Paneer butter masala
I've been enjoying the food here a lot lot more than I had expected. I was more worried about the food before I arrived than anything else due to my low (see: wussy) tolerance of fiery chilli. I shouldn't have been so concerned. In Orissa the food is heavily spiced without being overly spicy; big on flavours without burning your face off. There is still the odd time I'll order badly in a restaurant and get something overly fiesty and infused with heat. This typically results in me leaving the restaurant still partially hungry, with a crimson face, suckling on a bottle of chilled water and rueing my menu choices.
I have a fantastic kitchen here, with a two-stove gas burner that has had a lot of action lately. My evenings are quiet and usually consist of Skyping and laughing at episodes of Community (so, so good) so I have plenty of time to cook and experiment with food. I invested in three cookbooks here; one on general 'Indian cooking', one for paneer (the local cheese - sort of like a firm cottage cheese that you can fry), and one for pressure cooking (this deserves a blog entry of its own). I can now happily while away my evenings cooking different recipes with a variety of spices, making my kitchen into a giant but delicious-smelling mess. Here's some of the meals I've been concocting in the past week... there has been a lot of paneer as I bought a kilo of it and I'm slowly working my way through it. Luckily it goes with everything and is super super tasty.
Creamy curry with paneer and peas
Potato and paneer koftas in a yogurt and cashew nut sauce
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