My Birthday, A Japanese Treat and Simple Paneer Bhurji (Cottage Cheese Scrambled)

 

Hi Everyone. Yesterday I had a really great day. It was my first birthday after marriage and also in US..:). Kinda different but enjoyed a lot. I thought I should share the eating related part of it with you all foodies out here.

For the dinner party we decided to try out "Boom Noodle" which is a Japanese restaurant. We all knew Japanese cuisine had very few vegetarian options but my husband had already visited it once and so we all trusted him and took the chance of trying something new. After occupying a table we were handed over with the menu cards. Being a vegetarian finding a veg dish really takes lot of time. All the names where new and we started to look for the ingredients.Most of the dishes where having chicken of fish broth. Japanese also make a lot of use of ginger in their food. We could find 2 vegetarian dishes. ThankGod ..."Yakisoba" which had noodles and veggies and other one "Pho Ga". After a while the food arrived. We all were really hungry and the presentations of both the items made it very tempting. Nobody really knew how to use chopsticks and so we had to ask for forks... (I have got one of the pair and gonna practice sometime lol..may be till next birthday I manage to eat with them ).

"Yasai Yakisoba" was spicy and gingerly. The word Yakisoba means fried noodles. It must be an easy dish to make I guess. It had wheat noodles which looked dark brown, must be fried in some ginger flavored sauce. And also had lot of veggies, sprouts and fried tofu. Very satiating it was and what a different taste it had.

Now comes the other one "Pho Ga". I will never order this one again :). It was actually a soup (we were not given proper description while placing the order) containing some kinda broth, long rice noodles in it and raw tofu. I actually don't like tofu and having it in its raw form...no way :). We somehow managed to eat it.

  We were full after finishing both the items. It was great experience once again, trying different cuisines, getting to know few basics of them and then reviewing :). It was fun. I would like to have Yakisoba again or make one at home. Do try out japanese sometime and its sure a great cuisine for Non-vegetarians with diverse set of offerings.

We also made a choclate cake at home which is my favorite. You can find its recipe here. So far i havn't found an eggless option which we can get on such occasions :).

Now here comes my todays recipe : The very basic Paneer Bhurji (Scrambled Cottage Cheese)

Paneer Burji is very easy to cook. Very healthy and fulfilling. Have this with parathas or rotis. Use the leftover and make sandwiches or puffs.

Ingredients:

Serves 4

200gms Cottage gheese (Paneer) - grated

1 medium Onion - chopped

1 medium Tomato - cut into small pieces

2 Green Chili - cut into thin rounds

1 tsp Ginger paste

1 tsp Garlic paste

1/2 tsp Turmeric powder

1-2 tsp Garam Masala powder

Oil, Cumin seeds, Asafoetida, Curry leaves (optional)
Salt as per taste

Method:

1. Heat oil in a deep bottomed pan, add the cumin seeds. When they splutter add chopped onions and the ginger garlic paste, fry till brown.

2. Add the green chillies and tomatoes and fry till they are soft.

3. Now add turmeric powder, garam masala powder, salt and little water or milk. Adding water makes sure that all the masala is well combined.

4. Add grated paneer and cook for 5-8 minutes till the paneer blends into the masala.

5. Garnish with chopped coriander and serve hot.

Tips:

You can add green peas or sliced green pepper to burji.