Paneer Pasanda

The creamy, nutty pasanda is a favourite curry of ours; there's a local curry house that makes chicken pasanda, and we always order it when eating there. This is our first attempt at making a pasanda at home. It lived up to our expectations.

The recipe as written expects you to prepare this as a side dish or appetizer, cutting long "fingers" of paneer, grilling them, and then serving them soaked in pasanda sauce. We made it as a main course, pan-frying smaller cubes of paneer and serving it over rice.

Ingredients

• 400mL coconut milk
• 64mL slivered blanched almonds, ground
• 5mL coarsely cracked black pepper
• 2.5mL coarse salt
• 10-20 fresh curry leaves
• 6 whole cloves
• 4 green or white cardamom pods
• 1 cinnamon stick
• Malai paneer from 2L of cream, cubed
• 30mL canola oil
• 1 small red onion, finely chopped

Procedure

1. Pour the coconut milk, almonds, pepper, salt, curry leaves, cloves, cardamom, and cinnamon into a pot. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
2. Remove from the heat and add the paneer cubes, ideally covering them all completely with the sauce. Set aside for ~30 minutes so the paneer can soak up the sauce and absorb the flavours.
3. Remove the paneer cubes from the pot using a slotted spoon. Transfer them to a bowl to drain further.
4. Heat the oil in a deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until it softens and browns around the edges, 3-5 minutes.
5. Add the sauce, reduce heat to medium, and simmer, uncovered, until the sauce heats through and thickens, another 3-5 minutes. Remove from the heat.
6. Meanwhile, heat a generous amount of oil in a skillet and pan-fry the paneer cubes until golden brown. Add any additional sauce that drained off to the onion/sauce skillet.
7. Heat the sauce back up (if necessary) and mix in the fried paneer.
8. Eat.

Malai Paneer

Paneer is India's sole cheese. It's firm, slightly crumbly, and doesn't melt but does grill or fry quite nicely. It's a heat-acid curdle, so it's easy to make at home but is not at all safe for the lactose-intolerant (like myself and my sister); if that's a concern, use lactose-free milk or cream in its preparation.

660 Curries has two paneer recipes, one made with whole milk and one made with cream. It's the cream version that we usually make, and that I've reproduced here.

This recipe is for a plain paneer, but you can easily mix in spices during the cheesemaking process, to complement whatever curry you'll be using it in or just enhance its appeal as a snack -- as we did with the paneer below.

Ingredients

• 2L 10% cream
• 64mL white vinegar

Procedure

1. Bring the cream to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently to prevent it from scorching or suddenly boiling over.
2. Stir in the vinegar and remove from the heat. Wait for the curds and whey to separate, ~30 seconds.
3. Line a colander with a double layer of cheesecloth, making sure you have some extra hanging over the edge. Pour the cheese and whey into the colander, and let it drain.
4. Wait until the cheese is cool enough to handle, 5-10 minutes.
1. If you're going to add seasonings, now is the time; mix them well into the curds.
5. Fold the cheesecloth over the curds and squish them to squeeze more moisture out.
6. Once you aren't getting any more moisture out, return the wrapped curds to the colander and place a heavy weight on top of them, such as a pot filled with water. Leave them for 3-6 hours (or in the fridge overnight) while the remaining liquid is squeezed out.
7. Unwrap the cheese, and re-wrap in plastic wrap; keep in the fridge for up to a week.

If you don't get enough liquid out during the squeezing-and-pressing phase, the paneer won't hold its shape very well; you get a very soft, crumbly "cottage paneer" that disintegrates into something resembling scrambled eggs when heated. It's still very tasty, but a completely different texture, and it can't really be sliced or pan-fried.

Moghalai-Style Chicken with Spinach, Almonds, and Raisins

We're cooking curries again! And this one is delicious, chunks of chicken simmered in an onion-almond-raisin sauce with a few spices. It takes about 30-40 minutes to put together, much of which is spent simmering or stirring occasionally, so you can use the time to do other things -- prepare a side dish, say, or (as we did) tidy up the spice cupboard and perform laptop surgery.

It calls for Punjabi garam masala; it's very easy to put together, and we previously posted the recipe as part of the Paneer Pizza recipe. We served it over brown rice cooked with cinnamon, star anise, and ghee.

As with all recipes from 660 Curries, we've halved the salt for this writeup, but no other alterations have been made.

Ingredients

• 64mL canola oil
• 1 large red onion (or two yellow onions), finely chopped
• 128mL golden raisins
• 128mL slivered blanched almonds
• 1kg boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into ~2cm chunks
• 15mL Punjabi garam masala
• 5mL coarse salt
• 2.5mL cayenne
• 2.5mL ground turmeric
• 1 package (~300g) fresh baby spinach leaves (or chopped full-size spinach), or thawed frozen spinach

Procedure

1. Heat the oil in a deep skillet (or pot) over medium heat. Add the onions, raisins, and almonds, and cook until the onion softens, the almonds are toasted, and the raisins turn honey-brown and succulent, 10-15 minutes.
2. Stir in the chicken and cook until it sears and turns light brown in places, ~10 minutes.
3. Stir in the spices and cook for 20-30 seconds.
4. Stir in the spinach and 128mL water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the spinach is wilted and the chicken cooked through, 5-10 minutes.

Maple Glazed Salmon

Another AllRecipes recipe. This one needs a bit of lead time because of the marination but is delicious and very, very easy and simple to put together. We served it over lemon rice with peas.

The grocery store didn't have salmon, but did have rainbow trout on sale, so we made it with that and it was delicious.

Ingredients

• 4 large (~150g) filets of salmon or trout
• 100mL maple syrup
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1.25mL salt
• 1.25mL garlic powder
• 1.25mL freshly ground black pepper

Procedure

1. Combine all ingredients except salmon in a small bowl.
2. Place salmon in a glass baking dish. Pour marinade over salmon. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes, turning halfway through.
3. Bake at 400°F for ~20 minutes or until fish is delicate and can be flaked with a fork.

Balsalmic braised chicken

From AllRecipes. We modified the recipe slightly in adding mushrooms.

Ingredients

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, halved
• peanut oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 225g cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 540mL tin of diced tomatoes
• 125mL balsamic vinegar
• 5mL dried basil
• 5mL dried oregano
• 5mL dried rosemary
• 2.5mL dried thyme

Procedure

1. Season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper.
2. Heat the oil over medium high heat; brown the chicken, ~4 minutes/side
3. Add onion and mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms have released their juices and the juices have cooked off and the onion is starting to brown.
4. Add the garlic. Cook until fragrant, ~30 seconds.
5. Add the tomatoes, vinegar, and spices. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until chicken is cooked through, 15-20 minutes.

Serve over brown rice.

Deconstructed stuffed pepper casserole

Via Everyday Dishes, this is basically a stuffed bell pepper turned into a one-pot casserole. It comes together quite easily and is really, really tasty. Expect it to go fast.

Ingredients

• 500g extra lean ground beef
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 3 red or yellow bell peppers, coarsely diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 450mL of diced tomatoes, in their juice
• 450mL of beef broth
• 225mL of tomato sauce
• 10mL beef bouillon
• 15mL worchestershire sauce
• 5mL italian seasoning
• 250mL long grain white rice, uncooked
• 500mL freshly grated cheddar cheese

Procedure

1. In a deep skillet or nonstick pot over medium high heat, brown the ground beef in a bit of olive oil.
2. Add the onions, bell peppers, and garlic. Stir together with the beef and cook until the onions are starting to turn translucent and the bell peppers are starting to soften.
3. Reduce heat to medium. Stir in diced tomatoes, broth, tomato sauce, bouillon, worchestershire sauce and italian seasoning.
4. Bring to a boil, then stir in the rice.
5. Return to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for ~25 minutes, until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid and cooked through.
6. Remove from the heat. Stir lightly to fluff the rice, then sprinkle with the cheddar cheese and re-cover until the cheese has melted, ~5 minutes.

Chicken bacon pumpkin gnocchi

Based on a recipe from Nutmeg Nanny, this produces an extremely heavy and filling dish of gnocchi in a rich, creamy pumpkin sauce. The chicken didn't detract from it but didn't contribute much either; we'd probably leave it out (or replace it with something else) next time.

The original recipe calls for bacon; we did it with spicy pancetta.

Ingredients

• 1 pie pumpkin
• 1kg vacuum-packed gnocchi (2 packets)
• 400g pancetta, chopped into small chunks
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced
• 250g cream cheese
• 250mL freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 10mL smoked paprika
• 2.5mL cayenne
• 2.5mL garlic powder
• 250mL half and half cream
• a bunch of green onions, finely sliced

Procedure

1. Bisect the pumpkin, extract the guts, brush the exposed face with olive oil, place face down on a baking sheet, and bake at 350°F for 1 hour or until fork tender.
2. Peel the pumpkin and mash the flesh to produce 300-400mL of pumpkin purée.
3. Set a pot of water to boil (for the gnocchi) in the background.
4. Set a large, deep skillet or nonstick pot over medium heat. Cook the pancetta in a bit of olive oil, until well browned but not quite crisp. Remove to a plate of paper towels with a slotted spoon.
5. Add the chicken to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Cook until cooked through. Remove to the same plate as the pancetta.
6. Add the cream cheese, and stir gently until it starts to melt.
7. Meanwhile, cook the gnocchi according to package directions.
8. Add the pumpkin puree, parmesan, paprika, cayenne, and garlic powder. Stir to combine.
9. Stir in the cream.
10. Stir in the gnocchi, chicken, and pancetta. Cook for ~5 minutes to warm the chicken and gnocchi through.
11. Stir in the green onions.
12. Eat!