Tomato Paneer - Simple Flavorful #kidseat

It is hard to not keep track of dishes your kid loved to eat. Makes into this list this recipe readily. I picked this from a cooking show recently and I knew immediately that it was going to be good.  Bonus, this was really simple to cook on a weeknight.
This goes really well with both rice and roti.

What you need
Paneer
Tomato puree from 3 tomatoes and 1 tomatocut into cubes
Ginger
Green Chili
Cumin powder
Shahi Garam Masala/ Garam Masala
Kasori Methi
Butter


1. Mix 3 tbsp of flour and 1/2 tsp salt. Cut the paneer into cubes. Soak into warm water with salt. If the paneer is  homemade and fresh, you can skip soaking. But it helps the store bought paneer cubes to soften and absorb more flavor through soaking. After soaking for about 10 minutes, coat the paneer cubes in the flour.

2. Heat 1 tbsp of vegetable/canola oil.  Pick up the paneer cubes and shake of excess flour, add to the oil. Fry them lightly and take out when brown spots start to appear. Don't overcook.

3. Puree 3 tomatoes in a grinder. Due to low stock of tomato I used a can of diced tomato and made a puree. No doubt it saves time. But nothing beats fresh produce.

4. Heat 1 tbsp of oil and pour the tomato puree, leaving about a spoon of puree in the grinder. Add a pinch of salt in the pan and start frying. Adjust the temperature to ensure puree does not stick to the vessel. As you fry this, grind an inch of ginger with the rest of the tomato and add to the frying pan.

5. Cook this for a little bit and add 1.5 tsp of cumin powder, salt and turmeric to your taste. You can add chili powder if you like. I didn't because little one can't eat that spicy yet.

6. Let it cook for another couple of minutes and add the tomato cubes. Add 2 tsp shahi garam masala powder. I roasted the whole Shahi GM mix and ground to powder. If you don't have Shahi GM, you can use regular garam masala and a pinch of nutmeg powder.

7. Add salt according to your taste and 1 tbsp of sugar. The sugar nicely balances the tartness of tomato and adds a wonderful color. Keep stirring as the mix thickens. Add little bit of warm water as needed. But it should not become watery.

8. Add 2 tbsp of Kasori Methi by crushing between your palms. Time to add the paneer cubes now. Mix everything well and let them cook for couple of minutes. Paneer should not be cooked for long time, else it becomes hard. Sprinkle little bit of cilantro or coriander leaves if you like.

9. Taste the gravy and adjust salt as needed. Top it off with a dollop of butter and it is ready to serve.



10. Enjoy with hot rice or chapati.

Spinach Veggie - Palong Shak er ghanto! - A bengali veg favorite

Bengali cuisine is often mistaken for serving only fish and non-vegetarian dishes, whereas quite a wide variety of vegetable star dishes cover the spread of bengali cuisine.
One of them is a type of mixed vegetable with Spinach (Palong Shak) being the star of it. Bori - sun dried lentil fritters (shaped more like hershey's kisses) is also a highlight of this dish.

Now let's get cooking.

We need -
1 Potato
1/2 Daikon
1 Eggplant
500 gm Spinach
4 green chilies (optional)
1 inch of ginger - ground or finely grated.

Panch Foron ( A mix of 5 spices - frenuegreek, cumin(/sometimes nigella seeds or kalonjee), fennel, mustard, celerey seeds)
2 Dry red chilis

Cooking oil of your choice.

10 Boris

Process

• Wash all vegetables thoroughly
• Peel and cut potatoes into 1 inch cubes
• Peel and cut Daikon into 1 inch cubes
• Cut eggplants into 1 inch thick and 2 inches long pieces
• Chop spinach into strips. If you are using baby spinach you can leave them as is.

Heat 3 tb spoon of oil ( I use mustard oil) and once the oil  starts to smoke, add the daikons. 

Lightly fry them and set them aside.

Add the potato cubes to the same oil to light fry and set them aside.

• Fry the boris. Be careful about not leave the sight because they easily burn.

• Add the panch foron & dry chilies.
• When crackles, add the eggplant pieces, and then some salt for the veggie to soften.
• Cover and cook them for 3-5 minutes as they become tender but retain their shape.

• Add the potato and daikon and then the ginger paste.
• Chop or slice the green chilies and add at this point.
• Add salt.
• Cover them and cook. Stir occasionally to ensure it does not stick or burn.
• Add very little water if only needed to prevent burning. The vegetables should cook in their own water and steam.
• When they seem cooked , add the spinach.
• Don't cover any more to retain the nice green color.
• Cook until spinach is done.

Remove the mix to a serving bowl.
Crumble the fried bori and sprinkle over the prepared dish.

This is ready now. This goes well with both rice and roti.

Egg Veg Chowmein - Indo Chinese style - For the love of toddlers' taste buds

A big thanks to the friend who insisted on "documenting" recipes from moms of toddlers! It sounded like a great idea to me. Growing up, I remember my mom and neighborhood aunties used to share the actual food among them. If my mom cooked a dish that either the next door girl loved or her mom loved but never prepared at their house because none of the other family members  ate it, and or some other excuses, she will send some of it to them. And the other way would happen too. But now that my mommy friends are not exactly physically next door, sharing recipe and even list of foods that work for their kids can compensate for a lot. We all come across this pretty frequently when we have the physical energy to cook but not enough mental energy to think what to cook. 

Chow Mein has been my long time favorite Sunday breakfast or school tiffin box lunch :) Though it is a very popular street food item of Kolkata and no one really knows the recipe for those delicious noddles, it is also a nutritious way pack vegetables and protein into any kids' meal when home cooked. 

Ingredients: (For 1 kid & 2 adults)

Egg 2-3

Vegetables - Carrots (1/2 cup), french beans (1/4 cup), spring onion (1/4 cup white & green portions each), Green Bell Pepper/Capcicum (1/4 cup)

                     Onion (1/2 cup), ginger - 1/2 inch square, garlic - 3 to 4 cloves depending on taste preference, Coriander leaves(cilantro)

                     Soy sauce, Hot & Sweet Maggi tomato sauce (alternate - ketchup)

I added the vegetables I had left. Otherwise cabbage(1/2 cup) is a definite one to add. Also chili if the target audience can handle :)

 

And of course the noodle. My first choice would be the thin bunch of Asian chowmein noodles.. But if you are like me, you will gladly substitute it with Angel hair pasta noodle to avoid a trip to the Asian store after a long work week. However, I would go for a thin variety. The Kolkata-chinatown spoilt taste bud would mind otherwise.

Process

Bring 2 cups of water to boil for half a pound of the noodle ( or follow instruction from the packet). 

Add a pinch of salt

Add a tea spoon of oil to avoid the sticking of the strings.

Meanwhile, chop all the vegetables into thin stripes except,

Spring onion and garlic - chop and crush respectively.

Keep an eye on the noodle so that they don't get mushy.

In a wok, heat 2 table spoons of oil.

Add the chopped cilantro, crushed garlic, only a few strips of ginger and capsicum. (This will give the Indo-chinese aroma)

Saute that for a minutes to flavor the oil and then add the onions, white part of the spring onion.

Fry them at medium high and add only a pinch of salt. 

Don't forget your boiling noodles. If they are done, strain them. and keep aside. If not done that's good because best would be to time it to be ready when the vegetables are done.

Add the other remaining vegetables one at a time and  fry each one for couple of minutes in this order - beans, cabbage (if used), carrots, remaining ginger and capsicum

Add some freshly ground black pepper and cook for 3-4 minutes. Babysit the vegetables so they neither burn nor get mushy.
Add 2 tea spoons of soy sauce and 2 table spoon of tomato sauce/kethup. You can go light with the tomato ketchup and then each can add to their plate as needed.

Add 2 tea spoons of vinegar. 

Mix everything well.

Add the strained noodles little bit at a time. Mix it and then add more. Two serving spoons or the pasta serving is the best tool to toss and mix. 

Taste test the salt at this point. I go easy with the salt because soy sauce has a lot in it. 

Scramble the eggs to add to the chow mein and that is now a dish ready to serve.

The little and toughest critique finished dinner in 20 minutes as opposed to ..... let me not go there. So that is the approval criteria for any recipe in the house any more. 

Try and share your take on the recipe.