PANEER JALFREZI n my disaster with the leg peices.

My love for paneer and especially paneer jalfrezi runs long back, i remember d few times we used to go to restaurants and while giving an order we would have a choice of having one dry veggie and a gravy, may be a dal or a paneer dish, and i would convince people to go for paneer jalfrezi because its not just paneer it has onions and capsicums and other veggies as well( i very well knew that it doesn't constitute of anything else but these 3). I love the way paneer onions and capsicums blend with each other, these 3 soak the tomato flavor and the rest of the spices very well and overall it is a delight. Fine you must be wondering what this one has to do with my disaster with the leg pieces, well i had this plan of making a paneer and egg coated leg peice dish and it had a sad ending but no regrets, i was destined to make my fav paneer jalfrezi today. But do read about my disaster at the end of this post. So here we go with the splendid panner jalfrezi.


Ingredients:

250 gms paneer(cut into 1 inch cubes)
2 big onions cut into small square pieces
1 big onions paste
1 big capsicum cut into equal sizes as the onions
2 tomatos puree(i took one tomato puree and one cut into pieces)
2 inch cube of ginger cut into long strips
1 tsp garlic paste
2 tsp cumin seeds
3-4 dry red chillies
1 tsp turmeric pwd
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin pwd
1/2 tsp lemon juice.


Method:

1. While you start preparing, boil some water and dip the paneer peices into this with a pinch of salt, this will make the cheese cubes extra soft.
2. Heat some oil in a wok and add the cumin seeds and the red chillies to this, let it splutter, now add the ginger, onion paste and the garlic paste to this, and let it saute till you have the aroma of ginger flowing or till d onions r light brown.
3. Now add the onion peices, saute for another 2 mins, to this add the capsicum pieces and saute for 3-4 mins. Add the salt and other spices to this and cover the lid and let it cook for 5-10 mins over medium flame, till the capsicum is cooked but has not shrinked and lost its texture, the fresh green color should remain.
4. Now add the paneer pieces, and stir for 5 minutes, to this add the tomato puree and let the excess water evaporate and the paneer pieces absorb all the masala.
5. In another 10-15 minutes you would observe that the paneer is soft enough and has absorbed the spices. The sabzi is ready .
6. Serve hot with chapati or any indian bread and some dal or gravy.



Coming to the disaster, This is one weird week for me, i planned to cook some chicken delight for hubby dear and wanted to surprise him with it, so i went out and bought a pack of two leg pieces. So this was the first time i was purchasing chicken myself, done. The recipe required me to debone the leg piece and marinate it in one mixture first and in another after some time. Fine, all well, i see to it that i have all the ingredients, now how do i debone it, ok i get this instruction in one of the sites which almost gives me a brief session on how to operate the little leg piece, (about to faint..), i request my servant to debone it for me, and she says yes she knows, wow nothing like it, so she does it for me, i gather all the guts and stand by her when she is doing that, and am succesfull in controlling myself from puking almost twice, good efforts, theres a skin kinda thing over it, i ask her, did ise nai nikalte ho kya? and she confidently tells me that no theres no need to take that out, ok i agree shes d boss then , but guess what shes gone and then i notice that in the recipe they i need to debone and deskin the leg peices, oops, that means i need to remove that too, why didn't i ask her to remove it, she has washed it, all i would have had to do was to marinate it and my gloves would have been a good saviour in this, but gosh i have to do it now, so gloves on, good knife which would not enter my regular use kitchenware again ready and there iam , succesful in removing it halfway, am all happy but suddenly i start feeling puky again, i dont know what am i doing with it, it slips once, i handle it, second time ok, saved, and the third time it goes straight into the sink, baby you are a loser, go to hell, and this way i waste it completely, i just cannot pick it and wash it again, and there i go , fetch a bag, dump these two peices in and throw it off into my dustbin, all this mite sound hilarious, stupid but seriuosly this is what happened in a strech of around 2 hours in the afternoon, so i thot why not share it with u guys, and like a sardaar why not laugh at myself first before anybody else takes the golden opportunity, am sure garg will have a gala time discussing this with my brother and a few common friends.

We are still running the Marathon. And heres what the others have in store for you:


Sri has some brilliant looking Mango sevai
Siri has some tindora rice
Arundathi has some different rice cooked up
Raaga has a tangy Peerkangai Toghayal
Divya tosses her tomatilla salsa
Lakshmi has a traditional Varuthu araitha kootu
Ranji has decilious looking Puttu and kadala
Dhivya has the appetizing Couscous with Moroccon Tagine
Bhags presents a spicy Hummus for you