Dum Paneer Kali Mirch

I love Indian food:  the rich, wonderful aromas and the varied  mixtures of spices and herbs.  I've had the opportunity to view quite a number of TV cooking shows over the past 6 months that have featured Indian cooking and techniques.  And with so many wonderful vegetarian recipes to choose from, it was a natural choice for this new vegetarian venture.  

A foodie friend of mine often grills paneer; so when I found this recipe -- Dum Paneer Kali Mirch -- I was happy to have an opportunity to try cooking it myself.  Paneer is a fresh, unripened cheese used in many South Asian dishes.  Although it's not hard to make yourself, I purchased mine from the supermarket.

It took time to cut and chop and then blend & grind the 2 pastes.  But once that's done, the cooking time is short.  

While the paneer simmered on the back burner, I prepared an easy potato and green bean curry, steamed some rice and added some spicy roti flatbread.

Unfortunately, the potato/green bean curry was a bit of a dud as the curry powder I used (discovered at the back of the cupboard during a recent clean) was old and, I believe, had lost its pungency.  Sad!  Edible but sad.

But the paneer was lovely!  The cheese itself has a delicate taste and texture, and the sauce was again quite mild and delicate. This went very well with the plain rice and roti.  Still, I think next time I will play around with the flavoring a little and see if I can bring out more oomph .... a touch more cumin, coriander and perhaps garam masala. (I'll scout around other recipes for comparison.) And I'd probably serve it next time with simple sliced veggies like ripe juicy tomatoes and red onions.

I'd give this dish a 7 out of 10 on the yum scale

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Definitely worth a repeat!

Citrus Roasted Tofu

I'm now on week 2 of being mostly vegetarian and I must say, it's been surprisingly great.  I've had a couple of dud meals where they were fairly tasteless.  (Thank you, Siracha.) And I've craved meat once or twice (and was able to satisfy the cravings with adding a chicken breast for Nagisa and I or with adding something to my lunch.)  But Lena has been a most grateful veggie-child for all my efforts -- good or bad.

I've been the lucky recipient of 3 great new-to-me cookbooks from Value Village:  vegetarian slow cooker, a Thai and an Indian.  And I've found a number of great websites and/or blogs. But of course, with many of these dishes, you have to get your pantry stocked in order to prepare the food.  In the meantime, I experiment with what I have.

This weekend when I did my weekly cooking, I prepared a chocolate chili, a shrimp curry and my daughter's adapted beet burgers.  We all love tofu, and Saturday evening's  Citrus Roasted Tofu (Food Republic) was a huge hit.

The julienned carrot/almond side was delicious as well.

An excellent recipe.  And even if you're not a tofu lover, this one may convince you!  Give it a try.