it later also.

Mix the ginger & garlic paste, pepper powder, red chilly powder and salt with a few drops of oil. Marinate the fish fillets with the paste prepared for about 1 hour.

In a small pan take 2 table spoons of oil and when hot fry the fish pieces turning them upside down until they are fully cooked. It shouldn’t take long maybe about 10 minutes on medium flame. Take care not to burn the fillets. I served these for starters.

[Rakhi]

Shrimp Masala (Masala means spices): In India our home was away from the coast line. So, we used to find it difficult to get fresh shrimp. Even if we did find it, it used to be very expensive. Later when I got married, whenever I visit my in-laws (mother in law who lives on the coast) she used to make this for us often. I picked this recipe from her and needless to say it’s my husbands favorite .

Ingredients:
Prawns: 400 grams (I used frozen, cleaned and pre-cooked prawns)
Onions: 1 large, finely chopped
Tomatoes: 2 medium, finely chopped
Green Chilly: 1 small, finely chopped
Cilantro: Hand full
Ginger garlic paste: 1 table spoon
Cinnamon stick: a small piece
Garam Masala: ½ table spoon (optional)
Red chilly powder: 1/4 table spoon
Pepper powder: a little, freshly grounded
Turmeric Powder: a pinch (optional)
Salt
Oil: 3 table spoons
Mint leaves: a few for garnishing.

Heat oil in large dish. Add cinnamon stick, green chilies and fry them until they turn light brown. Then sauté the onions and when they are golden brown add (in the same sequence) salt, turmeric powder, Garam Masala and red chilly powder. Stir and immediately add ginger garlic paste and tomatoes. When the tomatoes are cooked add the prawns and let it remain on medium flame for about 5 minutes. Then add pepper powder followed by Coriander leaves. You can turn the flame off if you want this soft at this time.
If you want the shrimp to be dry, keep this on flame for an additional 10 mins stirring constantly until the shrimp slowly starts to brown a bit. Garnish with mint leaves.
I served this with rice and Indian Bread (naan bread).

[le roi]

Originally Posted by Rakhi

I am glad you liked this. I will most more recipes later. I take pictures of what ever I cook so that I can show them to my cousin, who loves eating but still learning how to cook . The pictures are coming in handy now.

Please do. I am very interested to learn how to cook Indian food. I had my first taste of it while vacationing in London, and it was fantastic.

I have had Chicken Tikka Masala before, so I will try to cook your Shrimp Masala one of these days. I live in a place with access to fresh, plump, sweet local shrimp that I can use.

* what kind of onion do you use? red, white, yellow?
* any advice on where to procure some garam masala and ginger garlic paste?

[Davachka]

Thank you for posting this. If you happen to have a recipe for vegetable korma I would love it.
My daughter and I LOVE Indian food, and my husband enjoys it as well. My daughter's favorite is the korma, mine is palaak paneer (thank you for the recipe) as well as shrimp tandoori, but I wouldnt want to try making that. I also love 2 crispy breads that I have tried that I do not remember the name of, not naan. My daughter, who is 15 this weekend, still, since the age of 2, orders mango lassis when we go to Indian restaurants