Paneer Tikka Masala (with some korma flare)

I said I was gonna stick with this blog. I meant it. Then winter came. Days got short. Natural light for taking pictures of food became scarce. Finals took hold. I went away for break. I came back. I got super busy covering for a rabbi on sabbatical in Maryland. Second semester began. And suddenly it was nearly March and my most recent post was just after Thanksgiving. Oops.

Today I had some time, so I decided to experiment with paneer, which my wonderful co-op happens to carry. Whenever I order Indian food, paneer is my go-to.  My favorite dish at Tiffin, the Indian restaurant around the corner from my house, is paneer tikka masala-- cubes of paneer simmered with some onions and peas in a creamy tomato sauce. It being me, I decided to go off-book and not just try to replicate the dish.



Spices in this are approximate. As with anything spicy, it's all up to personal taste. Experiment and see what you like. Also, the veggies were what I had on hand. I imagine any combo of relatively quick-cooking vegetables would do well with this.


Ingredients

Paneer Skewers

• 1/2 pound of paneer, cubed (you could probably sub meat here)
• 1/2 red pepper, cut into 1-inch chunks
• a few large slices of onion
• 3 TBS half-and-half or yogurt
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1.5 inch ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp cayenne (please use your own tastebuds/spice tolerance as a guide here!!)

Sauce

• 2 TBS oil or ghee
• 1/2 large onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 inch ginger
• 3 TBS cashews
• 1 14 oz can tomatoes
• water as needed
• a small handful of mushrooms, washed and sliced
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp tumeric
• 1/4 tsp cayenne 
• 1/2 cup milk, half-and-half, or cream
• cashews to garnish

Procedure

Paneer Skewers

• Stir half-and-half, ginger, garlic, and all spices together in a large bowl
• Add paneer, peppers, and onions and stir until everything is well-coated-- if there's not enough liquid for this, add a touch more half-and-half.

• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and stick in the fridge for 90 minutes.

• After the paneer has marinated, preheat the oven to 400°F, thread the paneer and veggies onto skewers, and bake for about 15 minutes, until the edges are beginning to brown. Save the leftover marinade for the sauce. 

Sauce

• Roughly chop the onion, place in a food processor, and turn into an onion mush. 

• Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onion, and cook for about 5 minutes over medium-low heat, until the onion begins to turn golden.

• While the onion is cooking, roughly chop the garlic and ginger, add to the food processor with the cashews, and blend. 
• Stir the cashew mix into the onion mix, adding a little water if everything gets sticky, and cook for a few minutes more. Meanwhile, place the tomatoes in the food processor and puree. 

• Add the tomatoes and 1/4 cup water. Stir over medium heat for a minute or two until blended. 
• Stir in the mushrooms and peas, bring to a simmer, and let cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often and letting the sauce reduce. 

• Add the spices and taste for flavor. Since you'll be adding dairy, it should be slightly stronger than you want the final dish to be. 
• Remember the leftover marinade? Stir it slowly into the sauce.

• Remove the sauce from the heat, give a moment to cool slightly, and then slowly stir in the milk or cream. 

• Slide the paneer and veggies off the skewers and into the sauce, stirring well to incorporate. 
• Serve with rice, naan, or both, with some cashews on top.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Leek, Potato, and Mushroom Soufflé

Yes, I know. Soufflés are crazy. They fall. They don't rise to begin with. They don't taste better than quiche and are so much harder to get right! And yet, there is so very much satisfaction to be gained from pulling a soufflé out of the oven with the knowledge that you, little old you, have attained such clichéd kitchen mastery.

Here's a secret: the potatoes help! They create starchy structure that make this particular dish much more likely to stand tall. So, especially if this is your first soufflé adventure, this is a great recipe to use. I based my recipe very closely off of one in last week's NYT: Leek and Potato Soufflé with Ham and Fontina. If you're a meat-eater, by all means try the original recipe; it's probably delicious! Being a vegetarian, I opted to mess around a bit with the ingredients and ended up very happy with the result. Also, I was cooking for two, and in retrospect I think I would have tried to more or less halve the recipe and use a 1 qt. soufflé dish so as to avoid leftovers. The leftovers weren't bad, but it was best fresh.

For this recipe, you'll need two things: a 2 qt. soufflé dish (although a deep casserole dish might work?), and some form of hand beaters (see above) or a mixer to work with the egg whites. I've tried whisking egg whites to stiff peaks before. Believe me, it ain't pretty. I almost never go for working with electronic cooking implements, because I so enjoy the process of doing everything by hand, but if you haven't got one of those handheld beaters (my new favorite kitchen implement, by the way), put the egg whites in the mixer and plug it in.

Ingredients

Oh Trader Joe's. You are just the cutest thing.
Even your potatoes are friendly.

-1.5 lbs preferably yellow-fleshed potatoes, chopped and peeled (if you like)
-about 1 c milk and 1/4 cup cream. Or all milk, or half-and-half, or cream
-salt and pepper to taste
-2 TB butter, divided
-1.5 leeks, split down the center and chopped relatively thinly. 
-1/2 tsp. dried thyme 
-1/2 tsp. dried oregano
-3 minced cloves of garlic
-cayenne to taste
-1/2 red pepper, diced
-3 oz mushrooms, diced
-4 oz. grated cheese (we used a gruyere-cheddar hybrid, but a fontina or swiss could also be nice)
-3 eggs, separated
-a couple TB of grated parmesan


Procedure
1. Boil the potatoes and mash them with the milk or cream and a bit of salt and pepper. Cool slightly
2. Pre-heat the oven to 375°F, coat a 2 qt. soufflé dish with butter and sprinkle the bottom and sides with parmesan.









3. Heat 1.5 TB butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the leaks, along with some salt and pepper, and cook for about 5 minutes until softened but still very green. Add in the garlic, red pepper, thyme, and oregano and cook for another couple of minutes. Add the leeks mix to the potato mix. 

4. Add the other half TB of butter to the skillet, and saute the mushrooms over medium high heat until they release their liquid and are nicely brown, then stir into the potato mix along with the cheese and a bit of cayenne. Adjust the seasonings, making it a little stronger than you think it should be to make up for the eggs. 

5. Separate the eggs, placing the whites into a medium bowl and mixing the yolks into the potato mixture.  Use your hand beater or electric mixer to peat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Stir 1/3 of the egg whites into the potato mix, and then quickly and gently fold in the other 2/3s. 

                                       soft peaks

stiff peaks

6. Scrape the batter into the soufflé dish and top with grated parmesan.
7. Bake for about 40-50 minutes until nicely browned. Check with a toothpick or skewer, but keep in mind that the potatoes add some moisture that will leave the toothpick looking a bit damp even when it's done--don't assume it's raw egg!

8. Remove carefully from the oven and serve. 

Sometimes Simple is Just Best- Pasta with Eggplant and Marinara

I'm behind on my blogging. Very behind. I have several good excuses, however. I started a new job, I spent two weeks cramming like mad for the Foreign Service Test, and I celebrated two of the most important Jewish Holidays of the year. Still, that doesn't change the fact that I've not been blogging and that's rather unfortunate. I'm now back at it and intend to stay that way!

My favorite smells in the world are fresh basil and freshly ground coffee (not at the same time, of course). Coffee, luckily, is something I can smell all-year-round in the States, but basil is about to slip out of my life for some months. I already miss it.

Georgia changes seasons a little later than the northern parts of our beautiful country, so it's only in the last week or so that we've started to experience real fall. The recipe I'm posting today was a supper cooked right on the edge of summer, peaking over into autumn, but it's the sort of thing that's good any time and super easy to throw together. To be perfectly honest, this isn't even the sort of thing I'd typically use a recipe for. It's more of a formula that can be changed up as needed to accomodate different vegetables and the like.

Ingredients
-1 lb box pasta of choice (I prefer shapes to spaghetti-type noodles for this sort of chunkier sauce)
-2-3 TBS olive oil
-3-4 Japanese eggplant, ends trimmed, cut into strips (I prefer Japanese eggplant, but traditional round eggplant will also work)
-dried basil and oregano (for the eggplant)
-2-3 medium tomatoes
-1-2 small peppers (red are great if you have them, but whatever works for you)
-2-4 cloves of garlic, minced
-sprigs of fresh basil, leaves removed and cut or torn into smaller pieces
-1-2 cups of commercial tomato sauce or 1 can of diced or pureed tomatoes, undrained
-salt and pepper to taste
-parmesan cheese, to serve


Procedure
-Prepare the eggplant: preheat the oven to 450°F, brush some olive oil onto a baking sheet, and place the eggplant strips on top. Brush the strips with more olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper, dried basil, and dried oregano. Use a spatula to flip the strips around and try to get an even coat. Bake 15-20 minutes, until soft and slightly crispy. If the outsides are too pale for your liking, you can use the broiler for a few minutes at the end, but watch carefully so they don't burn!
-While the eggplant is baking, put up a pot of water to boil and prepare the pasta. 

-Chop the peppers and tomatoes into medium-sized chunks (large dice, perhaps)
-Heat a saucepan and swirl in about a tablespoon of olive oil, along with a bit of salt (kosher or other coarse is great, if you have it)
-Add the garlic and cook over medium-low heat, letting it slowly cook without browning. After a minute or two, add the peppers and cook together, then throw in the chopped tomatoes and basil. 


-Let simmer for a few minutes until the vegetables start to break down somewhat but the peppers retain a bit of crunch.
-Stir in the canned sauce or tomatoes. I almost always use tomatoes for this, but it so happened that when I made this a couple weeks ago we had half a can of tomato sauce that really needed using up. If you're using canned tomatoes, you'll likely want to add more salt and perhaps more oregano, and a little drizzle of balsamic or red wine vinegar is lovely.
-Leave to cook for another few minutes, until warm and bubbly. Season to taste.
-Mix the drained pasta with the eggplant and sauce and serve with grated cheese, and perhaps a fresh-baked loaf of sourdough.