Parmigiana

Ingredients:
3 eggplants
5 big tomatoes
1/2 onion
1 clove of garlic
250 gr scamorza smoked cheese
salt
oregano
basil
olive oil






Cut the eggplants in thin slices, put some salt on the top and leave them on a plate for an hour, afterwards dry them with a paper tissue. Grill them in a non-stick pan, if you want it very light, don't use oil.
Chop the onion and garlic and fry them in a little bit of olive oil until golden. Add the tomatoes cut in small pieces. Cook for some time, until you have a tomato sauce.

In a casserole put some of the tomato sauce first, then make a layer out of eggplants and cover them with scamorza cheese. Add again some tomato sauce, eggplants and scamorza cheese and cover the top with a little bit of tomato sauce.

Put the casserole in a preheated oven on 180°C for about 25 minutes and serve still hot with some fresh vegetables.

Butter paneer masala

And here it is, the recipe for butter paneer masala. I was so enthusiastic, 'cause the paneer turned out so well, that I tried this recipe that I found here as well. Of course I had to adapt the recipe to my taste... yes, sorry, but I can't stand coriander. It wasn't that difficult, but it took me a lot of time and it was really spicy (ask my friends!) :) Here is the recipe as I did it.

I served the butter paneer masala with some basmati rice and a chapati.












Ingredients:
paneer cubes (15 pieces)
butter (40 gr)
cinnamon stick (1 piece)
red onion (1/2)
garlic (4 cloves)
red chilli (1)
ginger
tomatoes (4)
salt
yoghurt (3 tablespoons)
oil

Spices:
masala (1 tablespoon)
chilli powder (1/4 tablespoon)
sweet chilli powder (1 tablespoon)
curcumin powder (1/4 tablespoon)
ketchup (1 tablespoon)
water (2 tablespoons)

Mix the spices in a bowl and do a smooth paste.
Fry the chopped onion in a pan with a little bit of oil until brown. Then put it in the food processor with the garlic, red chillies, ginger and some water; blend it until you have a smooth paste. (I didn't have fresh chillies so I used the dry ones and I didn't have the ginger rooth so I used the powder.) Then blend the chopped tomatoes. In a non-stick pan heat the butter with a cinnamon stick. Add the paste made of garlic and onion and mix for a while. Add the spice paste and cook for 30 seconds. Add the blended tomatoes and cook for some time on medium heat. Add 1/2 cup of water and mix. Add the paneer pieces and yoghurt. Cook on low heat for about 10 minutes, then serve. 

Paneer

And yes, I did it! :) I made my own paneer. Paneer is, for those who don't know it, an indian cheese.

And I was so exited that after that I made a dish out of paneer and invited my friends for dinner. :) The recipe will be on the blog soon.

I found the recipe here: How to make paneer. It's really well written, 'cause it illustrates everything from step to step.

Ingredients:
1,5 l whole milk
lemon juice from 1 lemon
vinegar

Boil the milk and when it starts boling add the lemon juice and mix it. The milk will start to curdle, but if it doesn't want to curdle, add after a few minutes a little bit of vinegar and continue to stir. After a few minutes put it away to cool a little bit. Put a muslin cloth on a bowl. I didn't have it, so I used a cotton cloth and it was ok. Pass everything through the cloth. The solid parts will remain on the cloth. Wrap the cloth and run cold water through it. Then squeeze it to remove all the liquid parts. Wrap it tight and put something heavy on the top. Leave it for 30 or 40 minutes. After that cut it in cubes and you have your own paneer.