Moving to wordpress

Hi guys...Today I decided to move to wordpress. Hopefully it will be a good move. We will see. So visit me here from now on.

A different take on mattar paneer

There have been innumerable posts about mattar paneer. VK of My Dhabha, Jen of Atabela and Tony of Anthony's Kitchen had blogged about it. And I was determined to make it soon, just that I was not as enthusiastic about making paneer. I didnt have the cheesecloth to drain the paneer or for that matter I couldnt even find any piece of cloth that would fit the bill. So on my regular shopping day at the grocery store my eyes fell on Tofu. It would serve as paneer..it is white, kind of soft and so I decided to try mattar tofu. Then comes the difficult decision..there were I think three different kinds of tofu-firm, extrafirm and I think the other was soft. The description on the firm type said that it was perfect for stir frying and I thought that would do. So the container of tofu left the store with me.

I felt that same exhilaration when I attempted my mutton biryani...the same feeling of confidence flowed through me and I finally did it...I made mattar tofu. Did I like it? I loved it but Satish wasnt that excited...he wasnt sure of the silky texture of tofu and how it didnt have the same bite as paneer. I tried it with rice and also rotis and it went will with both.



The recipe was an adaptation of VKs.
I left half of the tofu unfried just to see how it would taste different. I liked them both ways!

Treasures from home

Had a lot of catching up to do after my vacation. It was a very hectic 3 weeks but time well spent. Got to eat food cooked by someone other than me and S and it was such a bliss! Havent cooked anything so far to blog about..so I thought I might share with you some of the stuff that accompanied me from India.

First and foremost the star of the show is homegrown vanilla bean. For the first time in my life I saw how a vanilla plant looks like, certainly not what I imagined. It is a climber and has long vines that needs to be supported. Hope to write more about vanilla in a seperate post.
Then I brought this clay pot called 'chatti' in Malayalam. I am proud of my packing skills that I was able to bring this over intact. This is excellent for making fish curry.

Then I brought a filter coffee maker. Dont really know how to use it...could use some help here.Also there are loads of plantain and jackfruit chips...