At the risk of repeating myself, I love paneer. I can eat it every single day for every meal and still not tire of it. And I cook it in so many different ways, I bet if you joined me, you would love the ride too 🙂
Recently on Facebook group of food lovers, that I am a part of, we had a vegetarian protein event. Given my love for protein, I just had to participate 🙂
One of the paneer posts struck a chord, it reminded me of a long forgotten recipe. My Paneer Makhanwala. At the University, dog years ago, this was one of my go to one pot meals. What I love about this dish, it really doesn’t need any accompaniments. One thing and you are sorted.
One more thing, don’t be fooled by the name, there is no makhan (butter) in this. The creamy dreamy curry is courtsey, cashews and freshly grated coconut. Totally indulgent and frightfully simple…
What goes into it
250 gms paneer, cubed
3 tomatoes, finely chopped
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1cup freshly grated coconut
8-10 cashew nuts
3 whole dried red chillies
1 tbsp kasuri meethi (dired fenugreek lsaces?
1 inch cinnamon stick
1 bit of mace
8-10 peppercorns
1 tsp red chilli powder
Salt to taste
Oil to temper
Water
How to go about it
Soak the whole red chillies in about 2 tsps of water for about 10 minutes. Do this in the grinder jar you intend to use for making the gravy paste. Use this time to chop, the onions, tomatoes and paneer. Now toss the cashews, coconut, peppercorns, cinnamon and mace into the grinder jar and grind to a fine paste. Add water as required.
In a pan, drop 2 teaspoons of oil, once warm add the paste and cook covered for about 5 minutes. To this add the chopped tomatoes, salt and red chilli powder. Hold the kasuri meethi in one of your palms and with the heel of the other lightly crush. Add this in. Mix everything well and cook covered till done. Add paneer cubes and about 1/2 cup of water, if required. The consistency you want, is of a thick paste to envelope the paneer cubes, not a gravy soup for them to float about in. Cook for about five minutes and you are done.
Notes
The peppercorns bring heat to this dish, so increase or decrease their quantity to affect the spice component.
Cashews, coconut and onions bring a natural tinge of sweetness, allow for that when correcting for salt and heat.