Restaurant Style Shahi Gravy with Paneer Kofta

It's my 50th blog post. Thank you all for your continuous support and I am happy to publish it on my dearest friend birthday. A very special dish dedicated to my most lovable friend "Cindhuja Ramachandran" , who is down to earth person in the world.

NorthIndian cuisine has major 4 base gravies from which one can make 100 dishes. These base gravies could be combined with any veggies or kofta or cottage cheese (paneer) and so on. Shahi gravy is one of the most legendary gravy that could  see in most of the NorthIndian dine. Shahi means Royal . By the name its, self defined it is a royal dish. Ingredients used for white gravy brings more richness, taste and legendary look to the recipe.

Shahi gravy is the base gravy from which most royal dishes of north indian cusine like Malai paneer, Paneer Kofta, Mirchi ka Shahi, Shahi Kurma are made. Shahi Gravy with panner kofta is a fantastic slightly sweet gravy made of cashew nuts and fresh cream . This gravy is originated from Mughlai cuisine. This gravy goes well with bread basket (Naan, Kulcha, Pulka, Roti...). It is one of the easiest gravy one could make among the north Indian base gravies.

 Preparation time: 15 mins
Cooking time:35-40 mins
Serves - 4

Ingredients for Shahi Gravy: 

Onions - 3 nos (thinly sliced)
Cashew nut (whole)- 100 gm
Bay leaf - 2nos
Cardamom - 4 nos
Green chilly (slit) - 1 no (large)
Black pepper powder - 1 tablespoon
Cardamom powder - 1 tablespoon
Butter - 1 cube (2 tablespoon)
Fresh cream - 12 teaspoon
Sugar - 1 tablespoon
Oil - 3 tablespoon
Water to boil
Salt for taste



Ingredients for Paneer Kofta:

Cottage cheese (paneer) -1/4 cup grated or 50 gms
Boiled potatoes - 2 nos (medium size)
Raisen -10 nos
Cashew nut (broken) - 10 nos
Green Chilly -1 no(large, finely chopped)
Black pepper powder - 2 teaspoon
Maida - 3 teaspoon
Cornflour - 3 teaspoon
Salt to taste



Method to make Shahi Gravy:

1. Boil water in a pan, add onion and cashew nut into it. Make sure onion and cashews immerse completely in water. Water should be right quantity, if it exeeds , then gravy become thinner. Let it boil for 15 mins until both turns soft. Allow this mixture to cool off and blend it to make a fine paste.



2. Heat oil in a kadai and add cardamom, split green chilly and bay leaf. Saute it for few minutes and add grounded paste to it and mix well. Allow it to boil for 10 mins in medium flame. If gravy becomes too thick , add little water to sustain gravy consistency.



3. To the boiled gravy add pepper powder, salt and cardamom powder. All this powder gives nice aroma and richness to gravy. Allow it to boil for 5 more mins and then add a scoop of butter.
4. Slowly add 10 teaspoon of fresh cream to bring more richness to gravy.
5. Finally add sugar and stir well. Boil the gravy in slow flame for another 5 mins.

Now rich white Shahi gravy is ready to serve.

Method to make Paneer Kofta:

1. In a bowl, mash boiled potatoes along with grated paneer, salt, black pepper powder, chopped chilies, raisins and cashew nut.
2. To the above mixture add maida and corn flour. Maida and corn flour helps as a binding agent.
3. Equally divide the mixture and make oval shaped balls.



4. Dust maida over kofta balls before frying. It helps to remove extra moisture from kofta and also helps to fry it uniformly.
5. Deep fry the kofta until golden brown is attained on outer layer of kofta. Make sure deep fry kofta in medium flame.



Serving Style:

1. Arrange kofta in a bowl and pour the shahi gravy over it.
2. Decorate it with final touch of fresh cream and cashew nuts on kofta.



Restaurant style Mughlai Shahi gravy with Panner Kofta is ready to serve.

Tips:

1. Cashew nuts is main ingredient to bring richness to this gravy. So enough amount of cashew nut is must.
2. Cook shahi gravy in non-stick kadai with most care, as it will get burnt easily. 

Andhra Pesaratu/ Green gram dosa

Pesaratu is of my favourite dish, I used to make it mostly for breakfast/ dinner. It is completely made out of green gram bean. It's fully protein rich and usually served with keeping sooji upma inside pesaratu dosa in Andhra. I learned this dish from my sister when she was at hyderabad. It's a heavy dish and usually I serve it with spicy chutney /sambar.

Ingredients:

Whole green gram/ Mung bean - 1 cup
Raw rice - 2 teaspoon/ 3 teaspoon
Green chilli- 2 nos
Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1 pinch
Curry leaf - 10 nos
Onion - 1 finely chopped
Ginger - 1 no (1 inch long )
Oil - to make dosa
Salt - to taste

Method:

1. Wash and soak mung bean and rice together for 6 hours. Make sure it is soaked well.






2. Grind it to fine batter by draining water. Grind it along with ginger, cumin seed, green chilli, asafoetida and salt. Batter should be in adai consistency.



3. Heat tawa and pour a ladle of batter to it and spread in circular motion.
4. Drizzle oil around pesarat and sprinkle finely chopped onion, green chilli, coriander leaves over it. Make 3 to 4 small holes at centre of it and pour a teaspoon of oil.



5. Allow it to cook and flip pesarat to other side. Again drizzle oil around it. Once both side are cooked,  remove it from tawa and serve.

Serving Tips:

1.  Serve pesaratu with spicy onion chutney.
2. It will be usually served by keeping sooji upma inside in Andhra. Dish is so called "Pesaratu upma".

Nellikai Oorkai/ Gooseberry pickle

Nellikai oorkai/ Gooseberry pickle is my hubby's all time favourite pickle. It's very simple to make and last for month together. During every summer I used to make this pickle. It goes well with lemon rice and curd rice. It is one of the recipe which got published in aval kitchen May edition.

Ingredients: 

Large gooseberry (Nellikai) - 1/2 kg
Water - for steaming
Gingelly oil - 150 ml
Mustard - 2 teaspoon
Salt - to taste
Kashmiri red chilli powder - 3 teaspoon
Fenugreek powder - 1 teaspoon
Mustard powder - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1 teaspoon

Method:

1. Wash gooseberry and steam cook it for 5 mins. Make sure it is not over cooked. Remove the boiled gooseberry and allow it to cool completely for 1 hour.



2. Remove seeds and separate it into small pieces. Use dry hand for this process.



3. Heat oil in kadai and add mustard seeds, once mustard splutter add boiled gooseberry, saute it well until each gooseberry is completely oil coated.
4. Add chilli powder, asafoetida, salt, fenugreek powder and mustard powder to gooseberry. Mix well in a medium flame for few mins. Once raw smell of ingredients vanish off, switch off the flame and allow it to cool.



5. Preserve it in airtight container and use only dry laddle to mix. Mix it daily once. It can be refrigerated for months.



Tips:

1. Dry roast fenugreek seeds and blend it in a mixer to a fine powder. While powdering fenugreek, dry roast minimum 50 gm of fenugreek and powder it. If we powder less quantity of fenugreek it won't blend well.
2. Dryroast the mustard seeds. Allow them to cool off and blend it in a mixer to a fine powder.

Fatafat Egg Briyani( 20 mins recipe)

Starting from my college life, my most tempting food was "Egg Briyani". I heard from my friends, in hotel they will insert egg in chicken briyani kuska and serve as egg briyani. So never had it before. Just tried it today. It was scrumptious.

Preparation time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins
Serves : 2

Ingredients:

Basmathi rice - 1 cup (200 gms)
Water - 1 3/4 cup
Thick Curd - 50 gm
Onion - 4 (medium sized onion, thinly sliced length wise)
Tomato - 1 (finely chopped)
Ginger garlic paste - 2 teaspoon
Green chilli - 1(slit into 2)
Mint leaves(pudhina) - ¼ cup tightly packed chopped mint leaves
Coriander leaves - ¼ cup tightly packed chopped coriander leaves
Salt - to taste
Oil & ghee mixed - 2 tablespoon
Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Briyani masala - 1teaspoon
Coriander powder - 1 teaspoon
Garam masala - 1/2 teaspoon

Whole Spices:

Cinnamon stick/ pattai - 1
Cloves / lavangam - 3
Elachi - 2
Bay leaf/ brinji ilai - 1
Star anise/ anachipoo - 1

Method:

1. Wash and soak basmathi rice for 20 mins. Drain water and fry it in a kadai by adding 2 tablespoon oil.



2. Boil egg for 12 mins in medium flame. Remove outer shell and slit it gently. Make sure it is not cut into halves.



3. Shallow fry 2 thinly sliced onion until it turns into crispy, golden brown colour. This fried onion enriches the taste of briyani as well it is used for garnishing.



4. Heat oil in pressure pan and add whole spices one by one and saute well. Add 2 thinly sliced onion and cook well until it turns translucent colour. Add tomato, green chilli, ginger garlic paste, coriander and mint leaves. Saute well for 2 mins.




5. Add turmeric powder, salt, garam masala powder and briyani masala and mix well. Add curd and cook the mixture for another 2 mins. Finally add oil fried rice and water. Mix well and check for salt and spiciness.
6. Before closing the lid of pan add boiled egg, few mint and coriander leaves and half the fried onions.



7. Pressure cook it for 4 whistles and switch off the flame. Once pressure goes off, garnish it with left fried onion and coriander.



Yummy, tasty and exotic Egg briyani is ready be served. Serve it hot simply with onion raita.

Rasagulla

Most easy sweet which I did for my close friend during my school days. I love rasagulla more and it is quite simple and more delicious when is made out of home made fresh paneer. I didn't get much time to make this rasagulla for long years. Atlast I tried it out today. It came so good and scrumptious.

Preparation time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins
Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Thin milk - 1 litre
Lime - 1 no (medium size)
Sugar - 2 cups (500 gm)
Water - 4 cups (1 litre)
Rose water/ rose essence - 1 teaspoon
Maida - 1 teaspoon

Method:

Preparing chenna/ paneer:

1. Boil milk in a pan and I have used thin milk, if we use thick milk then layers of fat(malai) formed at top need to be removed before preparing paneer.
2. While milk is boiled, reduce the flame and add lemon juice or vinegar to curdle the milk.
3. Once milk curdle, switch off the flame and pour the curdled milk to muslin cloth, to strain the water.



4. Gather the muslin cloth together and wash the sides in cold running water, this helps in removing tangy taste from chenna.
5. Hang the muslin cloth for 30 min to remove excess water or moisture from chenna.
6. Add chenna to flat plate and add maida/sooji to it and kneed well. With the heals of palm mash the chenna, when you feel chenna is bit greasy stop kneading and make small balls out of chenna.



7. Cover the balls with moisture muslin cloth.

Preparing sugar syrup and rasagulla:

1. In a heavy bottom wide vessel, add sugar and water together and boil, until sugar dissolves.



2. From sugar syrup, reserve 1/2 cup in a bowl this will be added on top of rasagullas while boiling.
3. Reserve another 1 cup of sugar syrup in a serving bowl.
4. To the remaining 2.5 cup sugar syrup, add the chenna balls in medium flame. Once all the chenna balls are added just shake the pan gently don't use laddle or spoon to stir it.



5. Cover the pan with a lid and cook rasagulla in medium flame for 4 minutes.
6. After 4 minutes, add 1/4 cup of reserved sugar syrup over the rasagulla and shake the pan gently. This sugar syrup helps in maintaining the consistency of sugar syrup.
7. Again cover the pan gently and cook for 4 minutes and repeat the above step 6.
8. Cover the pan and cook again for 4 minutes, timing may vary little as per pan thickness and flame.

To check the readiness of rasagulla:

1. Take one rasagulla and add it to a cup of water, if the rasugulla sinks to the bottom, then its cooked completely.

2. Switch off the flame once rasagulla is cooked.
3. Add all the cooked rasagulla to the serving bowl containing 1 cup sugar syrup.
4. Let the sugar solution in which rasagulla was cooked, become warm. Add this solution to serving bowl.
5. Once whole mixture cools down, add rose water to it and serve. IT could also be refrigerated.

Tomato Pickle -Andhra special

Tomato pickle is one of my favourite pickle. When ever juicy fresh tomato is available in market, I love to make this pickle. It's so simple and easy to make. We can mix in hot rice and ghee, also it goes well with dosa, chapathi.

Ingredients:

Tomato - 1/2 kg (ripen)
Tamarind - a big lemon size
Gingelly oil - 8 tablespoon
Mustard - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/2 teaspoon
Salt - to taste
Kashmiri red chilli powder - 4 teaspoon
Fenugreek powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Mustard powder - 1 teaspoon
Jaggery -  2 tablespoon

Method:

1. Wash and dice tomato into small pieces and blend them into fine paste without adding water.
2. Dry roast tamarind in a kadai and grind in a mixer to fine thick paste by adding little water and remove fiber (if any) from it.


3. Heat oil in a kadai, add mustard, once mustard splutter, add tamarind and tomato paste to it. Mix well and allow it to boil for 20 mins in medium flame by closing kadai with a lid.
4. Add asafoetida, chilli powder, mustard powder, fenugreek powder, salt and cook well until its raw smell vanish off.
5. Add jaggery to it and saute well until oil oozes out from pickle. Switch off the flame.
6. Once it cools off, transfer the pickle to airtight container and refrigerate it. You can use it more than a month.

Spicy, colourful and yummy tomato pickle is ready to be served. Serve it with hot rice, ghee and vadam.

Tips:

1. Dry roast fenugreek seeds and blend it in a mixer to a fine powder. While powdering fenugreek, dry roast minimum 50 gm of fenugreek and powder it. If we powder less quantity of fenugreek it won't blend well.
2. Dryroast the mustard seeds. Allow them to cool off and blend it in a mixer to a fine powder.

Beetroot peas pulov ( 20 mins recipe)

Most easiest and fatafat healthy recipe among pulov variety is beetroot pulov. Beetroot helps in improving stamina, blood flow and lower blood pressure. Usually people will make poriyal, halwa, cutlet, rolls, bholi but this is different and good lunch box recipe. This Beetroot peas pulov was much tasty than it was expected. I tried preparing different pulov but more than all other pulov I loved this taste. Instead of making plain pulov, I combined soaked dry peas. Either fresh green peas or soaked dry peas can be used. This beetroot peas pulov can be served along with onion or cucumber raita.

Preparation time: 15 mins
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Serves: 3 nos

Ingredients:

Basmathi rice - 1 cup heaped ( 250 gm)
Beetroot grated - 3/4 cup
Green peas/ Soaked dry peas - 1/4 cup
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tablespoon
Salt- to taste
Onion - 1 (thinly sliced)
Green chilli - 1 (slit)
Water - 2 1/2 cup
Ghee/ oil - 2 tablespoon
Bayleaf - 1 no
Cinnamon stick - 1 no
Cardamom - 2 nos
Cloves - 2 nos
Fennel seeds (perunjeeragam) -1 teaspoon
Chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Coriander powder - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves - few (optional)
Coriander leaves - few (finely chopped)

Method:

1. Wash and soak basmathi rice for 20 mins.
2. Wash and pressure cook soaked dry peas for 4 whistle. 
2. Heat ghee/ oil in a pressure pan and add all garam masala's (fennel seeds, cinnamon stick, bay leaf, cardamom, cloves) and saute well.


3. Add thinly sliced onion, green chilli and saute it. Once onion turns translucent color, add ginger garlic paste and mix well.



4. Add grated beetroot, boiled dry peas, chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, salt and saute well.



5. Finally add soaked rice and saute well.
6. Pressure cook the rice for 3 whistle by adding enough water. Once pressure goes off, add chopped coriander and serve.

Hot, yummy beetroot peas pulov is ready to be served. Serve it hot along with onion raita.

Tips:
 
1. Since beetroot contains sucrose, for one cup rice i used only 3/4 cup of grated beetroot. If we add 1 cup beetroot then pulov will be little sweetish.
2.Soaked dry peas need to be boiled before it is added to rice. If it is frozen green peas or fresh green peas, then add directly along with rice for boiling.
3. Even coconut milk can be added for boiling rice. If then, add water and coconut milk in the ratio 1 1/4:1.