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.
