This is one easy quick-fix recipe, when you are short of time and you wish to eat a full Indian meal. I served it with frozen chapatis that you get in the supermarket here. It was ready in about half hour.
Ingredients:
- 350 gms paneer(I used frozen)
- a big bunch (about a cup and half) of coriander and mint leaves (stems from the mint leaves removed)
- 3-5 tbsp of greek yogurt
- 3 medium sized onions
- 3 green chilies
- 4-5 garlic flakes
- 1 inch piece of ginger
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp of oil/butter/or ghee (or more according to taste)
Recipe:
- Take the required paneer out of the freezer, in case you are using frozen paneer and keep it on the counter to defrost)
- Wash and rinse the coriander and mint leaves and leave it in the strainer to drain out excess water.
- In a grinder, add 2 green chilies and ginger and pulse for a few seconds. Then add the coriander and mint leaves and pulse again till you get a fine puree.
- Add the greek yogurt and salt and pulse again.
- Take the puree out in another bowl.
- Add paneer to the coriander-mint-greek yogurt puree, mix well and leave it aside for 10-15 minutes.
- In the same grinder jar, add garlic and the remaining chili(optional) and get a fine paste. Take it out and puree the onions to get fine onion paste.
- Heat oil/butter/ghee in a pan and add cumin seeds and garlic-chili paste.
- Then add the pureed onion paste and saute it on a medium-low flame till it is well cooked and the oil separates ( it will not happen if you use just a tsp of oil :) ... just wait for it to dry, as mine)
- Add the marinated paneer and mix well.
- Cook on low-medium flame for 3-5 minutes.
- Add about 1/4-1/3 cup of water, if u want a wet curry and let it boil for about 1-2 minutes.
- Add garam masala, mix well and turn off the flame.
- Garnish with mint leaves, hot melted butter or ghee or even a dollop of greek yogurt.
- Serve hot with chapati, naan, paratha or rice.
Quantity:
- Reduce the quantity of greek yogurt to about 1 tbsp, if you want a dry curry or to eat the paneer as a appetizer.
- You can eat the dry version of this curry, as a filling to grilled sandwich (which we did the next day)
- You can substitute normal curd for greek yogurt. Hang the curd to get a thick creamy version, for an hour or two.
Hi... not many recipes from my kitchen for the past two months..... my mom was here.....so she was the cook and I concentrated on eating :) She cooked traditional balanced vegetarian Indian meals and I worked out a lot. Lost 3 kgs in past 2 months.... :) Can't seem to stop smiling about that....!!! Cooking by myself again is tiring, yet my kids are happy.... they love eating non-vegetarian food, which I didn't cook out of sheer boredom !! Here is a recipe, which brought a smile to my older kid's face. I had italian and thai basil in my pantry and my kid wanted to eat chicken, and I wanted to experiment for my blog... so this was the result.... I checked out few basil, chicken and pasta recipes ...however, many of them called for butter and cream, which I did not want to use !!! This is what I made, and it was delicious.
Ingredients:
- about 250 gm chicken (boneless cut to strips or chicken mince)
- 350 gms penne pasta
- 1 cup of thai basil leaves
- 1 cup of italian basil leaves ( you can use different varieties or 2 cups of a kind)
- 1 whole garlic (about 10-12 cloves)
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper
- olives about 15 nos (I used the pitted ones in brine)
- 100 gms of baby corn
- 1/3 cup of frozen sweet corn
- Parmesan cheese and more basil leaves (to garnish)
- 1 tsp of dried red chili flakes
- 1 dried red chili
Recipe:
- Boil the penne according to instructions on the pack with enough water and salt. Drain, after reserving about 1/2 cup of salted water. Rinse the penne with cold water.
- Wash and clean chicken. Dry it with paper towels or in a strainer and cut to small strips. (You can also mince it, in a food processor)
- Wash and clean the basil leaves and leave it in a strainer to drain most of the water.
- Add salt and pepper to the chicken.
- Grind about 5-6 cloves of garlic with a cup of thai basil leaves and add it to the chicken.
- Rub the marinade on the chicken well and leave it for about 1/2 hour.
- Chop the remaining basil leaves roughly,grate rest of the garlic, drain the olives from the brine,and chop the baby corn.
- Heat 3 tbsps olive oil in a pan. Add grated garlic and red chili and saute for 1-2 minutes.
- Once the garlic is browned a little, add the chicken with the marinade.
- Saute the chicken, till it is cooked.
- Add olives, and chopped baby corn.
- Cook for 2-3 minutes, till everything is well mixed.
- Add frozen corn and chopped basil leaves.
- Add the boiled penne. Toss to mix.
- Add the reserved salted water. I added the reserved salted water to the container in which I had used to grind the basil, kinda rinsed it with salted water and then added it to the pasta.
- Serve hot, garnished with fresh basil leaves and grated parmesan cheese.
Quantity:
- You can grind the basil leaves instead of chopping them, while adding to the pasta.
- You can add more or even less olive oil according to your taste, or garnish with more olive oil, while serving.
- Omit chicken for vegetarian version, and substitute with other vegetables.
You can try these other spaghetti/pasta recipes too....
