Safe Diet Plans: paneer

Mattar Green Pea Paneer

A couple of weekends ago the fella and I went to visit some friends in Milwaukee to catch up, meet their newest bull mastiff and go bulk food shopping. As a result much fun was had and we came home with a gallon of marinated artichoke hearts, a barrel of kalamata olives and 5 pounds of paneer to list only a few items of bulk insanity. Artichokes and olives have therefor been making a lot of appearances in our cooking as of late. Being the curry freaks we are I figured that paneer would be gone in no time. Turns out finding interesting dishes other than saag paneer is more difficult than one would think. Fortunately we are resourceful and the Internet is on our side.

When I put the fella in charge of finding something delicious to make involving paneer he stumbled upon the rather interesting site of Indian Food Forever. Any Indian dish youve ever wanted to make is there and easy to find but the recipes are like a scavengers hunt of randomness. The ingredient lists are not in any logical order and the instructions call for the already mangled ingredient list willy nilly. So its a good Indian cooking research with recipes that need to be translated into something usable before cooking, youve been warned.

At first green pea and paneer curry sounded a little dubious. But as the chef and I sat on the couch writing and let the fella do the cooking we started to smell the awesome that was emanating from the kitchen. It was about then I stopped doubting dinner would be delicious and started wishing dinner was ready.

It was a nice change to eat something this fabulous without having to be involved in its creation, the chef and I both agreed. The fella had a huge dinner success and got to carry around the smug look of someone who made the two resident foodies coo over a perfectly spicy Indian dinner. Though we have now officially started to play with the somewhat scary precedent of trying to one up one another in making spicy food. I made a kidney bean curry with three jalapenos, the fella paneer with 4 serranos and I can only imagine what the chef will do with 5 chilies when its his turn to cook. Im sure it will be wonderful if dangerously spicy

Mattar Paneer

2 medium onions, chopped (divided use)
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon ground coriander

1/2 cup ghee or coconut oil
1 pound Paneer

1 tablespoon ginger, grated
4 bay leaves

1 tablespoon turmeric powder

1pound shelled green peas
3 green chilies, chopped
4 medium tomatoes, peeled and sliced
1cup plain yogurt

1 cups water

In the food processor make a paste out of one of the onions, the garlic and the coriander.

Heat the ghee or coconut oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Cut the paneer into 2 inch cubes. Fry the paneer to light brown then remove to a plate.

Add the remaining onion, ginger and bay leaves to the oil in the pan and fry until the onion is golden brown. Then add the turmeric and the onion paste mixture and fry about another 5 minutes.

Add the paneer, peas, yogurt, chili, tomato and salt to taste. Stir for 5-6 minutes over low heat until well combined.

Pour in the water and simmer gently for 20 minutes or until the sauce thickens a bit. Serve the matar paneer sprinkled with garam masala and coriander if you like.

Original recipe from IndianFoodForever.

Shahi Paneer

When I want to treat myself while not thinking about little things like fat content and such this is my favorite dish to order out in an Indian place. It is a saturated fat monster of a meal what with heavy cream, cashews, and tons of cheese. Its a treat for sure and not a dish to put in the regular cooking rotation. It was a fun experience to cook at home though because it turned out so well we pretty much have no need to go out for Indian anymore. We cooked little fried lentil and chickpea breads with this paneer and had a really great Indian feast.

After making this meal however Im officially fed up with paneer. This is the hazard of bulk food shopping. Weve made some really delicious curries out of it but the remaining 2 pounds are going in the freezer to be excavated in a couple months. I need a break from paneer.

Shahi Paneer

8 tablespoons vegetable oil (divided use)
1/4 cup chopped cashews, roughly chopped
1/4 cup golden raisins

1/2 pound paneer, cut in small cubes

2 medium onions, chopped
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves
2 green chillies, chopped

Salt to taste
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cubeb pepper
3/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon garam masala

1/2 cup Milk
4 tablespoon heavy cream

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large frying pan over medium heat. Saute the cashews and raisins until just barely browned. Remove from pan and reserve.

Add 5 tablespoons of oil to pan. Fry paneer until browned over medium heat. Remove from pan and reserve.

In food processor puree onion, ginger, garlic, green chili into a fine paste. Fry the mixture in the remaining 2 tablespoons oil until golden brown. Add salt, chili powder, cubeb pepper, turmeric powder, and garam masala. Saute for 1-2 minutes.

Add milk to make a gravy. Bring the gravy to boil then reduce the heat and cook until the gravy becomes thick. Put a most of the toasted cashews and raisins in the gravy while it is being cooked, reserving a small portion for decorating.

Add paneer cubes and cream, heating for 5 minutes. Garnish with extra cream, cashews and raisins.

Original recipe from Indian Food Forever.

Coconut Flour Bread

This is literally the easiest bread recipe in existence. The hardest part about it is finding the coconut flour to cook it with. Coconut flour I must warn you is not cheap. I think a pound was $12 at my local grocery store. But it is worth it for the experience and to try a totally new flour. Coconut flour is ridiculously high in fiber and about a 45 on the glycemic index so it is perfect for this diet. I really enjoyed having a bread that was different than anything else Ive ever baked, its naturally sweet and has a crisp outside and tender chewy middle that makes it have the mouth feel of toast without actually requiring a toaster.

Actually a word of warning on that issue, unless you have a very narrow toaster, because this makes such a tiny loaf the bread, it will just fall in the toaster never to be heard from again. So if you want it warm just stick it in a warm frying pan for a minute or so to get warm. Another thing, grinding up unsweetened coconut you already have at home will not make coconut flour no matter how finely you grind it. Believe me Ive tried and I havent figured out how to fake it with out lumpy horrible results so this is one case where Im going to have to advise you to suck it up an pay full price at the store for it. You wont be sorry you did.

Coconut Flour Bread

6 eggs

1/2 cup melted coconut oil

1 tablespoons agave nectar

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 cup coconut flour

Mix all ingredients together and pour into a small buttered loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

From the Nourishing Days blog.

Gluten Free Banana Cardamom Bread

Photo by Steve Apps of The State Journal.

This bread is a cover model. Seriously, it was all over the local paper on Friday.

I had no idea when the article was going to be printed so I didnt get a chance to warn people to keep an eye out for it. So in the ennui filled late hours of the afternoon when they were both probably hiding from work in separate break rooms both the fella and my friend Tim texted me nearly the same sarcastic message. "Theres a great article on going gluten free in the paper you should look at."

And there I was in the paper. Well not technically me, more like my bread. Even Lindsay who wrote the article isnt sure why there are three pictures of bread and no pictures of me in the print article. I guess the bread was just more photogenic than me. Le sigh. Given how great the pictures of my baking came out Im thrilled they got all that attention though.

This loaf doesnt technically fit in with the French Diet considering the higher GI flours and the bananas but for the weight maintenance phase it would be a nice breakfast bread. The diet aside, this bread is surprisingly good, I made it and even I was blown away.

The fella had this great recipe for a banana cardamon loaf he used to make when we were first dating so when I needed an idea for another bread recipe I decided to use that recipe to reverse engineer it into a gluten free version. And it worked out really nice. Gluten free it isnt quite as fluffy but since its a desserty bread it doesnt interfere with the enjoyment of it at all. Smeared with a little honey the fella and I really enjoyed nibbling on it with Lindsay and her fella literally seconds after the photographer got done with it. It smelled that good we couldnt resist any longer.

Gluten Free Banana Cardamom Bread

2/3 cup warm water (temperature around 110 is best)
1 teaspoon yeast
1 generous pinch of sugar

3 cups Bob Red Mill Baking and Biscuit Flour blend
1/2 cup ground flax seed
1 tablespoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons honey or agave nectar
2 very ripe bananas well mashed

arrowroot or tapioca starch to flour work surfaces
1 teaspoon sesame seeds

Put the warm water in a small bowl. Whisk in the yeast and sugar and let stand about 10 minutes or until it turns bubbly. If the water doesnt become frothy it means the yeast isnt active and you need new yeast or the water was too hot or cold to activate it so try again.

Stir together the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. When well combined add in the yeasty water, honey, and bananas. Gradually incorporate the mix into a soft dough with a wooden spoon and your fingers, adding a little more water if necessary to get a dough like consistency that isnt too dry and crumbly.

Dust a cutting board or very clean counter with arrowroot or tapioca starch (you dont want to add anymore flour to the dough, you want to use a sticky starch that wont dry out the bread for this purpose). Knead the dough for a minute or so until it is sticky and well combined. Return it to the bowl and cover with a damp dish towel to allow to rise for about 2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.

After it has risen, remove the dough from the bowl back to the dusted work surface and divide into three equal pieces. Roll each piece into a short fat oblong shape and braid the three together. Place the dough on a greased baking sheet and loosely cover with plastic wrap. Let stand until it rises a little bit again.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Brush the dough with a bit of water and then sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 10 minutes then lower temperature of oven to 400 degrees. Cook for a further 15 minutes or until the loaf is browned and sounds hollow when tapped.

This will be a very dense dessert like loaf of bread and is best served with a little honey or raspberry jam. Store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator.

Paneer Bagh E Bahar

This is one the strangest things Ive ever made which is saying a lot considering I cooked frog legs for New Years, once spent 8 hours waiting for ox tail soup to finish cooking and made green fairy ice cream for the fellas birthday. And that isnt to say it wasnt tasty because it truly was but in an odd am-I-really-putting-this-in-my-mouth kind of way. First of all its so high in fat and all that naughtiness that even as someone on a low carb diet I felt weird eating it. Secondly fried cheese and pineapple in the same dish? Thats just crazy. Yummy but crazy. And like so many things, this meal is all the fault of the fella and the chef.

See the fella went through a faze a while back where he was buying a ridiculous amount of pineapples. We always seemed to have 2 in the fruit bowl. It was as if I would cut one up and put it in the fridge to snack on when another would appear in the house magically while my back was turned. And I like pineapple but those suckers are labor intensive to cut up so eventually I got fed up with the pineapple and left one to languish in the bowl figuring if the fella wanted to keep buying them he could cut the freaking pineapple up himself.

You know, typically passive aggressive chick behavior towards someone youve lived with for a while and drives you crazy in the best possible ways (mostly) and occasionally drives you to perform small scale sociological experiments to find out if the other person of their volition will ever do the thing youre sick of doing when it stops magically getting done for them. Why does this ever seem like a good idea? It never works.

Anyway at some point the chef came over and he noticed the pathetic pineapple and in his typical fashion started dreaming up totally insane things to do with it. I just shook my head and hoped to not encourage the behavior. The fella then hops in with the helpful suggestion "Lets smoke it." Which then became plans to fry it or, marinate it in fish sauce or turn into a hat rack. Who knows by then I was in my happy place thinking about socks and puppies and ignoring them both. When I drifted back into the conversation they were contemplating using apple wood to smoke the poor pineapple then debating whether that was kosher or not. All this at 8AM or so. This is my life.

It was then I knew I would have to give up my silent pineapple cutting strike. So being that this was during the great early winter paneer surplus I went looking for a crazy Indian recipe that would take care of the remaining paneer and the pineapple at the same time. Imagine my surprise when such a recipe existed. I gathered the ingredients to cook this that night before the pineapple fell into the hands of philosophical extremists. Image how surprised I was when what started as a joke ended up as a great dinner. The super sweet pineapple somehow works with the salty paneer to make something wonderful.

I cant make any of this up. Its all true. So long story short, if youre looking for a really interesting curry to impress yourself and anyone lucky enough to be eating with you, this is it. Pineapple curry, who knew?

Paneer Bagh E-Bahar

1 cup paneer cubes (about ½ pound)

1 cup yellow or red pepper, chopped

1 cup pineapple, chopped

1 cup tomato, chopped

1/4 cup cashews

1/2 cup cream

2 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon garlic, finely chopped

2 green chillies, finely chopped

2 tablespoon tomato sauce

Cut paneer, pepper, pineapple and tomato all into 1 inch pieces.

Make a paste of cashew nuts by placing them in food processor along with a few teaspoons of water and grinding until smooth. Add the cream and process again briefly.

Heat oil in deep frying pan over medium high heat to fry garlic and chilies until browned. Mix in the cashew paste. Increase heat and stir fry pepper in cashew and garlic mixture until softened. Add pineapple and tomatoes and stir frequently until cooked through. Mix in paneer, tomato sauce and salt and pepper to taste.

Stir fry one minute longer, combining ingredients fully. Serve sprinkled with a couple tablespoons of cream.

Original recipe from Indian Food Forever.