Paneer Cake

Paneer cake - sounds funny, does it not! What started off as rosogulla ended up as paneer cake. I am not kidding.

I'd wanted to make rasagullas and went through the whole procedure of splitting the milk and draining the whey. Sadly, I didn't have enough patience for the water to drain out completely. So the chenna was a tad soggy and wasn't quite pliable. I was sad and disappointed and was thinking of ways to make something out of this.

It was past midnight.

And then, this is what I did. I dunked the chenna into a bowl, added sooji, sugar, a tsp of ghee, about 1/4 cup of milk and a pinch of cardamom. I whisked it well and poured the batter into a microwave safe dish and  cooked on high for 2 mins. I'd increased it by 30 secs at a time, twice or thrice; so that's an overall 3.5 mins. This will vary with every microwave.

Let cool for a min or two, and turn it over. Make pieces and garnish with chopped badam. I could have added the nuts into the batter but was just too lazy.

This is best eaten slightly warm. To get a slightly better color, you can mix a few strands of saffron in warm milk and add to the batter.

paneer cake

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Dieter's Delight - Grilled Paneer on a bed of sprouts

I have tried lots of ways to lose weight, but what really helped me are eating right and working out right. Having said that, it's not easy to eat right and work out always. There have been pangs of emotional eating, raiding the fridge at midnight (like Nigella - oh she has such a negative impact on weight loss), eating because you go out in a group and you can't help resist temptation (yeah OMG did that to me) and then the bakers shower their love on you by baking these wonderful cakes and you can't help but indulge. 

And suddenly, I've been seeing too many posts on weight loss and a friend also remarked that I'd gained weight :-( So, it's back to basics - firing it away on the treadmill, combined with lots of reps of Surya Namaskar, a zero-carb high-protein dinner and a bit of weight training to balance out the cardio. And Green tea with mint and a dash of lemon :-)

For a vegetarian like me, protein options are limited. Tofu (I really don't like this much), Soy milk, Sprouts and Paneer are easily available and some of the best choices when it comes to eating tasty and healthy food. 

So here's tonight's dinner

Boil sprouts in a microwave (for about 5 minutes on high). Let it cool.

Add finely chopped onions, green chillies, mint and coriander.

Add some salt to taste.

I have a taken recent liking to green tabasco. So I added a couple of drops of that.

Mix well. Rest for a few minutes.

Meantime, slice the paneer into long strips. Brush with some olive oil. I added some chilli flakes, mint, coriander and salt. (I used my MR sandwich maker, dumped these strips in there and let them grill, turning them over at regular intervals)

That's it and we are done. Happy dieting. (Warning: Do not watch Nigella's show when you eat this. I loved the coconut ice-cream she made today and was looking at my bowl of salad and shaking my head in disbelief)

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