Paneer Jalfrezi

If there is anything that can replace the chicken thats Paneer (Indian cottage cheese) for me. I fell in love with this cheese just 1-2 years ago and it has never failed to make me happy since then :) These days I just love to try anything that has paneer in it. The other day I spotted this recipe in one of Sanjeev kapoor's book and loved how simple it sounded..and trust me this recipe was more simple than I had thought. And the verdict was a very very tasty paneer dish. Till now Chilli paneer and Paneer Tikka was my favourite ...but now this tops them all.

Paneer Jalfrezi -a very appealing vegetarian dish. With all the colourful veggies in it.... this paneer dish is sure an eye catching food and guaranteed to tickle your tastebuds. like i said earlier its very easy to cook and tastes awesome.
In this recipe, I have used store bought Paneer. But if you want to make Paneer(Indian cheese) from scratch you see here .

PANEER JALFREZI
Recipe source- Sanjeev kapoor's book 'Recipes for Indian Kitchen'

Ingredients:
250-300 grams of Paneer,
2 onions-thickly sliced,
2 tomatoes-de seeded,
2 Green bell peppers(Capsicum),
1-2 green chillies-chopped,
2''piece of ginger-julienned,
3-4 whole red chillies,
1 tsp of cumin seeds,
1 tsp of red chilli powder,
a pinch of turmeric powder,
1/2 tsp of garam masala powder,
a few sprigs of coriander leaves(optional),
1 1/2 tbsp of vinegar,
2 tbsp of oil and
salt to taste.


Method:
Cut the paneer into 2 inch long pieces. De-seed and cut the Tomatoes and Bell peppers into 2 inch long slices.
Heat oil in a kadai/ wok and add the cumin seeds and halved whole red chillies and saute for a minute. Now add the julienned ginger and onions and saute for few minutes.Make sure you don't saute it for long, which will turn the onions very soft. Add turmeric powder, red chilli powder and stir well. Add the bell peppers(capsicum) and cook for few minutes(2-3 minutes). Now add the Paneer and toss well-to coat it completely with the spices. Add vinegar and salt and cook for 5 minutes.Finally add the tomato slices , garam masala powder and finely chopped coriander leaves and toss well. Serve hot garnished with some julienned ginger/ chopped coriander leaves.

Note:
The tomatoes should be added lastly.Adding it earlier will over cook them and make them soft. So..add them in the last.
Cooking this in a non-stick wok needs very less oil. I used less than 2 tbsp. One can use more (3 tbsp) if needed.

Molten Lava Cake

FINALLY !! Finally, I managed to come back to blogging after exactly 3 months of break. Its been exactly 3 months, since I last posted on my blog. And my last post was something Chocolatey and here I am back with yet another irresistible choccolate cake recipe. This cake was baked for Sweetpunch-October, chosen by Divya Kudua.

The cake was sooo yummy with the gooey chocolate sauce flowing out from the soft chocolate cake. And I must say this is the easiest cake I have ever made, preparing the bater takes just few mintes and baking this delicious cake takes only 10 -11 minutes. And Voila !! your Molten Lava cake is ready in less than 30 minutes. And make sure you eat these, when they are still hot or atleast warm to enjoy the hot chcolate sauce oozing from the cake like lava :)


MOLTEN LAVA CAKE
-serves 4
Recipe source - showmethecurry.com

Ingredients:
4 oz (113g) Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate,
4 oz (113g) Butter,
2 Eggs,
1/3 cup (75 g) Sugar,
1/4 cup (40g) All purpose Flour,
Butter – for greasing ramekins

Method:
1. In a double boiler, melt chocolate.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, beat Eggs and Sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Once chocolate is melted, remove pan from heat and add in butter. Mix until the butter melts fully.
4. Add chocolate/butter mixture into the eggs, add all-purpose flour and mix until well incorporated.
5. Butter bottom and sides of ramekins (small glass/porcelain bowls) and pour in mixture about 3/4 way full.
6. Place ramekins on a baking tray and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 C) for 10 – 15 minutes. Shorter for gooey (molten) inside, longer for stiff inside.
7. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream or with a dusting of powdered sugar.

Notes:

The above recipe makes 4 medium sized ramekins.The cake is done, when the sides of the cake looks cooked, but the centre is still wobbly. Baking it longer(cooking completely) will make the inside stiff. So, keep a close eye to make sure you don't over-cook them.

Devil's Food Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream filling

The second recipe from' A Sweet Punch' was these Cupcakes. And these are the first ever cupcakes I have baked...the only time I had used my cupcake pan was to bake these Portuguese Custard tarts. Never had I thought that I would be using it to make cupcakes , but here I am with the cupcakes and I thank Divya of Easycooking for this months Challenge through which I had a very new baking experience.

I enjoyed making these cuppie cakes and when I bake this next time, the only change I want to make is to not use the wrappers for them, coz I think they will look more cute without the wrappers as these are filled cupcakes. And I didn't use the Chocolate butter cream frosting. Instead I just used my family favourite Nutella as frosting. The recipe given below yields 24 cupcakes and if you want you can halve the recipe for 12 cupcakes...but As there were some lil guests at my House I knew they would all be gone in a day. So, made 24 of these and the verdict was that they all vanished the same day coz they were so moist and yummy.

DEVIL'S FOOD CUPCAKES WITH VANILLA CREAM FILLING
Recipe source - Baking bites

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter- room temperature
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream (low fat or full) -can be substituted with yogurt or cream mixed with a tsp of yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2-oz dark chocolate
1 cup water, boiling

Method :
Preheat the oven to 350F and lightly grease two 12-cup muffin tins.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light.Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by sour cream and vanilla extract.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
Add half of flour mixture to the butter mixture, followed by the sour cream and vanilla extract, followed by the addition of the rest of the flour mix.
Stir well between each addition and mix until no streaks of flour remain.Stir the cocoa powder and the dark chocolate into the boiling water in a large measuring cup.
Pour chocolate water into the rest of the batter and stir until uniform.Evenly distribute batter into prepared baking cups. Bake for 13-15 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the cakes spring back when lightly pressed. (It’s fine if you can’t fit both trays into the oven at the same time, just wait until one batch finishes before putting in the second pan)
Turn cupcakes out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting and filling.


Vanilla Cream Filling
3 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 cup milk (low fat is fine)
1/2 cup butter (or trans fat-free shortening)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 scraped vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
Whisk together the flour and milk and cook in a small saucepan over medium heat until thick. This will only take a few minutes.
Stir continuously to prevent the mixture from clumping and do not bring all the way to a boil.
When thickened (consistency will be that of a thin pudding or custard), strain with a mesh strainer into a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let cool completely to room temperature.
When the milk mixture is cool, cream the butter (or shortening) and sugar together in a medium bowl until light. Add in the milk/flour mixture and the scraped vanilla bean seeds (or vanilla extract) and beat at high speed with an electric mixer for 7 minutes, until light and fluffy.
Scrape into a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip, or a large zip-lock bag with the corner cut off, and set aside until ready to fill your cupcakes.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2-3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat, with an electric mixer, until frosting is creamy, 3-5 minutes. Add additional powdered sugar as needed to achieve a thick, but not stiff, frosting that is easy to spread. Add additional milk, if necessary, to thin the frosting if it gets too thick.

Assembly
(A photo how-to of the assembly method can be found here.) Take a cooled cupcake and, using a small pairing knife, cut a cone of cake (1-inch across by 1-inch deep) out of the top. Trim off the pointy end of the cone, leaving a flat circle of cake. Set aside and repeat this process for all the cupcakes.Take the cream filling and squeeze a tablespoon or so into each cupcake cavity, filling the hole up to the top with filling. Top off with a flat circle of cake to plug the hole and keep the filling in place.
Using a butter knife or a small offset spatula, frost each cupcake with a layer of chocolate butter cream frosting. Place a dollop of icing in the center of the cupcake (on top of the cut out circle of cake) and spread from the center to the sides of the cupcake.If you have leftover filling, transfer it to a fresh Ziploc bag and cut a very small opening in one corner. Pipe a swirly line down the center of each cupcake, like the cupcakes in the pic here .
Store in an airtight container until ready to serve.

Note:
The frosting can be skipped completely and can be served with with some sugar dusted on the top. These soft and most cupcakes taste yummy, even without any frosting.