Indian Dinner

Anyone who knows me really well, knows I'm a sucker for Indian food! Love it! I'm an all Veggied out Indian food lover. *Ugghh I'm wanting some right now.
Well I bought this quick heat up dish from Target the other day and thought "If I like it, I can google the recipes".

Loved it
*smile inside*

So here are some of the more "easier" "Besties" recipes to make this yummy meal.




Looks sorta like the dish below
(Picture from http://fingerlickingfood.blogspot.com)

PLUS

Picture from:
http://closetcooking.blogspot.com

Now both of these recipes include Tumeric and garam masala, which if you're not Indian, you may say "What?" and "Where the heck do I get that?"

Want a fast easy option? Buy here--->:

Tumeric
garam masala
Or you can make your own garam masala if I totally haven't lost you by now, easy recipe from Closet Cooking, Click here.

Now you'll forever have these ingredients to use with all the other yummy Indian dishes that come your way.


And if you don't have anywhere to buy the Paneer (cheese) There is a recipe I've included below *ssoooo easy guys, don't freak out. It only uses Milk and Lemon juice. Click Here
or scroll to the very bottom.

Creamed Curried Spinach with Cheese (Sag Paneer)

1/2 cup water
1 lb. fresh spinach, washed, de-stemmed, coarsely chopped
3 T ghee or butter
1 T finely chopped ginger
1/2 c. finely chopped onion
1 t salt
1/4 t ground cumin
1/4 t turmeric
1/2 t ground coriander
1/2 t garam masala
1 cup cheese (paneer), cut into 1-inch cubes

Combine 1/2 of the water and a handful of the spinach in a jar of a blender. Blend at high speed for 30 seconds. Keep adding spinach until about half is blended. Add a little more water, if necessary, to puree.

In a large skillet, heat the butter over moderate heat. Add the ginger and saute for one minute. Add the onions and salt and continue sauteing for 5 more minutes.

Stirring after each addition, add the cumin, turmeric, coriander, and garam masala. Then stir in the leafy and pureed spinach. Reduce the heat and cook the mixture uncovered, for 20 to 30 minutes. Most of the liquid should evaporate. At the last minute, gently add the paneer. Serve hot.

For Jeera Rice Ingredients:

1 cup long grain rice or basmati rice

1 tbsp ghee (butter)

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 bay leaf

1/4 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp clove-cinnamon powder

1 1/2 cups water

salt to taste


For Jeera Rice :
Wash rice well and soak in water for 20 minutes.
Heat ghee in a heavy vessel.Add the cumin seeds and let them turn brown.
Add the bay leaves and fry for few seconds.Add sugar and drained rice(keep aside the drained water)gently stiring for a mt.
Add spice powder and salt.Mix.Add water and bring to a boil.
Cover and cook on simmer till rice is cooked and water evaporates and see that each grain is separate.
Serve hot with rajma or any curry of your choice.

For Rajma Ingredients:

1 cup red kidney beans soaked overnight (or just use the stuff from the can :) )

3 cups water

1 big onion

1 bay leaf (optional)

1 tsp chopped ginger

1 tsp chopped garlic

pinch of asafoetida(optional)

pinch of turmeric powder

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp red chilli powder

2 big tomatoes finely chopped

1/4 tsp of ground garam masala (2 cloves,1/2″ cinnamon and 1 green cardamom( don't worry about the green cardamom if you don't have whatever that is)

1/2 tsp cumin pwd

1 tbsp coriander pwd

1 1/2 tbsps oil or ghee(clarified butter)

salt to taste

chopped fresh coriander leaves for garnish(optional)

How to make Rajmah Chawal (Red Kidney beans curry with rice)

For Rajma:
Wash the kidney beans and soak in water overnight.Next morning, pressure cook until soft or cook in a large pot of water till soft.Remove half a cup of cooked beans, crush coarsely and keep aside.
Grind onion, ginger and garlic to a very fine paste.
Heat ghee/oil in a cooking vessel and add cumin seeds and let them brown.Add the asafoetida and stir fry for few seconds and then add the ground onion paste and saute until golden brown sprinkling water occasionally until the ghee starts separating from the paste.
Add red chilli pwd,turmeric pwd,coriander pwd,cumin pwd and salt.Mix well.
Add the tomatoes and cook till ghee seperates.
Add the cooked whole beans along with the residue water left while pressure cooking it.Cover and cook for 3 mts.
Add the crushed kidney beans and a cup of water.Mix well.Add garam masala and cook till required gravy consistency.
Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
Serve hot with steamed rice,jeera rice,chappatis or phulkas.

Paneer

Recipe from Closet Cooking:

From Closet Cooking:
"For the longest time I was unable to find paneer and I had bookmarked a few recipes that I wanted to try that called for it. Though I recently found a source for paneer it was pretty far out of the way and I never seemed to have the time to head out and get some. Since I had come across several recipes for making paneer at home that sounded pretty easy I decided to try making some of my own. Making my own cheese had interested me for a while and I finally resolved to try it.

Paneer is dead simple to make! You just bring some whole milk to a boil, mix in an acid such as lemon juice and let the milk curdle. After it has curdled you drain the liquid, form the curds into a block in some cheese cloth or muslin and let it sit with a heavy weight on it for a few hours. At this point you have a brick of fresh paneer cheese just begging to be used!

Since you did not add anything to the cheese other than just enough acid to cause it to curdle, the paneer is pretty flavourless. This is normal and since paneer really absorbs the flavours of the dish that it is in, it will soon be nice and tasty in addition to having a great texture. I saw several posts where the authors suggested adding fresh herbs or other flavourings to the curds before forming them into a brick and weighing them down. Next I will have to try my hand at some flavoured paneers!

Since it was so easy and fun to make the paneer I will also have to look into making other cheeses at home."

Paneer

(makes about 2 cups)
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 liter of whole milk
1/2 lemon (juice)

Directions:
1. Bring the milk to a boil in a large sauce pan.
2. Add the lemon juice and stir until the milk curdles.
3. Strain the curds through a muslin cloth.
4. Tie the muslin cloth up tight and form it into a brick.
5. Place something heavy on it and let it sit for a few hours.