Paneer cutlets with a twist

My uncle's retired from the army now and during his days there, I have seen the most well presented food at all the fancy dinners that people hosted.
I think each dinner outdid the other with the variety of food and the absolutely amazing presentation. My aunt is an awesome cook and has hosted many many lovely dinners.

Everything about army life fascinated me, the lovely cantonment areas in every corner of India, the lifestyle, the parties, the very polite and classy army wives in their beautiful sarees, the chivalrous men in their smart uniforms and gleaming polished shoes, of course, topped the list !!
I think I was in school when this serial called Fauji (ShahRukh Khan's first acting stint I think) was on tv and I simply adored people in the army even more after seeing that !!

We spent most of our vacations travelling to the places they were posted to, and thats how I've managed to see most of India and have some of the best memories of my childhood from all these holidays...

I could go on about this, but I better stop here..This recipe is from my aunt. She made it when I was in Delhi last week, and I loved it...



The paneer in Delhi of course is unquestionably good and in these cutlets, they were so super soft...it almost melted in your mouth...
The idea of using peas as the coating, I thought, was really novel and added so much to the taste and colour...



What you need -

3/4th measure fresh / frozen green peas
1/4 measure chana dal
1/2" piece ginger
3 cloves of garlic
2 green chillies
8-10 curry leaves
2 onions chopped fine
1/2 cup coriander leaves
200 gm paneer (the freshest you can lay your hands on)
salt to taste

What you do with it -

Thaw the peas if using the frozen ones
Soak chana dal in water for about 2 hours
Peel the ginger and garlic
Grind together the peas, chana dal, ginger, green chillies, garlic and curry leaves into a coarse paste, without adding water
Add the chopped onions, salt and chopped coriander leaves to this paste
Cut the paneer lengthwise into bite sized pieces
Coat it with the peas-chana dal paste
Shallow fry on a low flame till it turns brown

Serve with mint / coriander chutney