Paneer Parantha

With wify +Divya Upadhyay out for a month long holiday, a forced married bachelors have all the kitchen to themselves to make whatever mess they can, cook whatever they want to and still not get raised eyebrows. Isn’t that every married man’s dream – Not get raised eyebrows.

One such fine morning, woke up and a good friend showed me the Garma Garam Wada Pav she had early morning and made me dig deep into my cooking mind to decide what to have for breakfast and tease her back. I think I took the challenge little too far and ended up winning( I guess).

End Product: Paneer Parantha, Lassi, Chai, White Butter (Home Made) and Dahi.


Here is the recipe of Paneer Parantha!!

Ingredients:

• Fresh Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese) – 100gm
• Onion – 1 medium
• Green Chilli – 1 or 2 (to taste)
• Coriander Powder – 2 TSP
• Garam Masala – ¾ TSP
• Red Chilli Powder – ½ TSP (To Taste)
• Salt – 1 TSP
• Garlic Powder, Ginger Powder, Asafetida (Hing), Black Pepper Powder –for flavoring
• Chopped coriander leaves if you like
• Carom Seeds (Ajwain) – to taste
• Aata (Wheat Floor) Dough, Fresh s good.
• Oil to Fry the Parantha
• A flat pan (Tawa) to cook/bake paranthas

I already made my dough and mixture before the thought of sharing it came up. so pls excuse / ask me for procedure. Keep aside the Wheat Dough.

Finely chop Onion and Green Chilies. Crush Paneer into a bowl and mix with all remaining dry ingredients above. Nicely mix them together. The mixture will look like the one in image.

Take a small piece of Wheat dough and make a ball of it. Flatten it a little and put some mixture on one center of the flattened dough.

Lift the sides slowly and cover it like a dumpling ball. Close the top nicely and gently press it down by patting over it slowly. Use dry flour to keep it dry. Use the roller to flatten the dough into a circular shape like a tortilla. Make sure you don’t use heavy hands and use enough dry flour to not let the dough get stuck on the flat board(Chakla).

Roll it nicely to a 8-10” pan sized tortilla.

Check the pan, if it is hot enough transfer the tortialla to the pan and bake it from both sides.

Fry it using little bit of oil on both sides. Some people like it un-fried and eat it with butter/ghee. Do as you prefer.

If your mixture is wet, while adding it to the dough add a little bit of dry wheat flour in it. It will absorb the moisture and help prevent the dough from breaking.

End result. Yum Yum paneer Parantha.

Use some white/yellow butter to serve it with Chai/Lassi/Pickle/Dahi. whatever your hungry tummy craves for.


Bon Appetite!!

Tips:

The quality of your parantha will depend on three main factors

• How well soft/hard the aata is. I prefer a little tighter dough for Paneer Paranthas.
• Is your mixture wet? There is a work around if it is so, I’ll tell later in the post.
• Is your pan hot enough? Wave your hand slowly about 4-5 inches of the pan, if you feel it hot enough to bake the parantha. Use it. (we need not too cold, not too hat – releasing black smoke)
• Accidents do happen. Sometimes parantha’s break, sometimes, the dough don’t come nicely,  don’t get disheartened. The most common reason is wet mixture

• 
  

Gaajar Halwa (Carrot Pudding)

Ingredients: 

Serves 6-8 people

• Regular Carrots : 6 (grated to 4 cups of unsqueezed watery lumps)
• Sugar : 1/2 Cup
• Green Cardamom Powder : 1TSP
• Almonds : 10-12 
• Cashew : 10-12
• Golden Raisins: 10-12
• Desi Ghee: Just enough on how fat cautious you are :-)
• Full Fat milk - 1/2 Cup.
• Optional : Coconut Powder

Preparation:

1. Nicely wash the carrots and then peel the skin off. Use a regular grater to grate the carrots. Do not grate too thin or the Halwa will become squishy. 
2. Warm a cup of water and soak the Raisins in it, leave it aside.
3. Put a deep pan on the burner with medium flame. Add 4 TbSP of Ghee. Add all the grated carrot in it. Mix it well. With Ghee mixed with Carrots, it will give a shining glow to the carrots. Cover the mixture with a pan and let it on the flame. Occasionally toss the carrots so it don't stick to the bottom of the pan, if you see it sticking, add a TbSp of Ghee and mix well. The reason I do not add all the Ghee in the start is to use less of Ghee.
4. We have to make sure that the carrots are nicely cooked and do not give a dry taste/smell. So it will be wise to taste a little of the mix after every 2 mins. It should take around 20 mins (+/- a few) for carrots to cook properly.
5. When you feel the carrots are getting done / almost done, spread the sugar uniformly over it and mix it well. That should make the mix even shinier. Cover the pan again for a minute or two.
6. While the carrots are getting cooked, use a mortar-pastle (इमाम दस्ता) to crush the almonds and cashews. Do not crush very fine. Keep aside a little amount and crush it fine.
7. Use a small frying pan, add 1 TbSp Ghee, heat it on a low flame (4-5) and add the almond/cashew mix to it. Fry it till the mixture absorbs all the oil. Add it to the carrots and mix it gently. 
8. Rinse the excess water of the raisins and add that to the mix.
9. Now the milk. The purpose of the milk is to get smoothness to the Halwa. Some use sweetened condensed milk too, but i prefer regular milk (If you use sweetened condensed milk, you will not need any sugar.) The trick to adding milk is to not add cold milk. Warm/Boil the milk separately before adding it to the mixture and mix it gently.
10. Take a spoon of Halwa and taste for sweetness. If you need it more sweet, add more sugar and let it cook for another minute, otherwise, Halwa is ready for Garnish.
11. Use the pinch of powdered cardamom and mix it nicely with the carrots. Green Cardamom will add to the aroma of the Halwa itself.

Halwa is best served Hot but alot of Indians would love to eat it cold:-). Serve as you like.

Traditionally, we also use खोया or खोए , but it is difficult and costly to find it here in US. If you do find it, add it instead of milk. 

I just made it last night cause my wife happened to crave for it, no it is not the pregnancy. She just likes sweet. Served it hot with a pinch of coconut powder to garnish. 

Of course she wanted it more sweet and with खोये :)...Bon Apetite!!!