Sunday, April 7, 2013

rasse wali paneer bhurji | a curried paneer scramble that can be your dinner soup...


Paneer bhurji is a scramble cooked quickly using paneer and some onion, tomatoes and herbs. I have done Amritsari paneer bhurji from a cookbook and keep scrambling paneer all the time for convenience.

Basically a quick fix meal or a side dish or even a sandwich filling. Every home has it's own recipe of paneer bhurji with additives like bell peppers, spinach, green peas  or sometimes kasoori methi or fresh methi greens thrown in. I myself depend on such combinations many times when I have to stir up a simple and quick lunch box for the husband.

The dry version can be made using regular store bought paneer or homemade fresh paneer that just gets ready while you are chopping and stir frying your onion and tomatoes etc. It is the gravy version of paneer bhurji that requires a little different approach. The paneer in this case, is not sieved like home made paneer, but just collected from the whey and directly put into the cooking bhurji. The result is a perfectly creamy half curdled paneer into a rich and flavorful curry.

Read on, this is a pictorial step by step recipe so you would know how to go about it exactly the way I did...

ingredients...

full cream milk 1 Liter (to make paneer)
yogurt 1 heaped tbsp to curdle the milk

diced red onions 1 cup
sliced ripe tomatoes (preferably desi tomatoes) 2.5 cup
finely chopped garlic 1 tbsp
finely chopped ginger 1 tbsp
finely chopped green chilies to taste
kashmiri red chilly powder 1 tsp or to taste
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
coriander powder 1 tsp
black pepper powder 1/2 tsp
ghee 1.5 tbsp

procedure...

Heat the milk till it reaches just about to the boiling point, add the yogurt and stir. Take the pan off the flame and let it stand. The milk curdles partially and keep curdling till you prep up the other ingredients.

Now heat the ghee in a deep pan (kadhai) and tip in the chopped ginger, garlic, green chilies and red onions ...


Stir fry these till the onions get translucent, add the powder spices and salt to taste and mix well for about a minute. Then add the sliced tomatoes ..


Cook till the mixture looks like this...


Now sieve the curdled paneer and add to the cooking mixture, without waiting for the whey to drip, this way some of the whey is also added to the curry ..


The curry turns a little watery, mix well and simmer till it reaches the consistency you like...


Garnish with freshly chopped coriander greens...


Serve hot with chapati and some salad...We had this mooli ka acchar with this meal...


This rasse wali bhurji makes a truly soulful food, it can be served with plain parathas or like a hearty soup if you wish. I would love some garlic bread with this bhurji as well.

It makes a good curry for a large crowd too, in that case you would like to use freshly made regular paneer, crumbled nicely and added to the curry along with some fresh milk to make it soft while it cooks further.

Add some green peas if you have them fresh and nice. No frozen peas please.
You could add some kasoori methi as well if you love it that way.
It is the melt in the mouth type paneer that makes this recipe special  seasoning and other flavors can be adjusted to suit your taste.


7 comments:

  1. This is going to become a regular with me as a soup dinner.

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  2. This is going to become a regular with me as a soup dinner :)

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  3. Absolutely delicious looking curry. I just bought loads of milk yesterday as they had reduced it in the store so now I can try out this recipe.

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  4. Hi Sangeeta, this looks like an interesting recipe.... will definitely try it out.

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