Paneer Ka Chilla - Paneer Pancake

I had a great Saturday this weekend. We went to Columbus for a get together with my hubby's old friends, all from the same alma mater. It was a fun filled day spent amid food and talks with a crowd of Bengalis for company after a long time. The best part of the entire menu was the box of baklavas that caught my notice the very moment it was placed on the dining table. Usually I don't allow my husband to bring baklavas at home, simply for my inability to resist temptation at the very sight of them. So today, I indulged myself the unalloyed pleasure that each bite of baklava provides pretending to be ignorant of the calories involved, for one time. It was sinful totally :)
 

The recipe I am posting today is not of baklava by the way. It's of Paneer Ka Chilla that I recently learned from a friend. Chilla in English means pancake. Paneer pancake is quite versatile in preparation. You may toss various ingredients into it....egg, spinach, milk and semolina apart from the ingredients I have already touched upon. As I fancied, I pureed the tomatoes and mixed it into the batter, but in case if you prefer tomatoes in the filling, then chop them into bite size pieces and add them into the mixture for the same.

Ingredients: (make 6)                                       Cooking time: 40 minutes For the batter: ü  1 cup gram flour or besan ü  1/2 cup rice flour ü  1 tsp carom seeds or ajwain ü  1 tsp cumin powder ü  1/2 tsp hing or asafetida powder ü  1 tsp paprika or dry red chilli powder ü  2 tomatoes (pureed) ü  Salt to taste ü  White oil For the filling: ü  100 gm paneer (grated) ü  1 red onion (chopped) ü  2 tbsp lemon juice ü  Salt to taste ü  Black pepper, taste wise ü  4-5 green chillies (chopped) ü  Few sprigs of coriander leaves (chopped) Method: 1) Combine the ingredients for the batter and pour 2 cups of water to prepare a batter of smooth consistency. (The consistency of the batter should neither be very thick nor too watery.) 2) For the filling, mix the ingredients and keep aside. 3) Heat 1 tsp oil in a non-stick skillet. Spread a ladleful of the batter across the skillet. Before the surface hardens, quickly spread spoonful of the filling uniformly on top so that the filling sticks to the pancake or else it might splatter while you turn the pancake over. Allow the pancake to become slightly brown in color on one side before flipping and frying it from the other side. 4) When the pancake from both the sides turns golden brown in color, roll it up and serve with green chutney or tomato sauce.