Veggie and Paneer Kababs

Summers are meant for barbecues and lazing by the pool side. Or at the beach. Well, we planned to do that all summer too but never really got around to it. School started back on but we were not the ones to let go of the idea just as easily. Its still a little hot out there and technically it still is summer. Why not make use of it, right? So, our group of friends planned to do a barbecue party over the weekend. And our family is the only one vegetarian one in the group. So the minute the barbecue was being planned, I knew I was going to get my favorite paneer kababs. I've posted a simple recipe of this before on the blog but this time wanted to make it a little more detail with all the step by step pictures. So, here we go.

This is a really easy recipe but it takes a little planning to marinate the veggies ahead of time. But with just a little effort, the reward is plenty. Imagine yourself sitting on a lounge chair, sipping on some beer or margarita in hand, chatting with your best buddies while the kids are busy by themselves. And in between every sentence, you get to bite into a juicy tangy piece of grilled paneer or veggie dipped in a flavorful mint chutney. I mean, are these not why weekends are made for? To stop and smell the roses or at least the kababs?

Let's get going with the marinade. Prepare this marinade a day ahead so the veggies and paneer get to soak in them for hours and pull in the flavors.

I was doing this for a big batch of kababs. Please adjust the quantity according to your needs.

Take about 2-3 cups of slightly sour yogurt in a mixing bowl. Add salt to taste.

Add 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder to the curds.

Then add about 1-2 tsp of red chilli powder - this will also add spice to the kababs not to mention the color.

In a small pan, dry roast these ingredients -

2tbsp of Coriander seeds
1 tsbp of Cumin seeds
2-3 dried red chillies

Grind the dry roasted ingredients above to a coarse powder.

Add the powdered spices to the yogurt mixture.

And now for the flavor kick, add about 3-4 tsps of ginger -garlic paste to the yogurt mix. This adds a whole ton of flavor to the kababs. I've made kababs before without this stuff but trust me, this version is definitely better. So, unless you don't eat garlic, don't skip this step. And if you are not a garlic person, at least add fresh ginger paste.

Whisk all the ingredients with the yogurt and make a smooth paste.

Finally add about 1-2 tsps of chat masala and whisk together well. Set aside. The marinade is ready. Now on to the veggies chopping.

These veggies tend to hold up well to grilling and maintain a good texture to eat.

Onions
Bell Peppers - Green, Red, Yellow
Zucchini

You can also use eggplants - my friend had bought a few grilled eggplants and they were absolutely delicious - so I'm adding them the next time for sure.

Wash and chop the veggies into big bits and move all the pieces to a ziploc bag where you can marinate them overnight.

Here's the zucchini chopped up.

Also chop paneer into big thick chunks that hold up well on skewers and offer a good bite.

Get all your veggies into individual ziploc bags. Or if you want it easier, just mix them up all together and soak together in one big bowl. But I somehow always like it when they are individually marinated. Makes me feel happy for them that each of them has its own space. Its my choice - so you decide what you want to do.

Pour equal amounts of the yogurt marinade into each of the bags and give the veggies a gentle rub so that the sauce gets in between spaces.

Seal tight and refrigirate the packets overnight. Every maybe 6-8 hrs, just pick them up and give a gentle rub so that all sides are mixed well.

When you're ready to barbecue them, arrange the veggies in order (or not!) on skewers. You can also get the kids to do this if you want to keep them entertained. I'm sure they'll enjoy getting their hands messy. I did these though - not the kids - they were no where to be seen - they just showed up when food was ready!

Grill on medium to high heat for about 20-30 mins or until you see them well done. Save some of the marinade and brush on top as your barbecue for added flavor.

Turn the skewers around in between so that all sides get cooked evenly.

They turn from this -

- to this in about 30 mins.

So get your grill going and start up some veggie panner kababs. And yes, don't forget some grilled corn on the side - make sure you rub that with a wedge of lemon dipped in salt and red chilli powder for a perfect bite.

You can either serve them on skewers itself or just remove the veggies from the skewers and serve alongside with some green coriande-mint chutney.

You can also serve these kababs along with some simple saffron tinged pulav. They go great with just plain jeera rice or ghee rice too. We actually had some simple Kadhi Chawal along with all the barbecued stuff and it was a perfect summer evening. Good food. Good friends. Great evening!

So wait no more - get kababing before the sun goes down!

Enjoy. Peace Out!

Orange Paneer

Vegetarian Orange Chicken anyone?? Well, I actually don't have that here - but I do have some glistening Sweet and Spicy Orange Paneer. 

FSB Theme for the month was suggested by DK of Chef In You. This was a challenging theme and DK wanted us to prepare something vegetarian that looks like a classic or famous Non Vegetarian dish. When I read that first, I thought – this could be easy..and then I read further. She told us that we could not use any store bought mock meats to prepare the dish. Ok the first three dishes that came to my mind at the beginning just went back to where they were sleeping. Nevermind.

And then a few weeks passed by – I had this thought at the back of my mind that I have not come up with anything yet and time’s slowly running out. And then last Friday happened. Came home from work and was totally inspired to either order pizza or pick up Chinese food. But the big guy in the house was acting a little hyper about cooking up a nice homemade meal..and when I said order Chinese food, he said why not make Chinese food. Really?? Why can’t we both ever think on the same lines? And so he first told me that he’ll make dinner. I was happy. And he told me he wanted the sweet and spicy orange chicken done vegetarian. My heart went thud. Wait. That means I could achieve two things here. The name DK then flashed a few times in my brain. I brushed off my Friday evening laziness and decided I will actually make this sweet and spicy orange chicken – not to please the hungry guy in the house – but because I might have a post for this month’s FSB.  Wink Wink. And to be honest, this has been a dish that my guy has been asking for a while now and I always just veto it because I’m never in the mood for a sweet and spicy thing. But, today I was more than happy to undertake this adventure!

Tofu would have been a great substitute here – but instead, I decided to use Paneer to make this. So, I can tell DK that Paneer really is not fake meat. Right DK? And honestly because I had a big pack of Paneer sitting in my fridge and I was not going out to get tofu just to make this – you never know, I just might end up bringing dinner back. Not a good idea!

So I looked at a few recipes for Orange Chicken and looked at the Panda Express site for some visual inspiration. And also came across this one which was a vegetarian version from Pham Fatale blog. I kind of get an idea and a plan sketched out in my mind. Time for executing the plan. And so I start. I have to tell you though, by the time this was done and we were eating, boy was I glad I cooked at home. Thanks FSB team!! This is now a keeper recipe for me and we have already planned when to make this next!

Enough of all the banter, let me just get to the recipe.
Chop up Paneer into uneven sized chunks. The weirder shaped the chunks are, the better!

In a plate, take about ½- 1 cup of corn flour (corn starch would also work great here). The amount you see here was actually too much – I ended up wasting half of it. So, ½ cup should be sufficient. Add salt to taste and also 1 tsp of red chilli powder for a little spice. Mix the dry ingredients well.

Add the paneer pieces in here and just mix well. 

Sprinkle a few drops of water and just gently toss the paneer in the moist corn flour. You just want to coat the paneer pieces and not really dunk them and make them into bhajjias or pakodas.

Let this sit for a few mins while you get the sauce ready.

Here comes the saucy juicy part! This was fun to do – because I had no clue really and just kind of added everything I had. You should have seen our frightened faces when we were ready to taste the final product.
Let’s start off with the spicy stuff. Chilli Garlic sauce – add about ½ - 1 tbsp of chilli garlic sauce to a mixing bowl.

Then, add ½ tbsp of Chilli Soy sauce or regular Soy sauce to the bowl.

Add ½ tbsp of rice vinegar to the other ingredients.

Follow that with 2 big heaped tbsp of tomato paste.

Throw in some fresh chopped ginger to the paste mix.

And throw in ginger’s favorite partner garlic – chopped into little bits along with the rest.

Now, add the kicker in here – ½ cup of orange juice.

Followed by 1 tsp of brown palm sugar.

And for the real kicker – 2 tbsp of maggi hot n sweet ketchup.

Some last sweet thoughts - a few drops of Honey

And to seal the deal with a little spice – 1 tsp of red chilli flakes or you can use a red chilli asian paste if you have that or even some Sriracha sauce.

Now do you understand that I really had no clue. But don't lose faith in me yet. I won't let you down.

Whisk together all of the ingredients well. Add about 1 cup of water to this sauce and set aside.

Now, fry the corn flour coated pieces of paneer in hot oil and drain excess oil on a sheet and set aside.

Chop up 1 small red onion and also chop up a small bell pepper.

Add the sauce and just enjoy the sizzle.

Cook for 3-4 mins and you’ll start to see the water evaporate.

Meanwhile, in a small mixing bowl, add 2 tsps of corn starch and add ¼ cup water and make into a thin paste.

When the sauce begins to thicken, add in the corn starch paste. You’ll see that the sauce thicken instantly.

Quickly add in the fried paneer pieces to the sauce and mix well. Cook for a min until most of the sauce thickens. If you like it saucy, you can switch off the stove immediately after adding the paneer.

And you’re done people! Now, I don’t know if this looks like the Orange Chicken at Panda’s – but I surely know that it tastes awesome because we finished the whole damn thing in about 15 mins!

Serve with some hot white rice. I actually made ginger flavored rice. I added about 2 tsp of chopped ginger along with the rice and cooked it together. The rice holds a subtle flavor of ginger and it was delicious to eat along with this sweet and spicy Orange Paneer!

Check out here for some of the awesome stuff the FSB gals have come up with – Deepti, Lata, DK, Madhuri, Nags, Siri, Mitu. I’m sure when the hard core non vegetarian look at this, they’re going to finally stop thinking that us vegetarians eat only salads.

Enjoy. Peace Out!