Mattar Paneer Pulav

Ingredients :

2 cups Basmati Rice
2 cups Paneer diced (bigger pieces)
1 cup frozen peas
1 medium size green Bell pepper diced (optional)
1 cup onion diced
1 cup tomatoes diced
2 tsp freshly grated ginger
2 tsp freshly grated garlic
2-3 green chillies slit and cut lengthwise
Clilantro finely chopped
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground red chilli
1 tsp ground cumin-coriander
6-7 peppercorns
4 cloves
1 bay leaf
1-2 sticks of cinnamon


Preparation:

1) Wash and Soak 2 cups of rice in 4 cups of water. You will not need to add anymore water to make the pulav. Just use this rice with the water. Keep this aside for around 15-20 minutes.

2) In the meanwhile you can cut and chop all the vegetables.

3) Now heat some oil in a pan . Now once the oil has warmed up add cloves, peppercorns, bay leaf, and cinnamon sticks. Then add onions. Roast it till it gets golden brown in color . Now add the garlic paste. Next add ginger, green chillies and tomatoes. Let it cook for about 2-3 minutes. Then add turmeric, salt, red chilli, cumin/coriander powder. Now add the paneer, peas and bell pepper. Let is cook for about 2 minutes. Now add the chopped cilantro and then add the rice with the water which we had kept aside earlier.

4) Let this cook uncovered on medium flame. Now when you see that most of the water has dried up (like 85-90%) set the stove to the lowest flame and c0ver the pan with a lid and cook for about 5 minutes.

5) Its ready to serve. Serve with Raita and pickle. The entire process should not take more than 35-40 minutes.

Carrot Cake.

With Father's Day coming up. I decided to try my hand at making a carrot cake. I dedicate this cake to my wonderful dad on father's day and to my husband who is an awesome father to our kids. Also my goal was to keep it simple with minimum ingredients which you will always find it in your pantry. You could also let your kids help you in making this cake. The cake did turn out soft and moist.

For our carrot cake you will need :

Ingredients :

•  2 cups all purpose flour
•  1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
•  1 teaspoon baking soda
•  1/2 teaspoon salt
•  1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
•  4 eggs
•  1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar 
•  1 cup vegetable oil
•  2 1/2 cups grated raw carrots.
•  1/2 cup diced fresh pineapple (optional).

You could add 2 cups sugar. I did not want the cake to be too sweet as we also have to account for the sweetness of the carrots.

Preparation.

1) Preheat the oven at 350 degrees F . Butter and flour a 9-inch round and 3-inch deep cake pan.

2)Grate the carrots. (2 1/2 cups)

3) Now in a bowl just take all the dry ingedients. Sieve the flour , baking powder, baking soda , salt, ground cinnamon .

4) In another bowl beat the eggs till light and frothy. I just whisked the eggs manually , maybe for a minute or so. Then add the sugar and the oil and keep on beating till it is light colored and everything is incorporated well .

5) Then slowly add the dry mix to this batter. Keep mixing constantly so as to avoid having lumps. After all the dry mix has been added , slowly add the grated carrots and then the pineapple.

6) Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

7) Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes and invert the cake onto the Platter. Serve as is or you could frost the cake. We normally like it without the frosting.