Shahi Paneer

I have been eating Shahi paneer forever. In parties, restaurants, at every relatives place etc. Shahi paneer is a must for any food menu. Now everyone has their own way of cooking it. Some add almond paste instead of cashew paste, some other add cream. Some people fry paneer before adding to the gravy, but I like it without frying it as frying makes paneer chewy.

This recipe is inspired from the n number of different shahi paneer I ate over the years. Base of the recipe is the one that my mom makes. To which I added some of my ingredients and came up with this recipe. Incidentally the first time I tried to make it, I got distracted and burned the whole masala as I left it on high flame. Lesson learnt that always sauté masala on low flame, or never leave it unsupervised if using high flame.

Ingredients: Serves 4-5

200 grams cottage cheese / paneer, cut into cubes/ triangles

2 Onions

3 medium Tomatoes

1 green chilly

1 inch ginger

½ cup cashew nuts paste

1 small bay leaf

2 cloves

2 black cardamom

Small piece of cinnamon

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

Salt to taste

Red chilli powder to taste

¼ teaspoon coriander powder

¼ teaspoon garam masala powder

½ teaspoon sugar

1 ½ - 2 cups water

2 tablespoon oil / ghee

1 teaspoon kasuri methi

Recipe:

Grind onion, ginger and green chilli together into fine paste. Add some water in the grinder to assist the process.

Now in a wok on low flame, add oil, add onion paste, cumin seeds, bay leaf, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon. Sauté this paste till the time onion has just started to change the color. This will happen after around 4-5 minutes on medium flame. Keep the lid on during this and also keep stirring the mixture for even cooking after every couple of minutes.

Meanwhile grind tomatoes into a fine paste. And add this tomato paste in the wok after the above step. Also add salt, red chilli powder, coriander powder and garam masala powder and give everything a nice mix. Then leave it to sauté for another 5 minutes at least on medium flame. Again keep stirring after every couple of minutes.  

Now add sugar and mix it nicely. Then add water and leave the gravy to simmer for another 4-5 minutes with the lid on.

After this add cashew paste, mix evenly, and simmer the gravy for another 4-5 minutes. Now add kasuri methi by rubbing it between your hands over the wok. Give a gentle stir and let it simmer for another 2-3 minutes.

Add paneer pieces to the gravy and leave it to simmer for another 1-2 minutes. Shahi paneer is ready. 

Note:

You can use paste of any other dry fruit you may like, for ex: almond. Or instead of paste of any dry fruit add cream. 

Similarly use any other dried herb instead of kasuri methi.