Paneer Pizza

On those sluggish weekend afternoons, it is a pain spending too much time in the kitchen when everyone else is lazing about, here is a great lunch idea…. pizza. My Husband and I are great fans of the “Indian Pizza” … “What is that?” You will ask. Well add some paneer (cottage cheese), Dhania (cilantro/ coriander leaves), Madras curry powder and lots of chillie powder and voila!

Okay! This is a lazy afternoon lunch, remember, so I have used store bought pizza base and tomato basil pasta sauce in this recipe. You are more than welcome to look up the recipe for making pizza base and pizza sauce on the internet. Make it a family project. Assign the chopping veggies work to someone ;) and the assembling work to someone else. I am sure they will enjoy themselves. This recipe serves 2.

Ingredients –

Pizza base – 1

Pasta Sauce/tomato ketchup – 2 tbsps

Shredded mozzarella cheese – 1 cup

Capsicum – 1

Red Onion – 1

Tomato – 1

Paneer (cubed) – 10 pieces

Coriander leaves (finely chopped) – a bunch

Red chillie flakes – 1 tbsp

Curry powder – 1 tsp

Mixed herbs – 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Method

Marinade -

• Deseed the capsicum and cut into cubes. Chop the onions and tomatoes into rough cubes. They can be chunky if you like.
• Put the cut veggies and the paneer into a bowl and add some salt, curry powder and half a teaspoon of chillie flakes. Mix thoroughly and refrigerate for an hour.

Assemble -

• Spread a dollop of the pasta sauce as evenly as possible on the pizza base.  
• Spread the marinade on the base and top it with the grated cheese.
• Now top this with the coriander leaves, the remainder of the red chillie flakes and the mixed herbs.

Bake

• Preheat the oven to 400 deg F and bake the pizza for 20 minutes or until it is done.

Variations –

8” pizza generally serves one. Try the whole wheat base if you can find it in the market.

You can add other veggies like yellow corn kernels, baby corn, red and yellow bell pepper, etc. to this.

You can top the pizza with fresh basil leaves besides the coriander leaves.

I tried making this pizza with Alfredo sauce instead of the tomato and basil sauce and that was pretty tasty as well.

If you can’t find mixed herbs, oregano would do just as well.

Peerkangai Poricha Kootu

Poricha Kootu is as traditional Tamil Brahmin as you can get. You can make this out of any vegetable suitable for making kootu. I decided to try it with ridge gourd and it turned out to be pretty good. Poricha Kootu is usually eaten with paruppu saadam (translates into daal mixed with rice with a bit of ghee) and side dish of brinjal fried curry, but you can directly mix it with rice and eat it as well. It tastes really great with thayir saadam (curd rice).

Ingredients –

For the kootu

Ridge Gourd – 2 (medium sized)

Moong Daal – ½ cup

Sambar powder – 1 tbsp

Curry leaves – a few

Hing a pinch

Salt to taste

To be ground into a paste

Coconut (grated) – ¼ cup

Coriander Seeds – 1 tbsp

Red Chillies - 2

Urad Daal – 1.5 tbsp

Pepper – 4 to 5

Jeera – 1 tsp

Oil for frying – 1 tsp

For the tempering

Coconut oil – 1 tbsp

You can use sunflower oil if you like that better. But I feel coconut oil gives the kootu that distinct flavour.

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Urad daal – 1 tsp

Curry leaves – a few

Hing - a pinch

Method

• Cut the ridge gourd into small pieces and wash it thoroughly. Take the daal and wash that as well.
• Pressure cook the vegetable, daal, sambar powder, hing curry leaves and salt along with some water for up to 3 whistles or however long it takes for the daal to cook.
• Fry the ingredients for the masala in a little bit of oil. Do not fry the coconut too much. Once the ingredients have cooled down, add water and grind into a fine paste.
• Now add this ground mixture to the cooked vegetable and bring the mixture to a boil.
• Heat the coconut oil in a kadai for the tempering. Add some hing. Add the mustard seeds and let them splutter. Then add the urad daal and fry till golden brown. Last but not the least the curry leaves need to go into the tempering.
•  Add the tempering to the prepared kootu.

Tips -

Since the water content in ridge gourd is high, the kootu tends to become runny sometimes, so you can add some rice flour while grinding the masala, to give the kootu a thicker base.

To make it suitable for the palates of small children like my toddler who is a year old, I cut down on the amount of sambar powder and red chillies I use. I tend to use more of the pepper karam (spice).  

Ridge Gourd or Peerkangai or Turia is a pretty versatile vegetable and can be used in a number of recipes. In addition to its high water content and nutritive value it also detoxifies the body. It is suggested as a good vegetable for the diabetic diet.