food
By Tess Wells
Kadai Paneer and a Volunteer Mother-son duo brings Indian home cooking to community
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Kadai Paneer
Skillet cooked cheese with onions, peppers and tomatoes Ingredients (yields about 15 servings) • 16 oz. fresh paneer • 4 large green bell peppers • 2 large red bell peppers • 4 fresh Roma tomatoes • 13 oz. can crushed tomatoes • 3 tbsp. vegetable or canola oil • 1 ½ large yellow onion • 2-4 cloves of garlic, to taste • 3 tsp. salt • 1 tsp. turmeric • 1 tsp. coriander powder • 1 tsp. methi seeds • ½ tsp. kalonji • 1 tsp. cinnamon powder • 1 tsp. cumin powder ¼ heavy cream (optional) 34
Directions Chop onions and peppers into ½-inch chunks. Cut paneer into ½-inch pieces and bake at 350 degrees on a greased cookie sheet until paneer is lightly browned but still soft. Meanwhile, add oil to a stockpot and heat on medium heat for 1-2 minutes until oil is simmering. Add onions and coarsely chopped garlic and sauté until onions are translucent and garlic is fragrant. Add methi, kalonji, turmeric and coriander and fry for 1 minute. Add peppers and sauté on medium-high heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring every few minutes until peppers are soft.
Deora focused on during the class were spinach dal (red lentils with spinach), kadai paneer (skillet cooked cheese with onions, peppers and tomatoes) and whole wheat roti (unleavened flatbread).
Add fresh tomatoes and cook for 3-5 minutes. Add browned paneer and salt, stir, and then add crushed tomatoes. Cook for additional 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until vegetables reach desired softness and a thick gravy forms. This is called a sabzi. Add cinnamon powder and cumin powder and stir to combine. Add heavy cream (if using). Turn off heat and rest sabzi for 5-10 min. Serve warm with roti. Photos by Carol McCarrick
Purnima Dubey and Akshay Deora smile during a cooking class at the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany.
or some, cooking is a necessary evil to get ingredients from the fridge into one’s mouth. For the mother-son duo Purnima Dubey and Akshay Deora, cooking is an opportunity to spend time with family and share their favorite flavors with the community. “I have always used cooking as a way of interacting with the kids,” says Dubey. “So both my oldest son and Akshay have helped me in the kitchen with baking, with cooking Indian food, just as an activity where we could spend some time together.” Cooking became an even more intimate part of New Albany High School senior Deora’s life when he decided to incorporate it into his volunteerism at the New Albany Food Pantry for his senior seminar project. Although he had volunteered at the food Some of the dishes Purnima Dubey and Akshay
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