Cottage Cheese Wrapped and Cooked in Banana Leaves (Paneer Paturi)

As mentioned before, Lazy summer days aren’t made for elaborate cooking. The sun good seems to be in no mood to do away with the humid and sweltering summer weather. This is a perfect season to sip away your favorite drink and to enjoy light meals full of fresh ingredients. It is a season of bare legs and flip flops and my appetite too turns summery. 

Instead of adding extra heat to your home when Mother Nature is at her worst, take advantage of summer's bountiful fresh vegetables and whip up  interesting dinner meals without spending too much of time in the Kitchen.

Last weekend, I wanted to cook something interesting for my dinner which obviously tastes good but wanted to make something which is not very elaborate and is definitely full of flavors. So finally I decided to make “Paneer Paturi”. Cottage cheese wrapped and cooked in Banana leaf with an interesting mix of aromatic flavors.

Most foodies may know about the famous ilish maach paturi from the Indian Bengali cuisine. Fish fillets are marinated in a paste of mustard, green chillies, parcelled in banana leaves, and then steamed or fried in mustard oil.     

                                                                                                                                  

Being a Staunch Vegetarian, it is quite a challenge to try out my own vegetarian version of paturi and not to deny myself the desire of savoring the goodness of great paturi.  

I simply love the flavors or the aromas resulting out of these small banana parcels. 

A parcel made from banana leaves seals in moisture and flavor and infuses the contents with a subtle, grassy aroma. From Latin American to Asian dishes, there are several ways of cooking beautiful recipes with the use of this versatile leaves.

Paturi is a cooking process in which leaf wrapped marinated fish, cottage cheese or vegetables are cooked. The final cooking is done wither by steaming or by roasting the leaf wrapped envelops on griddle. The famous version is to cook the marinated fish fillets in a wonderful mix of spices and yogurt.

I have used more or less the same technique used to make the hilsa paturi but the end product still brings in a lot of different flavor and taste.

The soft and subtle piece of cottage cheese marinated in mustard and yogurt mix looks gorgeous served straight from the banana leaf package. It’s casual and extremely appears to be serene option for summer night meal. Pop open a cold drink of your choice and ease into summer night wonders.

With due respects to all the mashis, mamonis, pishis and all my dear Bengali friends, here is my version for “Paturi Paneer”.

Serves: 3 people

Cooking Time: Under 15 minutes

Preparation Time: 30 Minutes

Ingredients:

1. Clean green banana leaves - 4 pieces each about 6 inches in length

2. Sliced paneer(Diced in thick pieces) - with about 4 mm thickness

3. Mustard Oil- 2 tsp

4. Thread - to tie the banana leaf parcels. (I prefer white, so that the colour does not run!!)

Ingredients for Mustard & Yogurtpaste marinade

1. Mustard 1/2 cup

3. Green Chillies - 2 (3 if you like it hot)

4. Turmeric - a pinch

5. Salt - to taste

6. Garlic and Ginger Paste

7. Cumin Seeds

8. 1 Cup yogurt (beaten well)

9. 1 tsp. Mustard Oil

10. Chopped Coriander Leaves

Method

1.       Grind the mustard and chillies bit by bit, adding just a little water to get a paste. Blend in turmeric and salt and 1 tsp mustard oil until you have a smooth paste... It’s best to grind using a stone mortar and pestle if you want to feel the rustic flavor.

2.      Now combined the yogurt, cumin seeds, ginger garlic with the mustard paste and add in the coriander leaves as well to enhance the flavor.

3.      Marinate the paneer pieces in the mustard and yogurt paste for 1/2 hour. I prefer to freeze the marinated cottage cheese in the fridge. This allows the masala to stick together uniformly. Retain the unused marination for later use.

4.      Take a piece of banana leaf and smear it with oil so that it doesn’t get cracks while roiling them into small parcels.

5.      Now it’s time to place a piece of cottage cheese in center of the banana leaf and spread a generous quantity of paste all around the Cottage Cheese.

6.Fold the banana leaf from all sides, and fasten with thread. This is slightly tricky, as the leaf would tear if not carefully handled, or thread tied too tightly. You should have six parcels or paturis ready now.

7. Heat a shallow frying pan, with 2tsp of mustard oil. Arrange the paturis on the frying pan.

8. Cover with a lid and fry for few minutes. When the leaf starts charring, turn the paturis over to the other side.Fry for some more time until banana leaf has changed colour and slightly golden in color.

9.Serve parcels with hot white rice or just have it straight with your choice of drink and goes well with grilled veggies.