paneer skewers with kitchuri

Like most Bengali kids, I grew up wolfing down bowls of kitchuri. I didn’t really care about the wonderful vitamins and protein involved, just those delicious toasty grains – I find the smell of this cooking so very comforting and these days it makes a terrific packed lunch for my toddler. So when pink lining approached me for a toddler friendly recipe, this was the first thing that sprang to mind.

Like a lot of little ones his age, he’s not really keen on meat and I’ve found paneer to be an excellent source of protein. He gobbles this up with gusto and it’s good to see that kitchuri love being passed down the generations.

We’ve been enjoying quite a few park-lunches now the sun’s come out, and I find this works really well in a lunch box (the gorgeous lunch box below was sent by Pink Lining – you can snap up your very own one here). If I’m making this for myself as well, I’ll add a tsp. of chilli and curry powder plus a bit more salt to my own portion of marinade.

makes 5 skewers and at least 2 big portions of kitchuri

INGREDIENTS

60g paneer

3 mushroom, quartered (about 25g)

1/2 courgette cut into thick chunks

1/2 red pepper sliced into chunks

for the marinade

150g natural yoghurt

1 tsp. cumin powder

1 clove garlic, crushed

a sprinkle of salt

3 tsp. tomato puree

100g rice

100g yellow split lentils/channa dhal, soaked for an hour in cold water

a couple of handfuls of frozen peas

1 tsp. cumin  seeds

1 tsp. mustard seeds

1 tbsp. ghee

400ml vegetable stock

1 tbsp. coriander finely chopped

METHOD

combine all marinade ingredients in a shallow dish

thread paneer, mushrooms, pepper and courgette onto skewers before marinating in the yoghurt mixture.

While that’s marinating, make the rice. Heat the ghee and add the cumin & mustard seeds

Once they crackle, stir in the rice and lentils making sure everything’s well coated.

Add the stock and simmer for about 30 minutes on a low heat or until the rice and lentils are both very very tender. Stir and add more stock if necessary.

Turn off the heat, stir in the frozen peas and leave to stand with a lid on for 5-6 minutes until the peas are cooked through.Stir through the coriander.

Heat a griddle or frying pan and add the olive oil. Fry the paneer skewers for about 5 minutes on each side until nice and golden brown all over.

Place the paneer skewers over the rice and garnish with halved cherry tomatoes.