BUTTER PANEER BIRYANI

BUTTER PANEER BIRYANI

A lip smacking dish, that you will absolutely love. Today I am going to share a rich and creamy biryani made with the delicious paneer makhani or the paneer butter masala sauce with the mild flavor of dried fenugreek leaves. Resisting this decadent biryani with just one serving is hard. This Recipe is a combination of ghee rice along with creamy paneer butter masala, layered together. Serve it with a simple raita for a hearty Sunday lunch.

Ingredients:

For the rice:

1 cup Rice

2 cups Water

1 tsp ghee

1 Cardamom

2 Cloves

1 Star anise

1/2 inch Cinnamon Stick

2 Whole Black Pepper Corns

Salt, to taste

1 Bay leaf

Other ingredients:

1/4 cup Fried Onions

1 sprig Coriander Leaves

1 sprig Mint Leaves

1/4th cup milk

Saffron 

For the Paneer Butter Masala: Paneer butter masala

Recipe:

1. In a bowl, mix saffron and milk and keep it aside till needed.

To make the rice for Layered Paneer Butter Masala Biryani:

1. Wash and soak the rice in water for 30 minutes. 
2. In a pressure cooker, heat ghee on low flame add the whole spices- cardamom, cloves, star anise, cinnamon stick, whole black peppercorns, and a bay leaf, allow these spices to sizzle, next add the drained rice, salt and 2 cups of water.
3. Cook the rice 3/4th.
4. Close the pressure cooker and pressure cook for two whistles and turn off the flame. Allow the pressure to release naturally. Spread the rice on a plate and allow it to cool. 
5. Once cooled, mix in the fried onions and chopped coriander and mint leaves. 
6. To assemble the Layered Paneer Butter Masala Biryani Recipe, Grease a deep pan generously with some melted butter, put some coriander- mint leaves and fried onions, start with the first layer, spread 1/3 cup of rice, pressing firmly,  then a layer of paneer butter masala, repeat these layers till you end up with rice as the last layer.
7. Put a tawa on medium low flame and then the pan over it.
8. Pour 1/4th cup kesar milk and 2 tbsp ghee. Cover with foil paper and close the lid.
9. Cook it for another 5-10 minutes.
10. When cooked, serve hot.

**P.S. Forgive me for uncooked rice 🌾

Serve Layered Paneer Butter Masala Biryani.

Enjoy and keep showering your love.

STRAWBERRY JAM FILLED CHOCOLATES

 STRAWBERRY JAM FILLED CHOCOLATES

I decided to make a homemade chocolate truffles with a delicious strawberry filling. The strawberry filling itself is super delicious on its own just like a jam. Slightly tangy, perfectly sweet and a thick consistency makes it ooze out beautifully when you bite into the white chocolate truffles. And the outer coating is nothing fancy. Just some good old tempered chocolate which tastes rich and delicious.

Ingredients:

2 cups White chocolate chips

1/2 cup Strawberry jam 

Recipe:

1. Heat water in a larger pan. Wait until the water is hot. Turn off the flame. To a heat resistant bowl, add the chocolate chips. Place this bowl on top of the bowl with water. Make sure that the bottom of the bowl with chocolate doesn't directly touch the stove or flame. Keep stirring the chocolate until it melts completely into a smooth paste. 
2. Now pour this tempered chocolate into a silicon moulds. I used heart moulds. Wait for about 2 mins. Now invert the mold on top of the bowl and remove excess chocolate from the molds. Scrape of any excess chocolate from top of the mold using a knife or flat spatula. 
3. The chocolate in the mold should now look like small chocolate containers as shown in the pics. Leave/refrigerate until the chocolate hardens.
4. Now, take the strawberry filling in a piping bag and fill it into the cooled chocolate cups. 
5. Now, again melt some more white chocolate and pour on top of the strawberry layer. Use a spatula to gently spread it out. Tap the mold gently to remove any air bubbles. Leave it to set completely.
6. Once the chocolate is completely set, invert the mold on top of a plate and gently push the chocolates out. Use a knife to trim the excess from the chocolate.

Share with your loved ones.

Enjoy and keep showering your love.

STRAWBERRY JAM

 STRAWBERRY JAM

Slightly tangy, perfectly sweet and a thick consistency. The strawberry jam comes in handy whenever we want to have a quick breakfast or brunch. All you need to do is chop the strawberries and then just cook them in a pan with sugar with frequent stirrings. So you can make the jam when you are prepping or cooking something else. I have added lemon juice to give a slight tang to the jam, but skip if you do not prefer it.

Ingredients:
2 cups strawberry

1+1/4 cups powdered sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp corn flour

1/4 cup water

Recipe:

1. Rinse the strawberries. Chop them finely.
2. In a pan take the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice.
3. Mix well and keep the pan on stove top on low to medium flame.
4. The strawberries will leave their juices and begin to cook.
5. Add water and corn flour to it. (You can totally skip this step)
6. Stir at intervals till the strawberries soften and are cooked.
7. Reduce the flame to low and continue to simmer till the jam mixture starts reducing.
8. Keep on stirring often when the jam mixture is reducing.
9. When the mixture starts to leave the sides of the pan, it means its done.
10. Cover the pan with a clean kitchen towel and let the jam cool.
11. Then add it in a small sterilized glass jar or bottle or a clean bowl.
12. This proportion gives about 1 bowl of jam.
13. Keep the jam bottle in the fridge.

Serve the strawberry jam whenever required.

Enjoy and keep showering your love.

STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE ROLLS

 STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE ROLLS

These Strawberry Cheesecake Sweet Rolls are the perfect valentines breakfast or brunch featuring fresh juicy strawberries and cream cheese frosting! I don’t know about you but strawberry season is DEFINITELY my favourite time of year. Strawberries are easily my favourite fruit of all time and if you put a bowl of strawberries in front of me you better believe they’ll be gone in minutes, and what better way to celebrate the arrival of strawberry season than these Strawberry Cheesecake Sweet Rolls!

Ingredients:

For the dough:

3 +1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp instant dry yeast

1 tsp sugar

1/3 cup butter

Pinch of salt

For the filling:

1/3 cup butter melted

1/3 cup granulated sugar

3 tbsp cream cheese

2 cups chopped fresh strawberries plus more for after baking

Also Needed:

1-2 tsp vegetable oil for rolling out dough

Butter for greasing the pan

For the frosting:

1/2 cup cream cheese softened to room temperature (I used homemade)

2 tbsp whipping cream

3 tbsp unsalted butter softened to room temperature

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup strawberry jam 

Recipe:

1. In a bowl, add warm water to which we’ll be adding 1 tsp sugar and 2 tsp yeast. Let it rise for about half an hour in a warm place.
2. Once done, add all purpose flour, pinch of salt and butter/oil. Mix these together until combined.
3. After about a minute you should see a sticky dough starting to come together.
4. The dough should be tacky to the touch, but not so sticky that it's very messy. It should pull away from the sides of the bowl easily and the bowl should appear fairly clean. *If the dough appears too sticky, continue kneading and add flour, one tablespoon at a time, until the dough reaches that tacky texture.
5. Cover the bowl with some plastic wrap and move it to a warm place in your kitchen to rise for about an hour. It should have doubled in size after that.
6. Once you notice your dough has risen fully, and before you do anything with it, grease a pan with some butter. (I used two pans)
7. Turn the dough out onto a work surface that's been very lightly greased with vegetable oil. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough evenly until you have a rectangle that's approximately 18 inches wide and 12 inches deep.
8. Brush the dough with the melted butter. Drizzle powdered sugar and a layer of cream cheese.
9. Spread the strawberries evenly over the rectangle of dough.
10. Roll up the dough from the long side until you've got one long roll. Cut the long roll in half, then in half again, and then each of those sections into 3 pieces until you have 12 rolls. *Try to cut the rolls to an even thickness as this promotes even baking. You don't want some rolls to be overdone and others to be raw in the middle.
11. Arrange the 12 pieces in the pan you've greased.
12. Cover the pan with a clean kitchen towel and set them aside to rise. It's a good idea to preheat your oven at this time.
13. Once the rolls have risen for 20 minutes (no longer), place them in the oven to bake for about 40 minutes, or until they're a nice even light golden brown colour.
14. Remove the pan from the oven and let the buns cool in the pan for about 20-25 minutes.
15. While the buns are cooling, begin making the frosting by mixing the cream cheese, whipping cream and butter together until creamy and smooth. Add the vanilla and powdered sugar and mix by hand or with a hand mixer until light and fluffy.
16. Smooth the frosting over the buns while they're still slightly warm - this will let the frosting drip into the cracks slightly and create a beautiful presentation.

Sprinkle some additional chopped strawberries or Strawberry jam over the top, and serve!

Enjoy and keep showering your love 

CHEESECAKE PARFAIT

 CHEESECAKE PARFAIT 

Happiness is all about no bake desserts and this Cheesecake Parfait has it all. A Fresh Strawberry sauce and a no bake cheesecake filling. A Fast, Easy and Delicious dessert. These sweet little parfaits take everything that's good about cheesecake and make it way easier.

Ingredients:

1/2 cake

2 cups Strawberries (chopped)
3/4 cup+ 2 tbsp powdered sugar
1 cup whole or whipping cream (cold)
1/3 cup cream cheese

3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Recipe:

1. Cut up cake to bite size pieces.
2. In a bowl, add the chopped strawberries sugar. Let it sit for a minimum of half an hour.
3. In a medium bowl beat the cold whipping cream until stiff peaks appear.
4. In another medium bowl beat the cream cheese until smooth, add powdered sugar and vanilla. Fold the cream cheese mixture into the whipped cream until combined.
   
5. 
   
   

Putting it together:

1. Make 2 layers in each glass, starting with 2 or 3 pieces of cake, drizzle with some sauce and top with some cheesecake filling, repeat.

Refrigerate for a couple of hours or even overnight.

Enjoy and keep showering your love.

BUTTER PANEER

 BUTTER PANEER

Paneer Butter Masala is one of India’s most popular paneer gravy recipe. This recipe with Indian cottage cheese cubes in a creamy tomato sauce is one that I have been making for a long time. This Paneer Butter Masala recipe is a rich and creamy dish of paneer in a tomato, butter and cashew sauce (known as Makhani gravy). The dish has a lovely tang coming from the tomatoes and is slightly sweet with a creamy and velvety feel to it. 

Ingredients for gravy or sauce

1 tbsp oil

2 green cardamoms

3 medium onions, cubed

3 large tomatoes, finely chopped

3/4 tsp salt (adjust to taste)

3/4 tsp sugar

12 to 14 cashew nuts

1 tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp Garam masala powder 

1 tsp coriander powder

1 small bay leaf

1/2 inch cinnamon piece
2 green cardamom
3 cloves

For paneer butter masala

1+1/2 tbsp Butter

1+1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste

200 to 250 grams paneer (2 heaped cups)

1 tbsp kasuri methi

3 tbsp cream

2 tbsp coriander leaves, finely chopped

Recipe:

1. Heat oil in a pan and add green cardamoms. 
   Then cubed onions & fry stirring often until they turn transparent to light pink. 
2. Next add tomatoes & salt. Saute for 3 minutes. Cover and cook till the onion & tomatoes turns soft & completely mushy.
3. Next add in garam masala, coriander powder, cashew nuts, red chili powder & sugar.
4. Fry this till the onion tomato masala turns aromatic. This takes 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Turn off the stove & cool this completely. 
6. Transfer to a blender with 1 cup water. Blend to a really silky smooth puree.
7. *If it is not smooth, then filter it through a strainer to another bowl. Set this aside. 
   

How to make paneer butter masala

1. Heat butter in the same pan. 
2. Optional- When the butter melts, add cinnamon, cloves, green cardamoms & bay leaf. 
3. Reduce the flame to low, saute ginger garlic paste for 1 minute. It should begin to smell good and the raw smell should go away. Do not burn this as it will leave a bitter taste.
4. Pour the blended onion tomato puree.
5. Pour 1/2 cup water & mix well. Cover & cook on a medium heat until the gravy thickens & traces of butter or oil is seen on top. Keep checking in between and give a good mix. 
6. When the gravy is done, it will turn thick and traces of fats will be visible on the gravy. Taste test the gravy and add more salt if needed.
7. Lower the flame completely, then add paneer. Take kasuri methi to your palm and crush it in between your palms. Sprinkle this..
8. Mix & cook covered on a low heat for 2 minutes. Turn off and pour 2 to 3 tbsp of cream & stir.
9. Transfer paneer butter masala to a serving bowl. Garnish with 1 tbsp cream & chopped coriander leaves.

Serve this with butter naan or jeera rice.

Enjoy and keep showering your love.