North Indian curry challenge..shahi paneer and gatta curry..

 In February I decided to take part in Lina’s North Indian curry challenge; Lina had put together a list inclduing vegetarian curry dishes for food bloggers to make should they choose to take part…and I did! 

 In fact, I chose two of the dishes, completely new dishes to me, to try making. I chose ‘gatta curry‘ and ‘shahi paneer‘. As you know, I love to cook Indian food, and I make lots of it, but these recipes were new to me, and I do love to learn new recipes and ideas, and I do love a challenge! 

I found recipes online, which I am linking to and fully encourage you to visit if you fancy making these dishes, I have no intention of reprinting their work; I can, however, tell you about the experience and the outcomes.

Firstly, the gatta curry.. 

This is a Rajasthani dish which includes ‘gatta’ or dumplings made from besan/chickpea flour, yoghurt and spices; you create a dough then roll it into cigars and boil them until they float to the top of the water; they are then cut up to be added to the sauce, which also includes yogurt and, of course, more spices..

  I really enjoyed making the dough and dumplings as I have never done so before but have seen similar recipes; it’s quite involved as there’s lots of different ingredients and parts to the recipe, but not difficult at all.
 This dish was very different from anything I have made or eaten before, and I can tell you that the gatta are quite heavy and very filling! And for me to say that is really something, I don’t feel full easily. The best part of the dish as far as I’m concerned, was the sauce.
Onto the shahi paneer.. 

This dish includes chunks of paneer cooked in a lovely cashew nut and tomato gravy. I really enjoyed making this because the recipe includes links to make tomato puree and onion puree, which I happily did, and am grateful that I now have that knowledge for the future. Making the onion puree includes blanching and puree onions and I know I will be doing that again and again, alongside my usual garlic and ginger purées..

I used red onions so my puree turned purple! 

The gravy is the best bit for me – I do like sauces! The basis of the gravy is quite a typical one like many I’ve made before, but this one includes some ground cashews; I’ve seen many Indian dishes utilising ground nuts in their sauces but had not yet tried it out, and again, I will using this practice over and over again. The addition of the cashews made the sauce lovely and rich, and slightly thicker. So good!!!!  

I’m still learning to like paneer, it’s not my favourite I’m afraid, but I will use the sauce recipe and add vegetables in the future. 

I am so glad that I took Lina’s challenge, I really enjoyed trying the different dishes and learning new techniques. I hope that Lina and the other challengers enjoy seeing what I made, especially Parul who is judging the vegetarian dishes. And I hope that everyone at this week’s Fiesta Friday likes the look of my dishes, especially our lovely co hosts, Sonal and Laurie. 

Happy Weekend!