First of all, pardon the poor picture. While G&A were seated at the dining table waiting for dinner to be served, I kept rushing into the bedroom (which has better light at night) to click these pictures. So I had little time to pay attention to the composition of the frame! But suffice to say, both the Cottage cheese dishes were licked clean by the time dinner was done
When I called over G&A for dinner, I went for a full fledged meal. So it started with the pumpkin soup and tandoori chicken accompanied by my favorite salad, and then a main course of French Butter Garlic Bread and 2 paneer/cottage cheese dishes. The butter garlic bread loaf was bought fresh from Star Bazaar in Andheri. However, it proved to be too buttery for my taste and halfway through the meal I switched to plain brown bread slices.
For one of the paneer dishes, I opened a packet of wild mushroom sauce mix that has been lying in my larder for quite some time. Seeing how Sid hates mushrooms, it was kept for those rare occasions when I’m eating alone or when we have people over for dinner. I would have ideally liked to have the mushroom sauce over some grilled chicken (yumm!), but that’s for another day I guess.
Cottage Cheese in White sauce:
Paneer/Cottage Cheese – 250 gms
Butter – 1 tbsp
Corn flour – 1 tsp
Milk – 1 cup
Cheese – 1 cube ( I used laughing Cow paprika Cheese cube)
Cream – ½ cup optional
Oregano
Chilli flakes
Salt
Pepper
Lemon juice – ½ tsp
Cut the cottage cheese into thin slices about 2 inches long and marinate in salt, pepper and ½ teaspoon of lemon juice. In a non-stick vessel, melt a knob of butter and add a mixture of corn flour and ½ cup milk. When it thickens into a paste, add the remaining milk, cheese, cream and the marinated paneer slices. Once the cheese melts and the sauce reaches the desired consistency, add the salt, oregano and chilli flaxes. Mix carefully making sure the paneer slices do not break.
Serve hot with garlic bread or herbed rice.
Cottage cheese in Wild mushroom sauce:
Packaged Mushroom sauce mix (From Hyper City – one of those imported brands… don’t remember the name now)
Paneer/Cottage Cheese – 250 gms
Garlic – 2-3 cloves
Spring onions
Salt
Pepper
Lemon juice – ½ tsp
Cut the cottage cheese into thin slices about 2 inches long and marinate in salt, pepper and ½ teaspoon of lemon juice. Go light on the salt as the mix already has all the spices. Add 2 cups of water to the ready mix and heat on a low flame making sure there are no lumps. When it starts thickening, put in the paneer pieces. In a separate pan, toss the chopped garlic cloves and the spring onions in a little olive oil. Add this to the paneer in mushroom sauce. Serve with garlic bread, noodles or fried rice.
Paneer
