Paneer Jalfrezi

Jalfrezi dish has its origins in Bengal region of India at the time of the British Raj. The name comes indirectly from Bengali jhāl, spicy food, and Urdu parhezī, suitable for a diet.  Jalfrezi is not a dish it is a popular cooking method. It even has made into Oxford English dictionary.

Jalfrezi is a medium spiced, stir fried dish cooked with veggies, tomato-based sauce and some spices. This is also very popular dish served in every Indian restaurants back home.You can enjoy this with any kind of Indian bread or with rice.

I never cooked with paneer much, but recently I have tried Paneer Makhanwala which hubby and my son enjoyed a lot. So, again I made some fresh paneer the other day and was thinking what else can I make with this. And then hubby said do we have peppers, we can make paneer jalfrezi with this. And I always have colored peppers in my fridge, hence made this for our dinner and needless to say we loved this with some ajwain parathas. My son loved both peppers and paneer, so this is perfect for his portion of  healthy veggies and paneer is excellent source of protein. WIN…WIN… 🙂

Paneer Jalfrezi

Ingredients:

• 2 cups paneer, cubed
• 1/4 cup orange bell pepper, cut in big chunks
• 1/4 cup red bell pepper, cut in big chunks
• 1 green bell pepper, cut in big chunks
• 1/2  red onion, cut in big chunks
• 1 large white onion, grated or puree
• 1/2 cup crushed tomatoes
• 1  1/2 teaspoon chilli garlic sauce
• 1 teaspoon tandoori masala
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garam masala powder
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• salt to taste

Paneer Jalfrezi

Method:

• Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat, carefully add onions and cook until it slightly turns brown in color.
• Add chilli garlic sauce, crushed tomatoes, turmeric powder, coriander powder, garam masala powder, tandoori masala and salt to taste. Cook on medium heat for about 5-6 minutes.
• Once you see the oil separates out from the sauce, add all the peppers and onion and stir fry for 3-4 minutes.
• Then add paneer and lightly mix everything together.
• Serve hot with paratha or roti. Enjoy!!

Paneer Jalfrezi

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Onion and Tomato Focaccia

Focaccia is a flat oven baked Italian bread which is seasoned with olive oil, herbs and other ingredients of your choice. It looks similar to pizza but called Focaccia. The inside texture is soft, and light to touch where as the outside is crispy and golden brown.Since it’s baked at high temperature which gives a crunchy golden brown bottom.You can use focaccia bread dough as pizza dough too or can be used a sandwich breads.

Onion and Cherry Tomato Focaccia

This is the first time I have made bread from the scratch, although I’m not of a yeast-bread baking expert yet but this time this really turned out great and gorgeous looking.

Also, making bread requires a lot of patience and time which is really worth it at the end. Hence don’t try to rush this recipe, give plenty of time to rise. You may have to plan ahead if you are going to bake this bread as it requires at least 2 hours to rise properly. At this stage, it’s good to let it rise for as long as you can. The puffier it gets the more soft it bakes up. Since I am a person who will check every minute or so, to see whether the yeast is working or not, so what I do is I go out for shopping or to the park with my son in this way my dough gets plenty of time to rise without any disturbance and peeking… 🙂

Onion and Cherry Tomato Focaccia

Ingredients:

• 2  1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 2 teaspoon dry yeast
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoon warm water

For topping:

• 1/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
• 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed and  minced
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red chilli flakes
• 5-6 fresh basil leaves, cut in long strips

Directions:

• To make the dough, mix honey and yeast in luke warm water and let it sit for several minutes, until it begins to bubble, that means yeast is working its charm here and you are going to be successful in making a gorgeous focaccia bread.
• Stir together the yeast mixture, salt and flour and mix everything well. Knead by hand for 5-7 minutes, or until the dough forms into a smooth round, still soft and a bit sticky. Coat a big bowl with the tablespoon of olive oil, drop in the dough, and coat with oil all over. Seal the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour.
• While the dough is rising, toss together the sliced onion, cherry tomato halves, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, salt, red pepper flakes and keep it aside to marinate.
• Brush a Cookie sheet with olive oil and keep it aside.
• Punch down the dough on a floured surface, roll out  dough into a rectangle,  press the same on oiled brushed baking sheet.
• Brush olive oil over the rectangle shaped dough and set it aside until it gets fluffy, for about 1 hour.
• Make dimples on the dough with your thumb and top with grated mozzarella cheese, marinated onions, fill the dimples with cherry tomatoes halves and drizzle the rest of marinated oil on top of it.
• Bake at 425 until golden, about 20 minutes. Garnish with thinly Julienne basil leaves. And enjoy your slices!!

Onions and Cherry Tomato Focaccia

Pizza and Baked Potato Wedges

Pizza and Baked Potato Wedges

I have never seen anyone who does not like to have pizza. The name itself makes me hungry, thanks to my genes I don’t have to think much about calorie contents. I like to make pizza at home as we can choose the toppings we like and can control the amount of ingredients going in it. Friday nights in our home are normally Pizza nights. Another great add on to Pizza are Baked Potato wedges or Fries. Here is my recipe.

Pizza and Baked Potato Wedges

Ingredients:

For pizza dough

• 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon honey
• pinch of salt

For tomato sauce

• 1 cup crushed tomatoes
• 1 small onion
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon olive oil

For toppings

• 1 Green bell pepper, sliced lengthwise
• 1/4 of Red Onions, cut in long slices
• 15-20 Black Olives
• 1 Cup Mixed Cheeses

Preparation:

• In a bowl, mix the yeast with warm water, honey, salt, olive oil and stir well.
• Keep it aside for 5-7 minutes or until the yeast starts forming bubbles in it.
• Take flour in a large bowl, slowly add yeast mix and knead the dough with your hands.
• Once dough is ready transfer to a bowl  brushed with olive oil. Cover it with kitchen towel and keep the bowl in warm place.
• Approximately 1-2 hours or until the dough doubles in volume. The temperature in the kitchen should be around 65-70 degree fahrenheit for dough to rise properly.
• When the dough is doubled its original size, punch it down to remove all the air bubbles accumulated.
• On a lightly floured surface, rolled the dough using rolling-pin and your hand in a round circle. Make a pizza about 12 inches in diameter.
• Now pizza is ready to get the layer of toppings.

For tomato sauce:

• Heat oil in a pan over medium heat, add garlic, onions and cook until onions are translucent.
• Add crushed tomatoes, dried oregano, salt to taste and cook until oil separates.
• Cool the tomato sauce before layering on the pizza surface.

Pizza Assembly:

• Meanwhile cut the veggies for the topping and keep it aside.
• Layer the pizza with tomato sauce followed by green bell pepper, red onions, black olives.
• On the top add cheese to cover all the veggies so that they do not get burned.
• Cook the pizza in a regular over at 400 degree fahrenheit for about 20-30 minutes.
• Pizza is done when the bottom surface is light brown. Check by lifting the surface once.

For the Potato wedges:

• 2 large Idaho Potatoes, cut in wedges
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil to coat the wedges
• salt to taste
• 1 tablespoon Thai sweet chilli sauce

Preparation:

• Wash and scrub the potatoes, but leave the skin on. Slice the potatoes into wedges about 1/2 inch thick.
• Coat the potato wedges with olive oil, black pepper, salt and Thai sweet chilli sauce evenly.
• Place them on a baking sheet lined with sliver foil at 400 degree fahrenheit for about 20-25 minutes or till they are golden brown and crisp.
• Enjoy them with your pizza slice and coke.