PANEER BUTTER MASALA

A popular and super-rich creamy north Indian or Punjabi curry made with cottage cheese. it is a vegetarian alternative to the famous butter chicken where paneer is replaced with chicken cubes. it is a premium curry ideally served with choice of Indian flatbread or even with choice or rice recipes like jeera rice and ghee rice.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Firstly, in a large pan heat 2 tsp oil.
2. Add ginger and clove to the heated oil garlic until it shrinks slightly, sauté onions
3. Now add tomatoes and add 8-piece almonds and 8 cashews for a minute.
4. Cover and cook for 10 minutes or until tomatoes turn soft and mushy.
5. Cool completely.
6. Till then roast kasuri methi on Medium to high flame
7. Transfer the onion tomato paste to the blender and blend to smooth paste adding water if required.
8. In a kadai heat 100 gm butter and add chopped onion and garlic on a medium flame
9. Add in prepared onion tomato paste and saute well.
10. Add 1 tsp chilli powder, 1 tsp garam masala, 1 tbsp salt mix it well on high flame
11. Add kasuri methi and ½ cup fresh cream
12. Cover it and cook on medium to high flame
13. Now add cubes of paneer and mix gently.
14. Further add some cream.
15. Finally, enjoy paneer butter masala with roti or naan.

Some quick tips

• Firstly, i would heavily recommend using good quality of paneer for this recipe. it has to be moist, soft and fresh and ideally, homemade paneer cubes are ideal for this recipe.
• secondly, i have tried to strike a balance between the creaminess and the spicy flavour. but if you prefer to have more creaminess than you can add more cream or milk or even cashew paste.
• lastly, you can extend the recipe by adding other ingredients like tofu, potatoes or even cooked meat as an alternative. you may cook the meat thoroughly before using it, however.