Thursday 23 July 2009

Paneer Butter Masala


The initial excitement of maintaining a food blog has died and i am back to square one. I am now not too enthu about making fancy dishes in the first place, leave alone taking pics. I have an ardent follower..my cousin who religiously follows my bogs and has started cooking. She asked me for a palak paneer recipe and i promised her i would put up one. In fact i bought paneer thinking id make palak paneer but at the last minute changed my mind and made Paneer Butter Masala instead. Sorry sweets, il make the palak paneer soon. I still have left over paneer. In the mean time, please make do with this.
Paneer- 250gms, cut into cubes
Onion- 1, thinly sliced
Tomatoes- 2 big
Green chillies- 2, thinly sliced
Ginger paste- 1 tsp
Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
Asafoetida- a pinch
Coriander pwd- 2 tsp
Turmeric pwd- 1/4 tsp
Chilli pwd- 1/2 tsp
Garam masala- 1/4 tsp
Cream- 1/2 cup
Tandoori masala pwd- 1/4 tsp (optional)
Coriander leaves- to garnish
Ghee- 2 tbs
Salt- to taste

In a blender, puree the tomatoes, ginger paste and green chillies. Keep aside
In a pan, heat the ghee and lightly fry the paneer. Remove with a slotted spoon and keep aside.
In the same pan, add some more ghee if necessary and splutter the cumin seeds and asafoetida. To this, add the onions and cook till golden brown. Add the tomato puree mix, all the powders, salt and sautee well. Cook till the oil starts separating. Remove and cool. In the same blender, beat the masala mix just once and make it into a paste like form (optional) and return it to the pan. At this point if you want you can add some water. Now add the fried paneer slices and mix well. Towards the end add the cream, stir well and cook for another 3 minutes or so. I added 1/4 tsp of Tandoori masala so it gave a nice red colour. This is however optional. Garnish with coriander leaves just before serving and have it hot with roti or rice.


Note: Cream can be replaced with curd and you dont have to cook this in ghee. Oil can be used.

9 comments:

Miriam Korula said...

looks delicious....my only prob is i don't like to buy paneer from the stores. i make them myself and it needs more time n' energy than i feel most of the time...but i will dfntly give this recipe a go this week itself

My Kitchen Antics said...

Wow u make your own paneer? That must be a task but I'm sure it will taste a 100 times much better than the store bought ones.

Miriam Korula said...

to tell you the truth...it doesn't taste as great as my mom's does. a friend of mine here says it's coz the milk we buy here is processed. I tried the bottled milk and the long life milk. Now he is suggesting me to make using milk powder....imagine that? but i might give it a shot...

My Kitchen Antics said...

My cousin who lives in the US in one god forsaken part of the US that is...paneer is not available. So she was asking if there was an easy way of making paneer...after u do so, please post the recipe so i can pass it on 2 her.

Amy Jaya said...

hey nish,

looks yums; Do keep posting recipes..I m also a regular in checking ur blogs :) i tried the roasted chicken and it was too good :)

tc,

Ambili

My Kitchen Antics said...

Wow..now im really thrilled that ppl are trying out my recipes. Yeah the roast is really good...its impossible to go wrong:)

Jane said...

I too am a regular reader of your food blog - seriously regular. Don't stop.

My Kitchen Antics said...

muahhhhh jane:)

karthik said...

recipe is delicious Paneer Butter Masala Curry