So the East Coast, USA has been covered in snow the last two days. At this point, I can barely find my car and Virginia Tech has preemptively closed twice now (Hell has indeed frozen over). This is the view of my porch when I woke up this morning.
Not too shabby, Virginia.
My brother and I decided that if we were going to be snowed in for days that we should at least eat in style. Having had some amazing Indian food in California in January, I’ve been craving it ever since. So up on the menu: matar paneer, roti, and raita.
Now I won’t bore you with all the details of the cooking, but I did want to share some photos and recipes:
Paneer
Paneer is an incredibly easy cheese to make. All you need is pasteurized (but not ultrapasterized) milk, lemon juice, a candy thermometer, and cheesecloth (I used an old pillowcase). It works better if you soak it ice water prior to using it (we used snow water…). Don’t ask me why. I’m not a chemist, just an amateur cook.
Cucumber-Mint Raita
This is a gorgeously simple recipe. Very similar to tzatziki. Eaten with the matar paneer, it really helps cool your mouth off.
Roti
Similar to naan, but unleavened. Basically I screw up every single leavened bread I make. My challah always turns out closer to matzah than actual bread… So I figured if we were going to make a panfried bread, I should go foolproof. This was surprisingly easy and incredibly basic.
Matar Paneer
And now, the finale. I love any dish involving paneer. Who doesn’t love a non-melting cheese that picks up flavors like tofu? And who doesn’t love peas??
The one thing I will say about this recipe is that it was not nearly spicy enough as written. I will double or treble the requisite spices next time. Still, quite tasty.
Put this all together, and you get an amazing no-silverware all-awesome dinner:
The chianti worked surprisingly well.
Well, there you have it, Constant Reader. A beautiful snow day in the NRV complete with delicious food, excellent wine, and great company. And now, here it is: Your Moment of Zen.
The happy cooks just prior to om-nom time.
Holly A. Jordan 