The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

I wanted to make a paneer dish taste close to ‘paneer butter masala’ that we get in Indian restaurants. Here is what I came up with. This rich curry is a great hit with paneer lovers, something you can happily serve at a party.

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Dal is usually cooked in soupy form, but yellow moong dal – the skinned and split form of moong beans – lends itself to very interesting dry recipes. Sookhi moong dal is one such.

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Capsicum and cherry tomatoes are tailor-made for worknight meals, with simple chopping needs and small cooking times. Combine with some pre-cooked tomato masala and you have a capsicum cherry tomato curry that looks so regal, it’s hard to believe how easy it was to create.

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Corn on the cob is so good boiled, I mostly have it without taking it through any elaborate "treatment" routine. A little salt, a little chili powder, a dash of lime juice – rub it on and bite directly off the cob – that’s my usual mode of having boiled corn.

Then again, there is something to be said for the occasional exoticization.

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Creamy mushroom soup made at home – this is so much tastier, so much healthier than canned stuff. Simple ingredients, no fuss, very easy to make.

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Do you realize that if you stack round parathas in a square lunchbox, then even with the largest paratha size your lunchbox can accommodate you leave more than 20% of its surface space unused?^[1]

Does this er…criminal wastage bother you?

You can’t beat geometry. But you can pack parathas in your square lunchbox without an inch of space going waste. Let me show you how.

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When chefs with expertise in other cuisines turn to Indian, it is lovely to see their interpretations of dishes well-known to us. Parathas are regular fare at my place but I learnt of this interesting variation courtesy MasterChef Australia.

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