A beautiful story by Meera Syal , a story of a punjabi Indian family trying to make a living and uphold tradition and culture and imbibe whatever little they can to their star , anita. The novel takes us on a journey with a young 9 year old Meera , her color , her friends , her growing up in a mining village, west Midlands , england in a predominantly white community. She comes to worship Anita , her neighbor . The novel speaks about certain characters having strong racist attitudes . For me , her grandmother’s character was the most adorable. reminded me of mine.
Having said that , we wanted to make something which reminded us of Punjab, but at the same time wanted to steer clear of the usual punjabi dishes , so we opted for this beautiful , colorful and awesome Gobi and Paneer bhurji , a recipe by Tarla dalal , which we adapted to our palate. The original recipe called for garam masala , but we decided to opted for Khara( whole) masala.
Ingredients:
3 cup of grated cauliflower
1 cup of crumbled paneer
1 cup of diced tomatoes
1 medium sized red onion
For the masala :
1/2 inch cinnamon
1 bay leaf
3 cloves
3 elaichis
1/2 teaspoon shah jeera
4 cloves of garlic
4 Green chillies
A few sprigs of cilantro for garnish
A pinch of turmeric
Salt , Oil to taste
Method:
1. you know the drill, heat oil/butter/ghee , add turmeric and add the whole masala ingredients , saute for a minute , add the cloves , minced onion ,garlic, green chilles and saute until the raw smell disappears. Then add the tomatoes , salt and cook until done.
2. Add the grated cauliflower and cook for a good 15 minutes or until the gobi is done. add the paneer and cook for another 5 minutes. sprinkle coriander and serve hot with roti!I served mine as a side with rotis and a green salad.
P.S. Apologies for not posting the Basil Mania yet, I will do it tomorrow. I have been tied up with a lot of things lately which forced me to keep away from blogging. Please excuse me and I will surely post the round up tomorrow. Also , I have not replied to any mails , extremely sorry dear friends, will write to you asap.
August 31st, 2008 at 11:46 pm
recipe looks yum ,..n nice click too..
September 1st, 2008 at 2:22 am
Dee..that picture looks just too great..nice one..and nice to know abt the book too..:0
September 1st, 2008 at 9:55 am
thats a great picture thr ! luved the recipe too
September 1st, 2008 at 11:30 am
A unique combination. Looks really good!
September 1st, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Dee - the bhurji looks yummy..:).. I was away for the long weekend to ‘S’ place and had no time to post for this month’s ‘book made me cook’..:(. Hope to make up next month’s Harry Potter special.. Yipee!!!
Hugs,
Siri
September 1st, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Picture says it all!
September 1st, 2008 at 6:49 pm
What happened Madam? Hope you are doing well!
The picture looks awesome. Will call you soon.
September 1st, 2008 at 9:40 pm
the bhurji looks so delicious with mouth-watering pic.
September 2nd, 2008 at 2:15 am
Yummy! I read the book quite some time ago…loved it…even watched the movie
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:35 am
The bhurji looks fiery and yummy! The first time I tried a grated cauliflower dish was with Ashwini’s Gobi kheema recipe and I loved it. I am definitely trying yours now.
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:52 am
That takes some patience to read a novel and make something! The pic looks abs delish!
September 29th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Great picture!
November 15th, 2008 at 3:30 am
I have been following this site for experimenting in kitchen. I have good interest for cooking since my childhood days. In this website I found most of the varieties similar to the way we used cook at home. I have many hobbies apart from my projects. Management, philosophy and many others. Cooking stands among top of the list. After a break of few years recently I started seriously experimenting on cooking. At weekends troubling my wife with my new ideas and off the shelf recipes available on net. I like this website, it is close to my heart. I liked all the recipes on this site.
Shyam
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Hi,
The recipe sounds great.But it is surprising that your recipe did not have red chilli powder but how did you get the color.
I’m sorry to say this but i doesn’t make any sense.
Thank you.
July 23rd, 2009 at 10:24 pm
maddy : Canned diced tomatoes , or crushed or tomato paste will impart that color to the dish.