Me and sweet hubby, both LOVE Paneer (cottage cheese), and can have it for every meal, everyday! Its no wonder then that I cook paneer atleast once a week at home. Be it in the form of appertizers, parathas, as curries, or even with an oriental touch, paneer is always welcome with a growling stomach and salivating mouth!

Paneer is sort of like the vegetarian meat dish in Indian cuisine. At most vegetarian buffets, paneer dishes are always the star, as would the meat dishes be for non-vegetarian buffets. I serve paneer at almost all my dinner parties, and have designed and created tons of recipes and various versions to cook it, so as not to bore my guests! Infact, I think I can write a book of all the different recipes that I have around it.

This dish came to me when I was tired of eating peas, and wanted a dish that would have a little more zing to it. Adding green bell peppers to it was a great idea and it really bumped up the flavour. Do try it out, its a nice change fom the usual and delicious to the end!

Paneer Shimla Mirch (Cottage Cheese with Peppers)

Ingredients:

• 400 gms of Paneer (cottage cheese), cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 large green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
• 1 tbsp chopped green chillies
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp red chili powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/4 tsp cumin powder
• salt, to taste
• 1 cup water
• 1 tbsp cooking oil
• fresh chopped coriander leaves for garnish

Method:

• In a non-stick pan, heat oil and add cumn seeds. Once it starts to sizzle, add chopped green chillies and sliced onions.
• Fry till onions start to brown and then add ginger-garlic paste and tomatoes. Cook till tomatoes tenderize and start to pulp, and add in coriander powder, cumin powder, red chili powder and turmeric powder.
• Cook for a minute or two till spices blend in. Add tomato paste and salt and cook for a few minutes till sauce thickens.
• Add water and let it come to a boil. Add paneer chunks and bell pepper and cover cook for 6-7 minutes till paneer is done.
• Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot over rice or rotis.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 8th, 2005 at 12:19 pm and is filed under Recipes: Vegetarian. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.