So, You've Got Your Paneer Cheese , Now What??

The other day I made my first batch of paneer cheese. It was easy, I was stoked but then what?? I had a whole pan of this stuff and wondered if there was life with paneer cheese beyond spinach.
Almost everyone who's eaten Indian food has had spinach and paneer cheese, it's a classic dish.
I looked in my fridge, there was no spinach but there was zucchini, this time of year there's always zucchini but what to do with it.
I remember one of the recipes I used to make from Lord Krishna's Cuisine. It was a dish that involved paneer cheese, summer squash and red bell pepper. Why, I thought couldn't I try making it with zucchini,paneer cheese and fresh heirloom tomatoes? Most Indian dishes are very forgiving, and open to improvisation, especially those involving vegetables. In other words, you work with what you've got.
So this is what I did with what I brought home from he farmers market.
I mixed
1.) 1/2 Tbs of ground coriander
2.) 1/2 tsp of ground cumin
3.) 1/4 tsp of turmeric
4.) 3/4 tsp of garam masala
5.)1/4 cup of dried shredded unsweetened coconut
6.) 1/2 cup of water
in a bowl and put it aside for later

In a karhai or heavy pan heat about 4 Tbs mixed vegetable oil and butter.When it's hot toss in about a cup of cubed paneer cheese. Note about this:
I you don't have a non stick pan ( I didn't but I'm for sure getting one now) the paneer cheee is going to stick and break up and crumble. Sorry.

Fry your paneer cheese about 5 minutes till it gets sort of toasty brown. Take it out and set it aside.
Add to the hot oil
7.) 1 dried red chili
8.) a 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger sliced into very thin rounds. Stir thatup and fry it a bit, it'll start to darken in color..then
Toss in
9.) 4 small zucchini diced
10.) 2 small crook neck yellow squash..in short, whatever you have. Eyeball it to the amount you're going to need. stir this around and cook it for about 10 minutes till the squash is cooked through.

Then add:
11.) 1 1/4 tsp of salt
12.)the spice paste you set aside earlier,the paneer cheese cubes you browned and 2 small tomatoes or one medium tomato chopped up.
Stir it around and cook it up till the tomatoes are soft and the dish is nice and thick.



Add:
13.) 3 Tbs of chopped cilantro and serve it up.

This is a great dish that cooks up fast, and can be made with virtually any squash you might have around, heck you could even add in small diced potatoes, eggplant, just allow for the vegetables cooking time. Also, I have to say it's delicious!

I'm a Badi Badi Girl...

Badis, oh I love them! Crunchy,spicy chunks of dal that are dried into hard nuggets and chopped up and added to any number of Indian vegetarian dishes to give them a kick in the keister.
Badis come in many varieties and heats depending on what part of India they come from. Oh, and sometimes they're call Vadi, or Wadis, either way look for them at any indian grocery. I always have a bag of Punjabi Badi in my cupboard. It's hot with lots of pepper and spices and a smoky fragrance. Today I took it out. Maybe I just felt like pounding something with a mallet, maybe I wanted something extra spicy..who knows? Where else can one take a hammer to something and turn out something completely delicious?
I have a fridge full of all the vegetable booty that I dragged up the hill from the Farmers Market the other day. One of the farmers I partonize stuck a couple of extra globular squash in my bag as a gifty. She wanted me to try them, and since todays dish involves several varioety of squash and peas. I pulled it out of the vegetable drawer.
This dish is a mixture of soft vegetables with crunchy Badi, It's my adaptation of a recipe from Yamuna Devis' book Lord Krishnas' Cuisine. This dish calls for squash, but I find that almost any vegetable that one has loitering about the house will work. What one wants is a firm texture and since there are so many types of squash, knock yourself out. I daresay that eggplant would also work, perhaps pumpkin..you get the drift. try it the basic way, see if you like it then improvise.
Start Out with
1.) 1/2 cup of dried Punjabi Badi, mallet them down into pea sized pieces. Set them aside



2.) 5 small zucchini and 4 summer squash.

I use zucchini and globe squash, any squash will do. Mix them with
3.) 1/2 cup of peas, fresh or frozen.
4.) 4 whole cloves
5.) 1/2 inch piece of cinnamon
6.) 2 Tbs of chopped fresh mint.
7.) 4 Tbs of chopped fresh cilantro
8.) 2 fresh green chilies

In a large skillet melt 2 Tbs of unsalted butter or ghee

When the ghee/butter foams add the Badis and stir fry them till they turn golden brown



Stir in the vegetable spice mix.

9.) Add to that 2/3 cup of 1/2 and 1/2.



Lower the heat. Put a lid on the skillet and cook slowly for about 20 to 30 minutes. stir every now and then. When your vegetables are nicely simmered remove the chili peppers add 1/2 teasp. of salt and serve.

Badis aren't that hard to find if there's an Indian market nearby, or they can be mail ordered easily. Either way it's one more thing to do with zucchini.