A hint of spice

Awesome news :D My temperature has been pretty much normal for the last 3-4 days and the swelling of my lymph nodes has subsided. YaY! However, I still feel kind of fatigued and my muscles have been tight. I tried doing a bit of stretches today to find my body very rigid and stiff. I guess that's what you get for lack of exercise for a whole week :S I am no where near my running state and still need time to make sure my cough goes away. I wish I could stay home for longer and rest up a bit more but I really had to go back to university. Had to hand in an assignment sunday night and now I have two presentation tomorrow 0.0 Still need to finish my thesis and have my first exam on Saturday! Aaah! It's ok, just one week of work (until my second exam on Tuesday) and then I'm going back home and not doing anything school related for a week XD Afterwards I'll start thinking about my other exam...

On the bright side I'm back to cooking :P YaY! My grandparents aren't much fans of spices so I've began to miss Indian food... Luckily I had some Paneer :P

Mattar Paneer (Indian Cheese with Peas)
Adapted from Manjula's Kitchen

Ingredients (Serves 4-5 with some rice)

• 3 diced tomatoes
• 1/2 lbs paneer cut up into 1cm by 1cm cubes
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tbsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp chili powder (it didn't turn out hot)
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 cup canned green peas

Directions

• Optional- fry the paneer in a pan with a lot of oil
• Heat up the oil in a pot
• Test the heat by adding a cumin seed, if it fizzles the temperature is high enough
• Add the remaining cumin seeds and bay leaves
• Fry for about 20-30 seconds
• Add in the tomatoes and allow for the mixture to reduce by half
• Meanwhile add in the cinnamon, ginger, coriander, turmeric, chili, paprika, salt and sugar
• Once properly reduced, add in the paneer
• Cook for 3 minutes
• Add in the green peas and cook for another minute
• Done :) 
• Serve with basmati rice

*Note this dish tastes so much better when it's eaten the next day. I'm assuming it allows for the flavours to saturate and intensify.