Tomato rice- Tamilian meets Continental

Just before we were leaving Bombay, my sons' friend threw them a party, where he cooked himself. The main dish was what my son called tomato rice, and I decided to rustle it up for lunch today. Ideally, I would have used fresh basil, but since the only herbs I have is kaddipatta, it became a fusion dish. With potato wafers, it was quite a tasty dish.

1 cup rice soaked

3 large tomatoes

4 pods garlic

Kaddipatta

1 tsp paprika powder

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

Oil 

Salt to taste

3 tbdp grated cheese

Method:

Heat 2 tsp oil, splitter the mustard seeds. 

Add garlic and sauté till browned

Add kaddipatta and tomatoes and sauté till mushy. Add paprika powder and mix well. 

Add soaked rice and double the quantity of water and salt to taste. Cover and let it cook till rice is done. 

Add half the grated cheese and mix well. Sprinkle the other half over the dish and grill in an oven for 2-3 minutes. 

Basil Paneer

I wanted to make a really simple paneer dish to go with parathas, but wasn't in a mood for plain old paneer bhurji either. So I basically threw in a bunch of ingredients that I had, and came up with this nice fusion piece!

250 gms paneer (I used store bought)
1 medium onion
1 large tomato
3 pods garlic
2 stalks basil leaves
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
Salt and sugar to taste
1 tbsp cooking oil

Method:
Finely chop the onions and garlic. Heat the oil, add the onions and garlic and saute on low flame till they turn transparent.
Add coarsely chopped tomatoes, red chilli powder, mix well, and saute till the tomatoes turn mushy. Roughly tear the basil leaves, add and mix well.
Cut the paneer slices into cubes, and add to the paste. Turn off the flame and mix well.
Add salt and sugar to taste.