When I was in India this time, the cook at my parents’ place made this amazing shahi paneer dish at a party that my parents hosted. Now, I have made shahi paneer in the past from a recipe my mother uses. The results have been good, always good. But, both my mom and I liked this recipe. And when I found out it was so easy, I had to try it out for myself.

“Shahi” means royal in Urdu and “paneer” is the name given to Indian cottage cheese. Indian cottage cheese is much firmer than the cottage cheese that we get here in the US. Unlike most cheeses in the world, the making of paneer does not involve rennet as the coagulation agent, thus making it completely lacto-vegetarian and providing one of the sources of protein for vegetarians in India. It is generally unsalted.

Shahi Paneer is the slightly richer version of Paneer Makhani or Butter Paneer (the vegetarian counterpart of the famous Butter chicken). A major difference in the nomenclature comes from the use of nuts and raisins- the former includes them in the recipe, the latter doesn’t.

As how all recipes go, there are various versions of shahi paneer out there in the cyber space, in Indian kitchens and in cookbooks. My mom’s recipe uses dried fenugreek recipes (which I have seen other recipes also mention). But this doesn’t. Yes, there are different versions online, but I like this recipe for its straight forwardness.

Read More →

My SRC assignment for the month of March was to make something from the site Baking & Boys.

Baking and Boys is a blog managed by the talented Katrina. Katrina has been blogging since Feb, 2008- that means she has been blogging for more than 4 years now. This is how Katrina describes why she started this blog and how it turned out to be what it is today.

I started my blog just thinking I was going to keep my family and friends up-to-date with the boys. I’ve said it before, I just put some cake pictures of Sam’s first birthday party on here and then for some reason my favorite cinnamon rolls. Next thing I knew, this whole wonderful world of food blogging opened up before my eyes. I often say that baking and sharing and blogging are my sanity—which with this house full of boys I often find necessary! Keeps them fed and me sane. Sounds like a good combination. 😉 And here I am, four years later with just noticing yesterday that I now have 400 followers on my blog and 200 “likers” on Facebook.

I am glad she changed from just a daily journal to much more.
Read More →

For the month of March, our Recipe Swap group split in two for the first time. While one half would continue posting the first Sunday of the month, the other would now be posting a different recipe the second Wednesday of the month. Its a big change and I hate that the group is splitting, but the change means newer members- newer perspectives and interpretations of two different recipes each month. In a nutshell, the change means a lot of creativity to be inspired from throughout the month. And that’s a change I am looking forward to.

I chose to be part of the group posting the first Sunday of the month and honestly I was glad that I was, because it meant I had to swap a Pizza recipe.

The idea for the Recipe Swap was born out of a Vintage cookbook find by Christianna. Christianna decided to make her own recipes inspired by those in the cookbook. She also got a bunch of talented bloggers (and me) in on the idea and now, the recipe swap has been on for more than a year, each month the bloggers dishing out absolute delights that showcase their creativity. Of course, now the creative juices will be flowing into cyber space twice a month, starting this March.

Read More →