Dahi Kebabs

Kebabs to my mom usually meant something non vegetarian and we being strict vegetarians, eggetarian rather, she never ventured to learning to make it neither did we try it anywhere outside cos we had so many other not so ambiguous yummy dishes to choose from. Kebab, according to Wikipedia is a wide variety of meat dishes originating in Iraq and later on adopted by the Middle East and Asia Minor, and now found worldwide. My mother was not wrong after all.

I love watching cookery shows, reading magazines like Femina (mainly for their recipe section) and of course! sit and surf the net that too for the same thing: new recipes. So now you know how much I love cooking, and trying out different things. But these things are not working out very much now a days, since my younger one wants all my attention all the time. (She’s sleeping rite now!). In one such T. V. show, I saw the recipe for some vegetarian kebabs and just liked the look of it. I tried it at once and the result was awesome and since then I always jump with joy when I hear the words Vegetarian Kebabs.

When mom, was visiting my aunt, she made these yummy Dahi kebabs for her. My mom too loved them and she immediately noted down the recipe for me and I made them yesterday evening as an after school snack for my paneer loving daughter. They were very very yummy, crispy and crunchy on the outside and soft inside. My daughter just couldn’t stop eating them.

Makes about 10 medium sized Kebabs

What you’ll need

1. Paneer – 250 gms
2. Hung curd – 4 tblsp
3. Bread Slices – 2
4. Chutney Dal – 2 tsps
5. Coriander Leaves – ½ a bunch
6. Green chillies – 2
7. Garlic – 4 to 5 cloves
8. Chaat Masala – ½ tsp
9. Pepper Powder – ½ tsp
10. Salt to taste
11. Oil for shallow frying

Method

Crumble the paneer well. Powder the bread slices and chutney dal separately. Grind coriander leaves, green chillies and garlic to a fine paste without adding any water.
In a bowl, add the paneer and hung curd and mix it well with your hands. Next add the coriander, chilli and garlic paste. Mix well. Now add the bread powder and chutney dal powder. Mix well. Finally add in the salt, chaat Masala and pepper powder. Give everything a good mix.
Heat a frying pan with oil for shallow frying, pinch out big lemon sized balls and shape them into tikkis. You could also make them oblong shaped. Shallow fry them in medium flame.

Tasty Kebabs are ready. Enjoy it with tomato ketchup or green chutney with a cup of hot tea or coffee.

Notes:

For making hung curd at home, I used Nestle Set Curd and poured it in a sieve and allowed it to drip for about 1 hour. Alternately you can tie the curd in a muslin cloth and hang it, till the whey water drips completely and you are left with creamy hung curd.

The paneer mixture feels a little wet, pinch out a small ball pat them into tikkis, if they don’t stick to your palms and come out easily then its ok else you can add a little more bread crumbs or chutney dal powder.

While frying, make sure that the oil is hot enough, if the oil is not hot then the kebabs may spilt in the oil. You could use a non stick tava and pan fry them too using just about a few spoon of oil.

The kebabs will be slightly dark colored on the outside.

Sending this to Khushi’s What’s on your Kebab Platter, Sravani’s Cooking Concepts#2 – Appetizers, Sukanya’s Monsoon Medely, Jabeen’s Iftar Nights and Ayeesha’s Anyone Can Cook – Series 31