Friday, May 14, 2010

Home made Paneer or Tofu

I thought to start writing more on my cooking success as well, just so I can improve upon just like knitting. 


This week I tried my hand making Paneer (as called in India) I think its the closest to tofu as I understand.


Simply put I find it very easy to make it at home with just milk and lime, the best part I like is, Paneer is just so fresh and soft. From few months I have actually stopped buying that outside. Home made tastes pretty good.


Here is how it looked before



After stir frying 



It turned out to be wonderful dinner with plain rice. Even my little one loves eating the chewy Paneer so I guess I get my reward with just a little time put making Paneer.

One more thing I learned a quick trick of pressing Paneer so within an hour its well pressed and ready to be cut in squares and fried. Will try to post the link when I find it, however what I do know that all you do is, put the paneer between two cutting boards and I place two lifting weights 8 pound each on top. This helps in getting a very good shape in just about an hour. Will try to take more pictures of the steps when I make them next time.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Peanut butter cookies

Well, today I thought to write something about my experiments with baking. I must admit even though my dear friend always baked every time there was a celebration. I only realized that I needed to try my hand at baking only after we had moved out of the place into new city, every time I now bake, I remember my dear friend. Its been just few months since I started baking and I have been loving every bit of it.

This is the latest that I tried, its called Peanut butter cookies, I think I just baked little longer, but I have to say, my baking sheet came out the cleanest after taking out cookies and cookies tasted just so delicious as well. The recipe that I tweaked in little bit can be found in ehow.

I always use whole wheat flour (Atta in Hindi, being the versatile grains of India). And since I just had baking power, I didnt use baking soda. I really liked the way cookies got there design with just a little fork.

Here is how they looked before going in oven



Oh by the way, I also added some white til seed on top, they tasted well.

After baking


 And off course the best part was having them with tea sitting outside with hubby. My little one too had some wonderful time eating them with milk.
Happy baking.