CAPSICUM PANEER

Good Food is very often Simple Food....How true to it's nature. Simple food is always so soul satisfying. After a hard day's work, nothing satisfies like a bowl of hot steaming rice and a flavorful curry to go with.Many a times, I faced the question from most of my readers, that how do I manage to work and cook regularly and share at regular interval. This is simple, I do a lot of pre-planning, like menu planning one day in advance and makes sure my refrigerator has all the basic ingredients to whip up a quick satisfying meal. One such dish is Capsicum Paneer which is fairly easy and quick to make.

Paneer is the star ingredient in some of my most favorite Indian dishes — and probably yours too. Paneer is home-made, unsalted, white cheese which is fresh and has a dense, crumbly texture that goes beautifully with any spices.This paneer capsicum is a gravy recipe made with marinated yogurt . The addition of yogurt gives a good flavor to this recipe and overall it is a rich creamy recipe which goes best with rotis, parathas or even a simple jeera rice.Although the taste is tangy you could also make them more spicy if you wish. When you're looking at making something quickly for lunch or dinner — which is healthy too, here's a recipe which can be a quick solution.

RECIPE TYPE: Main Course

CUISINE: Indian

PREP TIME:  30 mins

COOK TIME:  20 mins

TOTAL TIME:  40 mins

SERVES: 4

Ingredients for Marinating Paneer:

• 200 gms Paneer cut into squares
• ½ cup hung yogurt 
• 2 tsp kashmiri red chili powder 
• 1 tsp dry mango powder 
• 1/4th tsp chat masala
• 1 tbsp gram flour 
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 2 tsp oil

 Ingredients for the gravy:

• 3 tbsp oil 
• 1 tsp carom seed 
• 1 onion chopped into squares 
• 1 cup green, yellow and red bell pepper chopped into square 
• 2 tomatoes finely chopped 
• 1 tbsp grated ginger or chopped finely 
• 1 tsp chopped green chili 
• 1 tsp roasted cumin powder 
• 1 tsp kashmiri red chili powder 
• 1 tsp coriander  powder 
• 1 tsp garam masala powder
• ¼th tsp turmeric powder 
• Fresh coriander leaves for garnishing

Let's Learn How to make this recipe:

• Combine all the ingredients for marination and whisk well. Add oil ,gram flour and combine nicely. The mixture should be smooth and lump free. 

• Add the paneer  pieces into it and coat them nicely with the mixture. Cover with a cling wrap and marinate the paneer for 30 mins in the fridge.

• Heat  a non stick tawa or pan. Add a little oil and shallow fry the marinated paneer on all sides till brown . Remove them from the pan and place aside.

• In the same pan heat rest of the oil . Add carrom seeds and once they crackle add the onion, ginger and bell peppers.

• Saute on high heat for 2 mins . Now add chopped tomatoes, cover and cook until tomatoes become tender.

• Mash with the back of the spoon and cook till oil comes out.Add coriander powder, cumin powder, red chilli powder and turmeric powder along with salt .

• Cook for 30 secs. Add little water if the mixture dries up.You can add the leftover marination from the paneer to the gravy.

• Add the fried paneer and cook for a minute.  Switch off the gas and sprinkle garam masala  , green chilies ad fresh coriander leaves.

• Serve this with hot roti, rice or naan.

The red, green and yellow bell peppers give a nice juicy, sweet and crunchy texture that compliments the softness of cottage cheese. This one is bound to impress and believe me your family will never know that this was a less than 20 mins job.