Paneer Butter Masala

I love each of the components of this dish so much individually that its no surprise that I also love it when they come together. Paneer is a cheese served as the "protein" part of many North Indian dishes. The texture it takes on when fried, its difficult for me to describe but its somehow both chewy and creamy. Like tofu, paneer is bland, but soaks up the flavor of whatever sauce or seasoning it is cooked in readily. This is where masala comes in. Masala is a rich blend of spices and seasonings that is spicy and sweetly aromatic on one end and musky with cumin on the other, with bright, peppery notes of cardamom and ginger dancing in between. Butter and cream form the perfect velvety base for these flavors.

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter

2 yellow onions (chopped finely)

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 inch piece of ginger, minced

1 hot pepper, chopped finely

1 Tbsp. garam masala (see recipe below)

1 tsp. red pepper

1 block of paneer-cut into cubes and fried (see recipe below)

2 cups half and half

1 tsp. salt

Saute onions in melted butter until translucent, then toss in garlic, ginger, and hot pepper and saute a few more minutes. Add garam masala, red pepper, and salt to a bare spot in the bottom of the pot, and then stir into onion mixture. Slowly stir in half and half and bring to a simmer. Carefully plop paneer cubes into sauce and heat until hot. Serve over basmati rice or with naan.

Rustling up some breakfast,

This morning I decided to take advantage of the vittles available in the yard, which entailed a bed of curly lettuce and a grapefruit tree whose branches were hitting the ground from the weight of the fruit. Honestly, neither of those two offerings do I find particularly appealing but I felt a strong sense of obligation to at least incorporate them into some kind of meal, simply because locavorism is the new thing to do and you can't get more local than your own backyard (and your neigbors front yard).

Anyway I made a salad for breakfast that was passable but the lettuce was bitter, and the grapefruit vinagrette was too abundant (my bad)... so then I thought, what can I do with all this grapefruit? Then I remembered this interesting little recipe I found over at smitten kitchen- http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/01/cake-paradisi/ yogurt grapefruit cake. The recipe seems to be similar to a lemon pound cake but with a lighter, moister crumb, and although at first glance graperfruit cake sounds a little strange, thinking of it in context of a lemon cake it isn't too strange... so now the question is whether or not I "feel" like making and eating cake. I know I could give some of it to family or even the neighbors whose yard I scavenged the fruit from (that would be nice, huh), and the more I talk about it the more I kind of starting wanting it, so there it is, I've pretty much talked myself into trying out this recipe, I'll come back with the results of my effort...

Pizza

Despite, my first attempt when I was a teen, I have discovered that whipping up homemade pizza is EASY. I remember the first time as tedious and time consuming, and tasting nothing like pizza, it was actually pretty gross. I guess if I weren't so damn unrelenting I would still think of homemade pizza as a task for someone with mad skills and lots of time. Thank goodness I kept trying, because after learning a few elemental basics, I've got it down pat and turn out great pizza on the regular. I also have a deceptively simple pizza sauce recipe, adapted from here http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/five-minute-tomato-sauce-recipe.html And no, I don't make my own mozzarella, maybe a future project...

Pizza dough:

3-3 1/2 cups of flour
2 1/2 Tbsp. dry active yeast soaked in 1 cup of warm (105-115 degrees F) water for 10 minutes
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar

Dump the ingredients in the food processor, let it whir. Take the resulting ball of dough, coat it with oil, put it in a BIG bowl covered with a damp cloth, let it rise at room temp for about 1 hour, punch it down, re-cover and leave it in the fridge to rise overnight. Make sure bowl can accomodate rising dough without dough exceeding bowl height, dough usually doubles in size. The overnight rise isn't necessary but in my opinion gives a better flavor and texture. The next day divide the dough in two. Allow dough balls to rest on counter until room temperature, about 15 minutes, then roll each ball into 16-ish inch diameter circle and top. Bake at 500 degrees for 7-10 minutes.