Paneer Butter Masala
Paneer - which is the Indian word for Cottage cheese or Fresh Ricotta Cheese.
This is one easy dish that tastes awesome and looks absolutely delicious. Be it a party at home or just a big lunch/dinner you want to make to pamper yourself on the weekend....Paneer - is the best!
I should tell you in advance that I use a masala that I import from India from my mum's kitchen to make all Paneer and Pulao things. We (mummy, didi and I) call it the "Maharaj Masala"!
And unfortunately I don't know the exact ingredients for it and I keep forgetting to ask Mom everytime I call her - thats why it's been days since I'm finally posting the recipe...without that masala.
But I promise to post the Maharaj Masala ingredients as soon as I get them . In the mean time - we can use the Kitchen King Masala assisted with a bit if Kasoori Methi as Google tells me that they taste just as good.
Paneer Butter Masala
Ingredients --
(for 4 people)
1/2kg Paneer or Fresh Ricotta Cheese or Fried Paneer cubes (for those in North America)
1 200-300ml tub of Thickened cream (can use full cream milk too, but will need to boil the mixture much longer!)
10-12 Cashewnuts
2 large onions
2 large tomatoes
4 tablespoons ginger and garlic paste
2 teaspoons of turmeric powder *haldi*
5 crushed cloves *laung*
5 crushed cardamom *elaichi*
Kitchen King masala + Kasoori Methi powder OR "Maharaj Masala" (That I shall post soon)
Chilli flakes (upto you how hot u'd like)
Salt to taste
Method --
Preparation -
1. Soak the cashwes with water in a small bowl and put aside.
2. Paneer Prep - For those using fresh Paneer/Ricotta - cut it into small cubes and fry them in oil will the pieces are slightly golden. Remove paneer from oil and put aside.
3. Onion Mix - In a vegetable chopper/mixie put the two peeled onions cut into large pieces. Add the ginger-garlic paste, add the cloves and cardamom. Make a fine paste and put aside.
4. Tomato puree - My mom told me to boil the tomatoes and then remove the skin and puree them. And well...I am too lazy to do that - so my cheat trick => Simply cut the tomatoes into large pieces and puree them in the chopper/mixie and put aside.
5. Cashew Paste - Puree the cashews with the water they were soaked in the chopper/mixie (Can add more water if the mix is too dry!). Make rough paste and put side.
Cook -
1. With the remaining oil in the pan after frying the paneer (if you did fry it!) add the onion mix and fry till golden brown.
2. Add the Kitchen king masala, Kasoori methi, turmeric powder and chilli flakes - fry the mix a few more minutes.
3. Add the tomatoo puree to the frying onion mix and continue to cook for another 10 mins. Stir randomly so the mix dosent settle to the bottom.
4. Add cashew paste and cream to the frying onion/tomato paste and continue to cook for another 5-10 mins. Add salt to taste.
5. Add the fried paneer cubes and cook for 2 minutes.
Serve hot with Parathas or Naan or just steamed rice! :D
*Yummm!!*
This is one easy dish that tastes awesome and looks absolutely delicious. Be it a party at home or just a big lunch/dinner you want to make to pamper yourself on the weekend....Paneer - is the best!
I should tell you in advance that I use a masala that I import from India from my mum's kitchen to make all Paneer and Pulao things. We (mummy, didi and I) call it the "Maharaj Masala"!
And unfortunately I don't know the exact ingredients for it and I keep forgetting to ask Mom everytime I call her - thats why it's been days since I'm finally posting the recipe...without that masala.
But I promise to post the Maharaj Masala ingredients as soon as I get them . In the mean time - we can use the Kitchen King Masala assisted with a bit if Kasoori Methi as Google tells me that they taste just as good.
Paneer Butter Masala
Ingredients --
(for 4 people)
1/2kg Paneer or Fresh Ricotta Cheese or Fried Paneer cubes (for those in North America)
1 200-300ml tub of Thickened cream (can use full cream milk too, but will need to boil the mixture much longer!)
10-12 Cashewnuts
2 large onions
2 large tomatoes
4 tablespoons ginger and garlic paste
2 teaspoons of turmeric powder *haldi*
5 crushed cloves *laung*
5 crushed cardamom *elaichi*
Kitchen King masala + Kasoori Methi powder OR "Maharaj Masala" (That I shall post soon)
Chilli flakes (upto you how hot u'd like)
Salt to taste
Method --
Preparation -
1. Soak the cashwes with water in a small bowl and put aside.
2. Paneer Prep - For those using fresh Paneer/Ricotta - cut it into small cubes and fry them in oil will the pieces are slightly golden. Remove paneer from oil and put aside.
3. Onion Mix - In a vegetable chopper/mixie put the two peeled onions cut into large pieces. Add the ginger-garlic paste, add the cloves and cardamom. Make a fine paste and put aside.
4. Tomato puree - My mom told me to boil the tomatoes and then remove the skin and puree them. And well...I am too lazy to do that - so my cheat trick => Simply cut the tomatoes into large pieces and puree them in the chopper/mixie and put aside.
5. Cashew Paste - Puree the cashews with the water they were soaked in the chopper/mixie (Can add more water if the mix is too dry!). Make rough paste and put side.
Cook -
1. With the remaining oil in the pan after frying the paneer (if you did fry it!) add the onion mix and fry till golden brown.
2. Add the Kitchen king masala, Kasoori methi, turmeric powder and chilli flakes - fry the mix a few more minutes.
3. Add the tomatoo puree to the frying onion mix and continue to cook for another 10 mins. Stir randomly so the mix dosent settle to the bottom.
4. Add cashew paste and cream to the frying onion/tomato paste and continue to cook for another 5-10 mins. Add salt to taste.
5. Add the fried paneer cubes and cook for 2 minutes.
Serve hot with Parathas or Naan or just steamed rice! :D
*Yummm!!*
posted by Nupur at 5:27 PM
23 Comments:
if yo saw me reading this post...you'd tell me that there's saliva drippng from my mouth :D
can't wait to get my hands on it..
Navneet: LOL!!!
Well...take my word for it... it just just as beautiful! :)
:P :P :P :P drooling ..
i cant wait no more ..
Invincible: LOL!! *you guys!!*
What are u waiting for...go make it! :)
Wow, how so creamy. Paneer and butter masala sound like an inseperable gravy. yummy!
Dewdrop: :) ohh yes! It is....
Arre wah ... i had come in to check the 'kadhi' recipe, and find this...kal ka lunch toh pakka yehi hai ... now i go make my kadhi...tx :)
same thing here.. i want PBM for a midnite snack!
Yummmmmmmmmm....just made it .... lovelyyy...thankssss
Deepak: :D I am really glad that it came out great DJ!!
Aapke and aap jaiso ke liye hi yeh recipes likhte hain! So happy to see that ur enjoying 'em! :)
Arbit Council: :) You will have to make it to enjoy it! OR... better still - get someone to make it for u! ;)
Aah, have to try this! If it's going to look like the pic, it' going to be on my table often. I so like food by the way they look.
Anumita: *Same pinch* presentation means a lot to me too! :)
Some of the most mouthwatering delicacies. Especially for someone like me dabbling with cooking (day to day) in the US! Think of ways to market this. I mean I can't see this talent going unsold!
Samba :) Now you have me thinking..... LOL!
Thanks for visiting. I'm glad you liked the recipes and hope they are of some assistance!
Many more recipes to go... so see you around. Cheers.
Called my brother n sis-in-law for lunch n made this dish. It was awesome. My sis-in-law gave me a little tip. Instead of deep frying the paneer, marinate it in little curd, ginger-garlic paste, salt n red food color. Then fry in little oil. Thanx!
I spent three hardcore weeks in India last August and I survived on Paneer Butter Masala almost every day. Too afraid to order randomly from the menu :) Looking back, I don't understand how I could lose 10 pounds eating that stuff; it's loaded with fat.
So after six months, when my taste buds and digestive system allowed Indian food again, I wanted to try cooking this dish. I used your recipe because it seemed best of all I could find online. But I have to admit it’s hard to cook foreign dishes. I didn’t have any of the spices at home, so I bought spices and ingredients for $40. And it’s hard to interpret some of the instruction in your recipe. Luckily I have some experience cooking so at least I wasn’t afraid to try.
But the result was far from what I remembered from India. The spices were too overwhelming. It wasn’t spicy hot, but it tasted like wood or something. I couldn’t tell if I used too little or too much of something, or if I needed to add something that wasn’t in the recipe. I gave up and put the sauce in the fridge for a day or two. Amazingly, after a little rest, the spices had evaporated and the dish tasted wonderful. I added cream, nuts and the paneer. Not quite like in India, but almost.
I will definitely try to cook this again some time. In the meantime I’ll try to find good use for the $40 spices I bought. I have 5 year old curry on the shelf here which is probably shocking to hear from an Indian :)
Thanks for you recipe.
Robin
I have prepared following this recipe to my husbands birthday party...really it came out fantastic !! Everyone liked it very much and i got requests for Recipe. Thanks a lot for the recipe.
But i had two changes in my recipe -- i have used Tofu ( which is similar type as Paneer, as i'm living in Germany i cant find Paneer ). And 2 big tomatoes are not sufficient for a gravy type. So i had to use Tamoto Puree Packet which we can get from Shops.
Its really Excellent.
Good receipe Nupur. Tried it over the weekend. I made some changes in to the original as well. I fried the onions before griding that takes away the strong onion flavour but still gives you a smooth paste. and added normal garam masala, 2 cardamam and 2 cloves intead of 4's. Came out pretty well. Tks for the tips ..n sharing the receipe with us
Nupur,
Please check that tomato puree is not part of preparation
The most disastrous recipe that I ever tried. I thought a North Indian would make this dish better than anyone else but there are no measurements for the key ingredient- the masala; very misleading, good for nothing recipe. The one I tried at Bawarchi was much better though it did not have any fancy masala. Sheer waste of time and money.
Nupur,
We tried with Shahi paneer masala available in the indian grocery stores. It came out very well. Thanks for the recipe.
Soumya.
www.Soumyascookeryspecial.blogspot.com
Hi,
I saw ur post on Cooking
I am new to cooking
While cooking rice for fried rice how much glass of water 2 be added for one glass of basmathi rice
Pls give recipes from the scratch so freshers like me will be clear of doubts
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