Indian Food Fest 2k6

Daytona Beach has absolutely no Indian food. Ok, ok we have one little joint beach side that's just not good but sometimes when we're desperate for it, we give in. One of my goals for my week off from school was to make paneer. Yesterday this is what we did. It was loads of fun and documented in pictures. Behold our Indian food fest 2k6...

Making paneer can be rather intimidating and in some special places you can even buy it frozen or something. Not so in this crumby town. Don't be fooled by the recipe, it is really a cinch to make if you can curdle milk. First take 8 cups of milk (organic whole milk is best) and bring to a boil in a really big pot. When it is rumbling and foaming up add 3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice and wait. Let the curdling begin! It will look disgusting but it is truly delicious.

Let it just sit and do its thing on low heat. It will separate and turn yellowish . I'm not really sure when to stop this but you'll figure it out. Next, strain the big bowl of ew into a colander lined with cheesecloth. Let all that whey go down the drain. It will begin to look like cheese now. Drain it and drain it well. Squeeze the hell out of it by weighing it down with whatever you have on hand, a brick would do. You want it to be in a nice squarish, shape so you can later cut it into cubes. That's pretty much it now make Indian food with it!

The E Coli outbreak stopped us not! I luckily had a package of chopped frozen spinach in the freezer from long before the spinach shortage. To make Saag Paneer puree some wonderful garlic, ginger and onion to a paste then add that to a big pot full of thawed spinach and stir. Throw in some yogurt, cream (buttermilk if you have it), garam masala and chili powder. Simmer it for about 20 minutes and it might thicken up. Add the paneer cubes (you can fry them if you like) right before serving and this will thicken it too but some cornstarch or arrowroot will do the trick too. Piece of cake.

With some ground lamb we experimented with Keema. Brown the ground lamb (or beef or whatever) drain it, and set aside. Infuse some oil with cloves, cardamon pods, and bay leaf. Once that is piping hot add garlic and ginger paste, turmeric, cumin, garam masala, chopped tomatoes and onion. Throw in some yogurt and cream then add the meat and peas. I think this one needs some heat, so add some Thai chiles or serranos for good measure.

It pretty much took all afternoon to make all this but I make it sound like it was easy. I did have some help from my sous chef Diana, it was a good time. I also attempted to make my favorite hot sugary balls of fried dough -- aka Gulab Jaman. The recipe I used advised me to make a dough with carnation powder, Bisquick, yogurt (there it is again!) and a little milk. Roll out a bunch of little balls and deep fry them until they look like delightful hush puppies. Meanwhile you should make a syrup to soak them in with water, sugar, cardamon pods, and a splash of rose water. Soak the hush puppies in the syrup and well, they double in size! This part was unexpected. The shape didn't hold and things got a little mushy. They tasted pretty good but aren't the gulab jamun I'm used to from restaurants. I'll prob try again with a different recipe or the same recipe with some modification. I have loads of Bisquick now and I'm not a fan of pancakes. What to do...?