Indian cuisine – Batter Up With Sujata

Chhanar Paturi Or Steamed Cottage Cheese/Paneer

Chhanar paturi or steamed cottage cheese. An easy to make paneer or cottage cheese dish from Bengali cuisine. You can make paturi with fish, eggs or any vegetable following this recipe. Just marinate the mashed paneer wrap with banana leaf and steam and your delicious paneer is ready. Serve this no onion garlic side dish steamed paneer or chhanar paturi with hot steamed rice and lemon wedges.

Now you can ask what is paturi. Literally meaning of paturi is wrapped in leaves. And leaves should be edible. You can use banana leaf or pumpkin leaf etc. Paturi can be made with fishes like hilsa or ilish, bhetki etc, eggs or make niramish paturi with chhana or paneer/cottage cheese, cauliflower, broad beans or any other vegetable following this recipe. You can also shallow fry these paturi instead of steaming. After wrapping with banana leaves shallow fry with mustard oil till leaves becomes brown. Earlier shared broad beans paturi in a different way. I have stuffed the broad beans before steaming. Click on the name for recipe. Stuffed steamed broad beans

And if you want the similar taste without steaming or wrapping with leaves check out my Cauliflower paturi

Sending this post to Facebook group Shhhhh Cooking Secretly challenge. Shhhhh Cooking Secretly a group started by Priya of Priya’s Versatile Recipes, is where every month food bloggers are paired up and give each other 2 secret ingredients to cook with according to the theme chosen. Theme of this month is steamed food suggested by Anu Kollon. Do check out her recipe of Kerala style steamed rice for this theme. This month my partner is Priya Vijaykrishnan. Priya gave me poppy seeds and curd and I gave her hing or asafoetida and ginger. And she made delicious Amiri khaman with these ingredients.

This chhanar paturi or steamed cottage cheese/paneer is very easy to make. Just marinate the mashed paneer, wrap with banana leaves and steam in steamer or pressure cooker. I have used my rice cooker to steam. If you don’t have steamer then you can use pressure cooker or pour sufficient water in a pot place a stand on the middle. Arrange paturi on a plate and place on the stand. Cover and steam till done. Or shallow fry the paturi on a pan with mustard oil. You can double the ingredients if require.

Recipe

Paneer or cottage cheese – 1 cup

Mustard powder – 1 tablespoon

Poppy seeds or khaskhas – 2 tablespoon

Green chilli – 3 – 4 or to taste

Coconut – 1/4 cup, grated or finely chopped

Mustard oil – 1 tablespoon

Salt to taste

Turmeric powder – 1/4 teaspoon

Thick curd or yogurt – 1 tablespoon

Cashew nuts to garnish, optional

Banana leaf – 1

Cotton thread as required

Method

1. Wash the banana leaf from both sides. Wipe with a kitchen towel. Heat a pan and place the banana leaf over it. Heat the leaf from both sides. Leaf shouldn’t be burned. Just heat to make the leaf little soft.

2. Mash the paneer or cottage cheese well to make smooth.

3. Grind the poppy seeds. Add coconut and 1 – 2 green chilli. Use very little water if require to make smooth paste.

4. Mix the paste in mashed paneer. Add salt, mustard oil, curd or yogurt, turmeric powder and mustard powder. Mix well. Mash again to make smooth.

5. Cut the banana leaf into two pieces. I have made two paturi. You can make small sized 4 paturi. Cut the banana leaf accordingly.

6. Grease the banana leaf pieces with mustard oil if you want. I didn’t. Gently shape the paneer mixture into square or rectangular. Place on banana leaf pieces. Place 1 slit green chilli and cashew nuts over it.

7. Wrap the leaf and make like an envelop.Tie with a cotton thread.

8. Boil the water in steamer. Place the envelopes on steamer. Cover and steam for 15 to 20 minutes.

9. Open the envelopes and serve delicious paturi with steamed rice and lemon wedges.

Notes

1. Use green chilli according to your spice tolerance.

2. Instead of steaming you can also shallow fry these paturi in a pan. Fry till the banana leaf becomes brown.

3. Lemon juice can be used instead of curd or yogurt.

4. You can also use 1-2 teaspoon lemon juice in the marination with curd.

If you tried my recipe, you can share your food pictures with me in the social network sites by using hashtag, #batterupwithsujata I would love to see your creations.

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Tomato Corn Peas Paneer Kadhi

Tomato corn peas paneer kadhi. Kadhi with a different taste and flavour. A lipsmackingly delicious kadhi with homemade paneer, sweet corn, green peas and tomato.

Kadhi is a yogurt based gravy with chickpea flour or besan. Usually pakoda or chickpea fritters added to this gravy but you can also make with sliced potatoes or bundi or make only gravy to enjoy with hot steamed rice. You may like some more yogurt based recipes on this blog.

1. Dahi aloo

2. Egg in yogurt sauce

3. Pointed gourd or parwal with poppy seeds

Sending this post to fortnight foodie group Healthy Wealthy Cuisine.
This time theme is Curd Fiesta suggested by me. I am sharing this delicious corn peas paneer kadhi. Check out my fellow bloggers recipes using curd for this theme.
Chow chow raita by Preethi
Curd rice by Vanitha
Tutti frutti cake by Swaty
Strawberry shrikhand by Shalu
Spiced raita by Jayashree
Tomato raita by Narmadha
Kesar badam lassi muffins by Sasmita

To make this delicious kadhi you have to whisk yogurt and chickpea flour or besan well to make lump free. Instead of pakoda or fritters I have used green peas and sweet corn. Do try and enjoy the spicy and mouthwatering kadhi.

Recipe

Curd – 3/4 cup

Sweet corn – 1/2 cup

Green peas – 1/2 cup

Tomato – 2 medium, chopped

Paneer or cottage cheese – 1/2 cup tightly packed, crumbled

Besan or chickpea flour – 3 tablespoon

Oil – 2 tablespoon

Mustard seeds – 1/2 teaspoon

Cumin seeds – 1 teaspoon

Curry leaves – 8 – 10

Hing or asafoetida – 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon

Dry red chilli – 1

Ginger – 1/2 inch piece, chopped

Green chilli – 1 – 2, chopped

Cumin powder – 1 teaspoon

Coriander powder – 1 teaspoon

Turmeric powder – 1/2 teaspoon

Kashmiri red chilli powder – 1 teaspoon

Garam masala powder – 1/2 teaspoon

Cilantro or coriander leaves – 2 tablespoon, chopped

Salt to taste

Water – 2 & 1/2 cup

Method

1. Wash the tomatoes well. Make a cross-shaped incision or make X with a knife at one end. Don’t make too deep cut. Boil 1 cup water in a pan. Add the tomatoes in it. Boil for 4 – 5 minutes or until the skin starts to separate. Don’t discard the water we will use it in kadhi.

2. Let the tomatoes cool down. Peel and grind with ginger, green chilli and crumbled paneer or cottage cheese. I have used fresh homemade paneer. Get the paneer recipe here .

3. Blend the curd with besan or chickpea flour and 1 cup water in a blender. You can also use hand blender to make the mixture smooth.

4. Heat oil in a pan or wok. I have used mustard oil. You can use any oil of your choice. Add mustard seeds and cumin seeds. When the seeds starts to splutter add dry red chilli, hing and curry leaves.

5. Now add the ground tomato paneer mixture. Stir well. Add salt, cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, Kashmiri red chilli powder and garam masala powder.

6. When the mixture about to dried up add the green peas. Saute till completely dried up and oil leaves the sides.

7. Add blended besan mixed curd, chopped cilantro or coriander leaves and sweet corn. Mix well.

8. Add remaining water and let it boil for 5 minutes. Stir constantly. After 5 minutes reduce the heat. Cook on simmer for 20 – 25 minutes or until it becomes thick. Stir in regular interval to avoid sticking to the pan.

9. Now taste and adjust salt if require. You can add little more water if require to get your desired consistency. Garnish with cilantro or coriander leaves and sweet corn. You can also garnish with frozen or boiled green peas. Serve hot with steamed rice, jeera rice or any bread.

Notes

1. Use green chilli according to your taste.

2. You can use more green peas and sweet corn if you want.

If you tried my recipe, you can share your food pictures with me in the social network sites by using hashtag, #batterupwithsujata I would love to see your creations.

I would love to hear from you. Please share your thoughts and suggestions in comment.

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Fish caldine

Fish caldine.
A lip-smacking Goan fish curry. Coconut based aromatic thick gravy. You can make it with any fleshy fish. I have made it with rohu fish, which is commonly available here.
According to Wikipedia “The rohu, rui, or roho labeo is a species of fish of the carp family, found in rivers in South Asia. It is a large omnivore and extensively used in aquaculture.”

You may like two more fish recipes here.

Fish Kalia

Masor tenga

One of my reader Francis Dsouza gave me his mom’s recipe to try. I have made it for a small get together in my home. All the guests loved the taste of this fish caldine. Thanks a lot Francis Dsouza for this wonderful recipe.

I have made little changes as per my convenience. I have fried the fish pieces before adding in the curry. I didn’t add curry leaves. And instead of juice of spices I have used ground spices. Original recipe needs cumin coriander seeds but I have used powder. And loved the taste and aroma. But you can try the exact recipe if you want. I am sharing screen shots of recipe which Francis Dsouza shared with me.

To make this fish caldine you have to make a paste of coconut and spices. If you can prepare it earlier then you can make it in a jiffy.

Recipe

Fish pieces – 12

Coconut – 1 cup, grated

Tomato – 2 large, chopped

Onion – 1 large, finely sliced

Ginger – 1/2 inch piece

Garlic – 5 – 6 cloves

Cilantro or coriander leaves – handful

Green cardamom – 3 – 4

Cinnamon – 1 inch piece

Cloves – 4

Poppy seeds or khas khas – 1 teaspoon

Nutmeg powder – a pinch

Cumin powder – 1 teaspoon

Turmeric powder – 1/2 teaspoon + 1/2 teaspoon

Coriander powder – 1 teaspoon

Black pepper powder – 1 teaspoon

Slit green chilli – 4

Mustard oil – 4 – 5 tablespoon

Salt to taste

Method

1. Marinate the fish pieces with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder.

2. Grind coconut, cilantro, ginger, garlic, poppy seeds, nutmeg powder, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and tomatoes altogether. If you want to make authentic caldine grind with water and drain the juice. I didn’t.

3. Heat oil in a wok or pan at smoking point.

4. Fry the fish pieces. Don’t overcrowded. Fry 3-4 pieces at time.

5. When fish pieces becomes light brown turn over and fry the other side. Fry all the pieces in this way and remove from oil.

6. In the same oil add sliced onion. You can add more oil if require.

7. When onion becomes brown add ground spices, turmeric powder, salt, cumin powder, coriander powder and black pepper powder.

8. Saute till oil leaves the sides.
Add water as require to make thick gravy.

9. When it starts to rolling boil add slit green chilli and fish pieces.
Mix and let it boil again.

10. Reduce the heat and cook on simmer for 10 – 12 minutes.

11. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
Remove from heat and garnish with chopped cilantro or coriander leaves and slit green chilli.

12. Serve with steamed rice, fried rice, jeera rice, pulao, roti, naan, puri or any bread.
Happy cooking.

If you tried my recipe, you can share your food pictures with me in the social network sites by using hash tag, #batterupwithsujata
I would love to see your creations.

I would love to hear from you. Please share your thoughts and suggestions in comment.
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Bhutte Ki Kees

Bhutte ki kees.
Yes one more corn recipe here.
A famous street food from Madhya Pradesh cuisine. Very easy and delicious no onion garlic recipe. You can serve it as a teatime snack.
Bhutte ki kees generally made with grated fresh corn cobs but if you have sweet corn or corn kernels you can also use them. Just grind the corn kernels and make delicious bhutte ki kees. Bhutte means corn and kees means grated.

This month in Shhhhh cooking secretly challenge
facebook group we are sharing different dishes from Madhya Pradesh cuisine. In this group members are paired up every month. And the pairs give each other two secret ingredients. A very interesting event. Every month we can interact with a blogger and sometimes we get a very good friend.
This month my partner is a very talented blogger Rafeeda AR. Who blog at
The big sweet tooth. Rafeeda gave me two delicious ingredients, corn and chilli. And Corn is my favourite ingredient. Thanks Rafeeda for the interesting ingredients. And I gave her cardamom and saffron. Check out her blog for the amazing recipe she shared with these ingredients.
My last post was also a corn recipe.
Again sharing an easy and mouthwatering recipe but with different ingredients.

Madhya Pradesh (MP; meaning Central Province) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Gwalior, and Ujjain being the other major cities. Nicknamed the “Heart of India” due to its geographical location in India.
A dose of nature, a tinge of culture mix it with the warm hospitality and a plate full of mouth-water delicacies. That’s Madhya Pradesh for you! Being the heart of India Madhya Pradesh assures a delightful package to its visitors. Then be it the historic importance, rich culture or the food. Madhya Pradesh offers everything to satisfy your traveller’s as well as your foodie soul. Here are some delicious delicacies that you must dig your spoons in when you are exploring Madhya Pradesh.
Read more about Madhya Pradesh delicacies here.
Source

Recipe

Corn cobs – 2

Salt to taste

Green chilli – 1-2, chopped

Ginger – 1/2 inch piece, grated

Cumin seeds – 1/2 teaspoon

Mustard seeds – 1/4 teaspoon

Hing or asafoetida – a pinch

Cumin powder – 1/2 teaspoon

Coriander powder – 1/4 teaspoon

Turmeric powder – 1/4 teaspoon

Kashmiri red chilli powder – 1/2 teaspoon, optional

Black pepper powder – 1/4 teaspoon

Cilantro or coriander leaves – 1 tablespoon, chopped

Oil – 1 tablespoon

Curry leaves – 3-4 chopped, optional

Milk – 1/2 cup

Lemon juice – 1 tablespoon

Method

1. Grate the corn cobs. Or if you have corn kernels grind them.

2. Heat oil in a pan. Keep the flame low.
Add mustard seeds and then cumin seeds.

3. When the seeds start to splutter add grated ginger and chopped green chilli.
Fry for few seconds.

4. Now add hing or asafoetida, coriander powder, black pepper powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder and kashmiri red chilli powder.

5. Mix well. Keep the flame low to avoid burning.

6. Add grated corn, salt and chopped cilantro or coriander leaves. Mix well.
Saute on low flame for 2 minutes or until dried up.

7. Add milk and mix well.
Cover the pan and cook on simmer for 10 minutes or until corn mixture becomes almost dry.

8. Check in between and stir.
Check after every 2 minutes.

9. When the corn mixture becomes thick switch of the flame.

10. Add lemon juice and stir well to mix.
Taste and adjust the seasoning.

11. Serve hot. You can garnish with chopped cilantro or coriander leaves, grated fresh coconut and lemon wedges.

Notes

1. If you don’t like curry leaves you can skip it.

2. Use chilli according to your taste.

3. You can use water instead of milk but milk tastes better.

4. If you have sweet corn kernels grind them in mixer grinder and use it instead of grated corn.

If you tried my recipe, you can share your food pictures with me in the social network sites by using hash tag, #batterupwithsujata
I would love to see your creations.

I would love to hear from you. Please share your thoughts and suggestions in comment.

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Pantua

May Maa Durga empower you and your family with her nine swaroopa of Name, Fame, Health, Wealth, Happiness, Humanity, Education, Bhakti & Shakti. Happy Navratras. And have a blessed Durga Puja.

Durga Puja is starting from tomorrow. A auspicious occasion of Bengal.

Sharadotsav or Durga puja is an annual Hindu festival in Bengal that celebrates worship of the Hindu goddess Durga. It refers to all the six days observed as Shashthi, Maha Saptami, Maha Ashtami, Maha Nabami and Vijayadashami.

We prepare different types of sweets for this occasion.

Sharing one more sweet for this festive season.

Pantua. A delicious melt in mouth dessert. In North India gulab jamun is very famous and its looks like gulab jamun right? But its not gulab jamun. Gulab jamun is made of khoya or milk solid and pantua is made of paneer or cottage cheese.

You can find this sweet in different names and shapes in Bengal.

Pantua can be made round or oval shaped both. There are two more varieties of this dessert. You can call them close cousins of pantua. They are ledikeni and langcha.

Langcha is cylindrical shaped sugar syrup dipped sweet made of the same ingredients of pantua. But darker in colour. In West Bengal Shaktigarh is famous for its langcha. Whenever we travel from Kolkata to Patna by road my brother always stop at Shaktigarh to enjoy this yummy sweet. And we also pack some of these delicious stuff. Here is a picture I have taken in a sweet shop at Shaktigarh.

Ledikeni is also made with same ingredients. Here is an old story about this sweet.

Bhim Chandra Nag a confectioner of Kolkata renamed his pantua ‘ledikeni’. At that time he prepared this specially on the occasion of the birthday of Lady Canning, wife of Governor-General Charles Canning. And she loved these sweets and asked for more. Thus pantua is also called ledikeni 😀

Sending this post to 110th #Foodiemondaybloghop Durga Puja theme.

Pantua is easily available in Bengal and Odisha but not in North India. This melt in mouth delicious dessert is very easy to make. Make it at home and make your festival special.

Recipe

Paneer or cottage cheese – 1 cup

Khoya or dried milk – 1/2 cup

Refined flour or maida – 3 tablespoon

Suji or semolina – 1 tablespoon

Soda – a pinch

Ghee or clarified butter – 1 tablespoon

Sugar – 1 cup + 1 tablespoon

Water – 2 cup

Cardamom powder – 1 teaspoon

Saffron – a pinch

Raisins – as require

Oil for frying

Method

Knead paneer or cottage cheese, khoya/mawa or dried milk, refined flour or maida, soda, sugar and ghee for 10 – 15 minutes.

You have to knead it well to get a smooth and soft dough.

I have blend the cottage cheese and dried milk in mixer grinder to make it smooth.

Then kneaded with sugar, ghee, soda and refined flour for 7 – 8 minutes.

Make small equal size balls out of the dough. I have made 16 balls. Flatten the ball with your palm. Place a raisin in the middle and close the edges. Make a smooth ball again. Make the balls carefully ensuring no cracks on the balls.

Mix sugar and water in a large pan. Let it boil.

Add cardamom powder and saffron.

When sugar dissolved simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and keep aside.

Heat sufficient oil in a pan. Simmer the heat.

Fry the balls on low heat. Be patience. Don’t increase the flame.

Fry all the balls evenly. Place on a paper towel.

Soak the fried balls in sugar syrup for 1 hour.

Or heat over high flame just to one boil. Remove from heat.

Serve immediately. Or let it cool down at room temperature and keep in refrigerator for later use.

You can serve it chilled but I like it hot. Just heat or microwave for few seconds before serving.

Enjoy the soft delicious melt in mouth pantua.

I would love to hear from you. Please share your thoughts and suggestions in comment.

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Mirchi Ka Salan Or Chilli Curry

Mirchi ka salan or chilli curry.

A lip-smacking side dish from Andhra cuisine.

The Andhra cuisine comprises of both mouth-watering vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes.

This mirchi ka salan or chilli curry is made of big size less hot variety chillies in a spicy gravy. You can get one more chilli recipe here

Posting this recipe for a Facebook group Shhhhh cooking secretly challenge.

In this group all the participating bloggers were challenged to make a dish with the use of two secret ingredients their partner assigns them with.

This month I have been paired with Shobha Keshwani for Andhra cuisine theme. And the two ingredients are mirchi/chilli and til/sesame.

Shobha is a very talented blogger who blog at http://www.shobhasfoodmazaa.com/?m=1

Check out delicious recipes on her blog. Thanks a lot Shobha for the advice and these wonderful ingredients.

I am very happy to share this because its first recipe from Andhra cuisine in my blog.
Mirchi ka salan generally served with Haydrabadi biryani. I have made veg pulao with this delicious curry. I will share this veg pulao recipe later.

I have made this mirchi ka salan according to my taste. Added little sugar and a small tomato in it. But you can omit sugar and tomato if you like. Tomato and red chilli powder gives a nice colour to the gravy.

Recipe

Big size green chilli – 6-8

Onion – 1

Garlic – 3 cloves

Ginger – 1/2 inch piece

Peanut – 1/4 cup

Desiccated coconut – 1/4 cup

Seasam seed – 1 heaped tablespoon

Tomato – 1 small, chopped

Cumin seeds – 1/2 teaspoon

Nigella seeds – 1/2 teaspoon

Mustard seeds – 1/2 teaspoon

Salt to taste

Red chilli powder – 1 teaspoon

Garam masala powder – 1/4 teaspoon

Tamarind – 1 tablespoon

Sugar – 1/4 teaspoon

Oil – 3 – 4 tablespoon

Method
Soak the tamarind in 1/4 cup hot water.

Wash the chillies. Pat dry and remove the stem. Slit vertically and remove the seeds. Chillies should be intact. Don’t cut fully. Keep aside.

Dry roast the peanut and let it cool. Peel and grind in a grinder.

Dry roast sesame seeds and dessicated coconut separately till becomes light brown.

Heat 2 tablespoon oil in a pan. Fry sliced onion. When the onion becomes translucent add chopped garlic. Fry till the onion becomes brown.

Add tomato and ginger. Saute till the tomato becomes mushy and oil leaves the sides.

Add ground peanut, sesame seeds and dessicated coconut. Saute for 1 minute.

Let the mixture cool down. Grind the mixture with turmeric powder, red chilli powder and garam masala powder. I have used kashmiri red chilli powder, its not hot but if you are using red chilli powder add as per your spice tolerance.

Make a smooth paste.

Heat remaining oil in a pan. Fry the chillies till light brown. Cover the pan while frying to avoid spluttering.

When the chillies changes it’s colour, remove from oil and place on a paper towel.

In the same oil add cumin seeds, mustard seeds and nigella seeds. Let them splutter. Add curry leaves. Now add the ground spices and saute for 1-2 minutes.

Add water, salt, sugar and tamarind pulp. Add water as require to make a thick curry.

When it starts to rolling boil add fried chillies. Stir and cover. Cook on low heat for 10 – 15 minutes. Check in between.

Remove the cover. Taste and adjust the salt. The gravy should be thick. If its runny boil for some more time or add more water if require.

Garnish with chopped cilantro and tomato.

Serve hot with biryani, pulao, jeera rice or any bread, paratha or naan.
I would love to hear from you. Please share your thoughts and suggestions in comment.

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Malai Kofta

Malai Kofta. Soft delicious mouth melting Kofta in no onion garlic rich creamy gravy. Kofta fried in appe pan so you don’t need much oil to fry the Kofta. Also sharing the deep fried version.
Malai Kofta fried in just two spoon of oil. Fried the kofte in appe pan but if you don’t have this pan you can fry it in a non-stick pan or if you want you can deep fry it. A healthy as well as tasty pure vegetarian recipe.

You can serve this malai kofta with roti, naan, paratha, fried rice, pulao, jeera rice etc. I have served this delicious malai kofta with roti and aam kathal.

To get some more no onion garlic recipes click here.

And for some different kofta recipes click here.

This no onion garlic curry taste scrumptious. You can serve it as a party side dish. I have used homemade paneer or cottage cheese. To get the recipe of making paneer click here.
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Video recipe of this lipsmackingly delicious malai kofta 👇

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