My parents are visiting and I had thought that with them around, I'd have a lots to blog about. I had imagined that I'd cook a lot of interesting food for them, take pictures and for once, become a prolific blogger and have a new post ever so often!

However, as it has turned out, I don't seem to be very inclined towards blogging these days. In fact, ever since they have come, I don't seem to be very inclined towards doing anything. Other than lounging on the sofa and reading.


The kitchen, though, is abuzz with the sound and smells of cooking - mom and dad are the ones who are doing the cooking. Both are avid cooks and have a huge collection of recipes and they are only too eager to experiment in the kitchen.


My only contribution - other than deciding what is to be made and buying the ingredients for it - is shrieks of horror ( so much oil!), or murmurs of disapproval (not spicy enough!) or grunts of grudging admiration (the salt is just right - every single time) - and then I am back to lounging on the sofa doing... nothing!


On rare days, I manage to take the camera out, click a few pictures and finally update the blog!

This spinach and macaroni casserole is something that my dad started making as a way of using up leftover palak paneer. Over time, the recipe has evolved to this:

Ingredients:

Macaroni: 3/4 cup


Spinach - 2 cups, finely chopped
Garlic - 3 cloves, minced
Tomato - 2 nos, chopped
Paneer / Cottage cheese - 1/2 cup (if using paneer cubes, grate or crumble it)
Red chilli flakes - 1/2 tsp
Bay leaf - 1
Black cardamom - 1

Oil

for the topping:

Parmesan/cheddar cheese - 4-5 tbsps
Tomato - 5 round slices, optional


for white sauce:

Plain flour - 1 tbsp
Butter - 1.5 tbsps
Low fat milk - 1 cup
Salt and pepper to taste
Mustard paste - 1 tsp







Method:


First make the white sauce:
Melt butter in a pan. To that, add the plain flour and stir briskly till the flour starts to change colour. Stirring continuously, add the milk in a thin stream. Keep stirring till the sauce comes to a boil and thickens. Add mustard paste, salt, pepper and a tbsp of grated cheese. Remove from fire and set aside.


Cook the pasta as per the package instructions. Drain and set aside for 5 minutes.


Pre-heat the oven to 200 deg C.


Heat some oil in a pan. Add the bay leaf, black cardamom and the chopped garlic; let them sizzle for half a minute. Add in the tomatoes and cook till the tomatoes get soft and mushy.


Then, put the chopped spinach and stir till the spinach starts looking wilted (don't cook the spinach at this stage). Add in the crumbed paneer and the salt and the crushed red chillies. Stir for a minute. Then add in the white sauce and the cooked pasta and mix well.

Transfer to a baking dish, top with the grated cheese and the tomato slices and bake till the cheese is browned and bubbling, about 20 minutes.

Sending this to Mansi who is hosting Presto Pasta Nights - 169, an event started by Ruth.

There was a time when my daughter was very fascinated by colours - she still is - but back then, she was just understanding the colours and learning to identify them and so she would talk about colours all the time.

So, I thought it would be a great idea to induce her to eat different (healthy) food types by talking about food in terms of colour.

So there was white mummum (mummum is food BTW, for her) = curd rice, and orange mummum = khichdi, or yellow mummum = egg curry and so on. I even managed pink mummum = pureed beetroot with yoghurt. What had me and still has me stumped was the day she asked for faint blue mummum!

Faint blue mummum.....any suggestions?

Green mummum = palak paneer is something that she loves, here's my version of it.




Microwave Palak Paneer

*when I make this for my daughter, I completely omit the green chilli and the red chilli powder

This is my entry to CFK:Greens hosted by Pavani, event started by Sharmi

Come winter and the markets would be flooded with what the vegetable vendors called "delli walle mutter" (green peas from Delhi). The Delhi green peas were indeed very sweet and tender, we used to love eating them straight out of the pod!

My mum would make lovely peas patties - one December when we had the family New Years party at our place, we pestered mum to include that in the menu. Now, shelling enough peas to make patties for a huge family of 23 was no easy task and we - a gang of 6 cousins - assured her that we would help.

Of course (and needless to say), in a short time, none of us were shelling the peas - someone found a worm in a pod and put it on another's neck, fights erupted and the group broke away. But the peas did get shelled (courtesy mum and aunts) and the patties duly devoured by the ones who demanded them.

It's been years since I have even laid my eyes on green peas in pods, the frozen ones suit me just fine! And my kitchen is incomplete with them frozen green peas and frozen paneer, they come in very handy especially when I am caught with no veggies!

The kitchen was all set up. Rows of jars, all filled with an array of lentils and masalas lined the shelves. A new microwave, a rice cooker that came free with the MW, a tea/coffee maker and the gas cylinder were all in place as well. We had just moved cities, and finding myself jobless, the kitchen was about to become my playground and I seemed to be ready to cook. Or was I?

Notice anything missing in the things I listed above?

Yeah, you got it...the cooking range!! The one I wanted was out of stock and was likely to be delivered only the following month. So there I was, all set to cook, but unable to.

Or maybe not....there was the MW afterall.

No one I knew cooked in the MW, using it only for heating food. The MW came with an instruction manual and also a recipe book and it seemed that it was geared for all kinds of cooking from grilling, baking, steaming etc. Very tentatively (and very sheepishly, I must admit that I was actually scared), I started my MW cooking journey by boiling potatoes and within a few days, there was no looking back.

MW cooking is not only quick but also uses less oil and water in the cooking process. As a result, food (and especially vegetables) retain more of their vitamins and minerals when cooked in the microwave.

Some dishes ended in absolute disasters (making kadhi, rotis, meat roasts - a definite no no), many others were surprisingly successful (cakes, puddings, omelettes). One of my favourites was and continues to be paneer jalfrezi. This particular way of making it (adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor's TV show Khana Khazana) requires the veggies to be cooked very little and I have made it both on the stove top and the MW, cooking it in the latter keeps the veggies fresher and crisper.




Ingredients:


Paneer - 200gms
Onion, 1 large, sliced
Ginger, 1" piece, julienned
Green bell pepper, cut into long thin strips
Tomato, seeds taken off, sliced into long thin strips
Corainder leaves, finely chopped, 1 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Whole red chilli - 2 nos
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder, salt, to taste
Kitchen king masala - 1 tsp
Vinegar - 1 tbsp
Oil - 2 tsp

Method:

Heat oil for a minute. Toss in the cumin seeds, let them splutter - this should take about a minute. Next, put in the red chillies for 30 secs.

Add the onions and the ginger and let them cook for half a minute. Stir and put the capsicum in next and cook for 30 secs. Stir and add the paneer and all the masalas and the salt and cook for a minute and 30 secs. Add the vinegar, give it a good stir and add the tomatoes. Cook for a minute and a half, add the coriander and serve.

A friend of mine once told me that good food is all about color. Get the colors right and the food becomes that much more appetising. This paneer jalfrezi, with its lovely mix of yellow, green and red looks good, doesn't it?

Needless to say, this is my entry to Sunshinemom's FIC : Yellow and MEC : Paneer at Rak's Kitchen.

And after a lot of deliberation, also sending this to Click: February 2009 - Cheese/Tofu at Jugalbandi.