“How do you manage to remain so waif-like?” I once asked a friend. I mean, she was stunning, and slim and a mother of one. “You Mallus eat way too much rice”, she said… “I hardly ever eat rice”. I opened my mouth to disagree, but couldn’t say anything, and no, not because my mouth was stuffed with food, but because I had nothing to say. I just had to agree with her.
Come to think of it, most of our meals are rice based; Idlis, Dosas, Appam, Puttu..the list is ENORMOUS. And the quantity of rice we consume for lunch can almost feed a small nation.
At my parents place the only non-rice meal we have is at dinner. “What shall I make with the chapattis?” is a common refrain as my mom always runs short of side-dish ideas for chapattis. Its almost always dal or paneer,so a Paneer Burji is what I’m posting today esp for the Side Dish Event , hosted by Viki’s Kitchen…and I’m excitedly waiting for the round-up so I can expand my repertoire of side-dishes.
This is similar to scrambled eggs and tastes just as good.
Paneer – 1 cup crumbled
Onions – ½ cup chopped finely
Tomatoes – ½ cup chopped
Ginger – 1” piece chopped
Green chili – 1, chopped
Cumin seeds 1 tsp
Turmeric powder – one pinch
Chili powder – ½ tsp
Oil and salt
Preparation:
• .
• Heat oil in a deep bottomed pan; add the cumin seeds, chopped onions and the ginger garlic paste fry till brown.
• Add the chillies and tomatoes and fry till they are soft and pulpy.
• Add turmeric powder, chilli powder, salt and little water so that all the masalas are well combined.
• Add crumbled paneer and fry for 5 minutes till the paneer blends into the masala.
• Garnish with chopped coriander and serve hot.
