Shahi Paneer - A different take!

Ok, so I am kind of behind on writing some of my posts and am trying to get to them one by one over this weekend.  So, I thought why not start with a food post since that's what I started my 2011 blog with.  I started my 2011 blog year with writing my experience of cooking Shahi Paneer and surprisingly, I will start 2012's blog post with Shahi Paneer as well, but with different take than the last one :).

Over a week ago, my brother wanted to try out Shahi Paneer and he found a recipe from online, I think it was showmethecurry.com.  The recipe was different from when I had tried it earlier (my earlier post: Shahi Paneer), but he wanted to try it and I liked their recipe as well, so we gave it a try.  We made some changes to the recipe to make it our own way, but it turned out great.  It was spicy and delicious!!!  The credit goes to my brother for finding the recipe and trying it out and I helped and supervised as needed.  Before I put the recipe, here is a picture of the Shahi Paneer we made :).

Home made Shahi Paneer

Ingredients:
Vegetables:
Tomatoes (3-4 medium size) or tomato sauce, Onions (1 big or 2 small), Garlic, Green Chillies (1 or 2 jalapenos)

Spices:
Red chili powder, Coriander powder, Cumin powder, Garam masala, Shredded ginger, Salt, Sugar

Other:
Cooking oil, Cashews (3/4th cup), Milk(1 cup), Water, Cilantro, Paneer(1/3rd of frozen 1 lb. paneer)

Preparation:
1) Soak cashews in milk for about 15 minutes.
2) Finely chop onions, green chilies, garlic and cilantro
3) Shred the ginger
4) Cook paneer in butter or oil, and once they turn slightly brownish, keep them aside.
5) Take the tomatoes (or tomato sauce), onions (3/4th), garlic, green chilies, ginger, and make puree from it.
6) Blend the cashews and milk until they smooth.

Process:
1) Heat oil on medium heat in a utensil
2) Add finely chopped onions and stir until they turn brownish
3) Add remaining chopped green chilies, and garlic and stir them
4) Add the onions/tomatoes puree to this mixture and stir everything together
5) Once the oil starts to separate from the mixture, add cumin powder, coriander powder, garam masala, and little bit of red chili powder
6) Mix everything and let it cook for 3-4 minutes.
7) Add cashew and milk mixture in this and mix well.There should be no lumps in the gravy!
8) At this point, if needed, add little bit of water to make more gravy
9) Add salt, and little bit of sugar and let the gravy come to boil
10) Taste the gravy and add any spices per taste if you feel if something is missing
11) Once the gravy comes to boil, add the paneer and mix well
12) Let it cook for another 2-4 minutes and turn off the heat
13) Garnish with cilantro or crushed cashews.
14) Be ready to eat this delicious dish!!!

Hope you enjoy this recipe and I am def. going to make it again since it turned out so good.  It wasn't even much time consuming!!  Have fun :)

Bye bye 2011, Welcome 2012!!!

First of all, let me start this post by wishing you all a very Happy New Year!!  I wish you all a colorful, joyful, successful, peaceful, and wonderful 2012 :D.  I feel that 2011 has just flown by but with lots of happenings, a lot of good , and some bad.  I just want to list some of those events to highlight my 2011 year and welcome the happy new year of 2012!

Starting with the best event of 2011 was the day which will be remembered forever, India winning the Cricket World Cup after 28 years.  It was my favorite world cup for sure since I followed it so closely.  That event followed by 2 of the next best things, me completing my MS course work successfully by presenting my MS project and  graduating with my MS degree, and second being my brother graduating with his bachelor's degree!!  Following that, I had one of my best vacations in Florida with my brother enjoying all 7 theme parks to the fullest.  Can't complain!  I made lots of new friends for life in 2011.  I also mastered in the field of cooking which was one of my main goals of 2011 and now I can call myself a decent cook :D.  All these things and many more (small and big) events have filled 2011 with lots of good memories.  But there are also times which you have no control over, which leave a bad mark on your mind, and I happen to experience one of these bad incidents when I got in a terrible car accident.  It left a bad image on my mind and left me very emotional about the whole thing for couple of weeks including a terrible ribs pain, but I was grateful and thankful for one thing and that is me walking out of it alive!  It was one of the worst experiences of my life that I might not forget but it is something I am leaving behind in 2011, carrying forward all the good memories.

With that said, I look forward to 2012 and wait for what it has in store for me!!  What about you guys?  Do you have any 2012 resolutions?  Hope you all had a great 2011 and have a fantastic 2012!!

Enjoy!

Happy Diwali and Happy New Year!!

Hey friends,

I want to wish all my family, friends, and blog readers a very Happy Diwali and a very Happy New Year.  Diwali is a festival of lights and may this Diwali and New Year lighten up your life with love, happiness, and lots of success :).

The Adventures of Tintin

I had read The Adventures of Tintin comic book long time ago, when I was in college, from a friend who had one of many stories of Tintin.  I really enjoyed reading it and not all comic books are fun and engaging but this one was!  After so many years, me and my friend got in a conversation which led to the discussion of how we both liked The adventures of tintin comic books.  My friend had read all of its books but I had just read maybe one or two stories.  So without further delay, I went to the library and got Volume 2 & 3 of The Adventures of Tintin comic books where each book contained 3 stories.  Volume 2 has The broken ear, The black island, and King Ottokar's sceptre stories whereas Volume 3 has The crab with the golden claws, The shooting star, and The secret of the Unicorn.  I also found out that there is a cartoon series of his books which is also fun to watch and might be quick to finish up instead of book :P..hehe.  However, beware that the cartoon stories are slightly different from the book series.  In fact, one of the book series that I watched online "The shooting star" is compressed in small version of cartoon series with only 20 minutes whereas the book story covers a lot.  Also, I found out that there is Tintin's movie coming out this December (The secret of the Unicorn), and after watching the cartoon series of the story, I definitely want to go see the movie.

Let me tell you little bit about Tintin and why I enjoyed reading the book so much.  First of all, Tintin is a mystery solver, smart, and intelligent, but also someone who invites trouble to himself.  He has a loyal and equally intelligent dog, snowy, who saves him when he has put himself in worse situations!!  In fact, snowy has better sense of humor than Tintin :).  I don't know how this guy manages to land himself in the unexpected places and situations and also get out of it without a hiccup (well there are definitely hiccups, but it's funny how he manages it).  Also I like how the location of each of his stories is in different parts of the world and even places where ghosts will be scared to go :P, but he stays brave, strong, and goes to any limit to reach to the evidence with snowy, following his master, even though he doesn't agree with Tintin all the time, but that poor dog has no choice!!

Well that's just my 2 cents of reading Tintin's comic books.  I will probably get some more volumes of the book to read so I can finish the complete set of The Adventures of Tintin :).

Bread & Green Chilies Pakoras

Bread pakoras, by far, have been the easiest recipe I have tried which has turned out to be really tasty and yummy snack!!  I have taken down the recipe from http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/2007/10/20/bread-pakora/ but made a minor addition.  Even though the recipe is on the site with video, I still want to give you guys my side of the recipe with an excellent alternate to bread pakoras which my mom suggested.

Ingredients:
- White bread (I used wheat bread since that's the one we use)
- 1 cup gram flour (besan - 1 cup is enough for only about 4 to 5 bread slices)
- 1 spoon rice flour (to add crisp to the pakoras.  If you don't have rice flour, meda works as a substitute.)
- 2 green chilies finely chopped (I used jalapeneo peppers)
- Cilantro finely chopped

Spices:
- salt
- pinch of asafetida (hing)
- 1 spoon cumin seeds (jeera)
- red chili powder

Other:
- Oil to fry the pakoras
- Water to mix in the batter

Process:
- I used 5 slices of bread
- Cut the crust from all sides of the slice
- Cut the bread in 2 equal pieces
- Mix all of the following: Gram flour (besan), rice flour, asafetida, cumin seeds, salt, and red chili powder.
- Add water to this mix to make it smoother.  Make sure you don't make it too liquidish but just enough to dip the bread slices in.
- In this mix, add green chilies, and cilantro and mix everything well.

Frying Process:
- In a frying pan heat the oil on medium heat.
- Once the oil is ready, dip the bread slices in the batter you just made one at a time and drop it into pan (slowly, so that you don't splash the hot oil).
- Put only 2 to 3 pakoras at a time in the pan (depending on the size of your pan).
- Turn them occationally and let them cook until they are brownish in color.
- Repeat this process until you have cooked all your pakoras.
- Your crispy, tasty, delicious pakoras are ready to eat.

Now about the excellent suggestion my mom made during the process of this pakoras.  Make the batter as described above but instead of bread, you can make pakoras out of green chilies (jalapeneo peppers).  Follow the process described below and you will have some mouth watering, spicy, and extremely delicious green chilies pakoras.

Green Chilies Pakoras Process:
Ingredients:
- 3 green chilies (jalapeneo peppers)
- coriander powder
- salt
- sugar

Process:
- Cut each jalapeneos in half from the center top and cut 2 to 3 big pieces (removing the middle white stuff and seeds)
- fill the pieces with coriander powder, little bit salt, and little bit sugar.
- Keeping it together, dip this mixture into the batter and fry it.
- Remove from the pan when they are cooked brownish.

Trust me....you will love these pakoras!!
Enjoy :)

Chammak Challo

Ok...normally I don't post any videos but this one I just have to.  I can't get this song out of my head and I don't want to get it out :P....and the video just adds the oomph to it with Kareena looking ravishing in red saree and SRK looking dashing!!  Enjoy!

Movie Marathon July & August 2011

Ever since I have been done with my masters degree, I have had some good quality time on hand to do other things.  I have been able to hang out and get-together with family and friends more and I have been able to watch back-to-back new bollywood movies as they come out in theaters!!  That's been a lot of fun.  In less than a month, I have watched about 5 new movies - Zindagi na milegi dobara, Buddha hoga tera baap, Singham, Chillar party, and latest watched Aarakshan.

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara: It stars Farhan Akhtar, Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol, Katrina Kaif, and Kalki Kochin.  One word for this movie, Refreshing!  It was such a fun-loving movie where all the actors performed really well.  For me, Farhan Akhtar steals the show where he was really funny in the movie and you get to see a comic side of him which is different from his other roles like in Rock On, Karthik calling karthik, etc.  I simply loved him.  He was brilliant.  Other than that, all the actors look fab with their toned body and killer looks.  Ik Junoon and Senorita are two of my favorite tracks and I assure you that you won't get tired of these 2 tracks if you listen to them over and over and over again :).  And to top it off, you have beautiful Spain in the backdrop where you get the taste of its culture, places, and people!  Don't miss this movie!

Buddha....hoga tera baap: This is a complete Amitabh Bacchan movie!  As a whole this movie is ok, but it's entertaining because of Mr. Bacchan.  He does comedy, action, drama, and even dances to his own tunes from the past which makes this movie a complete entertainer.  It could be a timepass movie, but it'll pass your time with entertainment ...not with boredom or stupidity :p.

Singham: It stars Ajay Devgan and Prakash Raj and those are the only two actors you need to know about.  This movie offers action, action, and more action!  Ajay devgan owns this movie, but it's not complete without Prakash Raj's gundagiri...hehe.  Ajay looks fit and hit for the role he has been given and performs superbly well.  Saathiya and Singham are two of my favorite tracks, one is soft and other is foot-tapping.  Definitely watch this one!

Chillar Party:  This movie casts the brilliant young kids which makes it totally adorable and cute to watch.  Don't underestimate these kids...they will make you cry but will make you laugh twice hard.  I think this movie works with kids well, but it's something that even adults will enjoy watching.  It was a complete joy to see these kids perform brilliantly.  Can you imagine a kid saying this dialogue: "Bole to bapu india ka woh bhai tha jisne angrezo ki vaat laga dali aur india se tadipar kardiya, samjhi kya?".....haha.  It was hillarious.

Aarakhsan: Unlike other movies that I listed on the top, this movie is more on serious side focusing on a reality and topic of Reservation system.  It stars Amitabh Bacchan, Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, and Pratik Babbar.  I thought the movie was good, but I also got confused in some parts where they talk about how the admission seating is assigned based on reservation and not.  I think the movie keeps you glued to your seats until the interval (at least that's what I feel), but then after the interval the topic somewhat becomes on how people play politics to make money.  The focus is still kept on making money out of education system, but still I think the movie looses the focus of its original topic of Aarakshan.  I still enjoyed watching it.  Amitabh Bacchan was good as usual.  Pratik Babbar is someone to look out for.  He acted well in Dhobi ghaat, and performs equally well in this one too.  Saif Ali Khan was good in few parts but I felt he was left out in big chunk of movie.  Deepika is also good....there are not a lot of movies that I feel she performs well in, but with this one she is good and I feel her role is more than of Saif Ali Khan's.  On a whole, it's a good movie.

Well with that, I come to an end to give you my two cents on the movies I have watched so far.  And there are a lot more movies coming up that I am waiting to see.  But that's for later :).  Until then, see ya!