Making Paneer

With the help of Google and YouTube, I was really excited to learn how to make Paneer. Paneer is a type of Indian cheese with a very plain taste that doesn't easily melt like our regular American or Provolone cheeses (man, I miss cheese). Since its used in a lot of different Indian vegetarian dishes and I have never seen it in the States, I wanted to be able to make it when we return home. Surprisingly, its super easy to make!

First, bring your milk to a boil (I used 1 liter).

When milk begins to boil (before it starts to boil rapidly), slowly add lemon juice (about 3-4tbsp) and stir with  heat on low.

Milk will start to separate into curds(cheese) and whey (milk liquid) {ahh, Little Miss Muffet FINALLY makes sense now!}. If the milk isn't separating you might need to add more lemon juice. Once separated, turn off the heat.

Using cheese cloth or any other thin type of cloth, strain your cheese.

Rinse the cheese with cold water to remove any lemon taste. While still inside the cloth, squeeze out excess water from the cheese; the more excess water you squeeze, the harder the cheese will settle. You can wrap the cheese in a cloth and form into a block shape if you wish by placing two flat and heavy surfaces on either side. Let it sit and cool for about 30 mins. You can use it for cooking immediately or else store in the refrigerator.

Our 1 liter of milk made about 100 grams of paneer (not very much) so don't feel bad when you look at the finished product and think somebody stole your milk! Its normal :-)

We used our paneer to make paneer paranthas, just like my previous onion paranthas.

Enjoy!

Dooooosaaaaaa

I had the pleasure of eating one of my favorite types of Indian food the other day, DOSA. Its not easily found where I live because its mainly a South Indian dish. Dosa is a thin layer of cooked batter, filled with masala potatoes, then formed into a long roll. Its served with sambar (soup-like and sour) and coconut chutney. There are a lot of varieties of Dosa, but this potato-filled one is the most common (I think).

Yellow liquid: coconut chutney + Brown liquid: sambar + Roll: dosa = delicious!

Piaz Ka Parantha

Since I've come to India my mother-in-law has taught me a thing or two about Indian cooking. One thing I've learned to cook, though don't particularly enjoy making is this piaz ka parantha (aka onion flat bread ). It tastes really good but can be a little tricky to make. Here's how:

Step 1: Gather your necessary tools

Top  pan (tava), Right tongs, Bottom board and rolling pin

Step 2: Mix wheat flour and water to make dough. Roll into balls. (see above picture)

Step 3: Chop onion into small pieces and add red chili powder, salt, and green masala powder (I don't exactly know what makes up the green masala, maybe I'll update that later).

Step 4: Roll the dough ball slightly and add a heaping spoonful of onion mixture.

Step 5: Fold the dough closed (like a  Chinese won-ton or dumpling) so that all onion pieces are inside the dough. Again roll the dough out flat (preferably in a circular shape), being careful that it doesn't break because of the onion.

Step 6: Cook on flat pan on high heat, about 1 minute per side, flipping 2-3 times. Once one side is cooked and flipped, add ghee (clarified butter) to each side and cook for a few seconds.

After the dough is fully cooked, you're done! You can eat it lots of different ways; plain, with butter, with plain or sweet yogurt, with pickled mango, the list goes one but I haven't tried any other ways... :)

There's no final picture (maybe because I was in such a hurry to eat?) but it pretty much looks like the picture above.

Mac N Cheese

The other day while I was still feeling under-the-weather with my stomach issues hanging around, I was having unusual cravings for American food like never before. I decided to whip up a box of plain Kraft Macaroni and Cheese that I had brought with me from home to satisfy my craving and introduce a new food to Abhinav and his family.

I made it as is directed on the box, and happily ate until my stomach was full and satisfied. BUT when I tried to have Abhinav and his sister try it, the first question they asked was, "There's not even any salt or chilis in it? No spices at all??" :) They tried it, but wouldn't fully eat and enjoy it until I cooked some onions with salt and red chili to add to the macaroni. Its funny how different taste in food is across cultures.

Sugarcane Juice

There are a lot of different types of foods and drinks here in India, and most that I've tried I have enjoyed. One of my favorite things that I've tried from roadside stands is sugarcane juice. At first glance the sugarcane juice stands look a little frightening; the stand owners operate loud machines to squeeze the juice from the sugar cane (otherwise I think I would have tried it a long time ago). This sugarcane juice is a mixture of sugarcane, lime, mint, and black salt (an ingredient I haven't seen in the U.S. but then again, I was never looking for it).

The monster-sugarcane-eating-machine 

The juice comes out as a greenish color 

Used sugarcane