Paneer Butter Masala - Restaurant Style Paneer Butter Masala

Paneer butter masala is the most popular side dish when compared to the other paneer curries. Its a rich Punjabi dish made with paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese). The near perfect combination of spiciness and creaminess of its gravy makes it simply irresistible and versatile to be served with any Indian bread or with pulav or any biriyanis. Tomato puree is the key in this recipe. To get the right color choose red ripe tomatoes and good red chilli powder. Now to the delicious recipe.

 

Ingredients 
Onion -2
Tomatoes - 4 or tomato puree - 1 cup
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
Paneer - 200 grams, cubed
Cashews - 10 nos
Kasuri Methi -1 tsp (dry fenugreek leaves)
Salt as required

Spice Powder
Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 2 tsp
Chilli Powder - 3/4 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

For the seasoning
Butter- 2 tbsp + Oil-1 tbsp
Cinnamon -1 inch piece
Cloves- 2
Cardamom -1
 
For Garnishing
Fresh cream - 2 or 3 tbsp
Finely chopped coriander leaves


Method


First, you need to make 3 pastes out of these ingredients. And then its just as easy as that to prepare the gravy. 


Onion Paste -Remove the skin, chop the onion into 4 pieces and boil them in water for 10 minutes. Drain the water completely and grind it to a paste.

Tomato puree - Blanch tomatoes- (ie) put the tomatoes in boiling water and close it. After 10 minutes, drain the water, remove the skin and puree the tomatoes.

Cashew nut paste- Soak 10 cashew nuts in hot water for 15 minutes and grind it to a paste.

Heat 2 tbsp butter +1 tbsp oil, add cinnamon, cardamom and cloves, when it splutters, add onion paste and saute till it becomes golden brown, then add ginger garlic paste and saute for some more time.

Then add tomato puree and all the spice powder mentioned under spice powder. Cook until the raw smell of the tomato goes and it starts leaving oil. Do not add any water now, else the raw smell will not go off completely

 

Then add cashew nut paste and saute nicely for a few minutes till the raw smell goes.

Add the paneer cubes to the cooked tomato paste. Add 1/2 cup of water, needed salt, kasuri methi and coriander leaves. Simmer and cook for a few minutes.

Garnish with fresh cream and serve with pulao or roti or chapati.

Aloo Paratha

Aloo paratha is a Punjabi recipe, one of the most popular dishes in which paratha is stuffed with aloo mixture. I needed lot of practice for getting this right. Initially when I used to make this all the stuffing would come out and the total process will be very messy. With lot of practice found the tricks and started getting it right.  But then with lot of practice and patience I started getting it right. One of the very important thing is the consistency of the chapati dough and the mashed aloo. Both of them should be very soft to handle.The chapati dough should be very very soft but still non-sticky. This can be achieved using oil and warm water for kneading the dough. Similarly, the potatoes has to be boiled well and mashed totally well without any bigger chunks. There should not even be any big piece. Else they will start coming out while rolling the parathas. These are the tips I learnt by practice. Hope this helps you. Now, to the recipe!!

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
Salt as needed
Warm Water as needed to knead the dough
Oil - 1 tsp for kneading the dough
Ghee - for cooking the parathas.

Method

In a bowl, add the wheat flour, salt, oil and mix well. Now add the warm water little by little and knead into a soft dough. Note that the dough should be very soft, but should not stick to your fingers. Keep covered for 15 minutes. Meanwhile prepare the stuffing.

For the stuffing

Potatoes - 2 or 3 (medium sized, boiled and mashed well)
Green chillies - 2, very thinly sliced
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 1/4 tsp
Salt a pinch
Corriander leaves finely chopped

1. Mix all the stuffing ingredients together. Make equal size and equal number of balls as of the kneaded dough. 
2. Roll the dough into small round shape, place the potato balls in the center. Seal by pulling the edges of the rolled dough together to make a ball.
3. On a lightly floured surface roll the parathas to nice rounds keeping the sealed part on the top. Don't roll them too thin or the stuffing will come out.
4. Remove the excess of dry flour from the rolled paratha. Gently pull it to the hot tawa, allow to get cooked on low flame. Add few drops of ghee and cook until golden brown spots appear on them.
5. Delicious aloo parathas are ready. Enjoy them with curd and pickle

Nutritional Information

Wheat is a cereal grain. Whole wheat products have increased fiber and nutrients compared to their refined wheat counterparts. Fiber is essential to your health because it has shown to reduce the risk of diabetes and heart disease, lower blood cholesterol, control blood sugar levels and help relieve constipation. Whole wheat is rich in B vitamins, vitamin E and only has approximately five percent fat. Also whole wheat is a very good source of  minerals like Manganese and Selenium.
Experts say that Potatoes provide the body with an essential source of fuel and energy, which you need even when dieting. Potatoes are also a rich source of Vitamin B, folate and minerals such as potassium, magnesium and iron. Needless to say that nutrients of a potato can be enjoyed when baked or boiled rather than from a fried potato.

Phirni - How to make Phirni

Phirni is a kashmiri rice dessert which is made with ground basmati rice cooked with milk, sugar and some saffron threads for flavoring. Traditionally this desert is chilled and served in earthen bowls. Though you can have this unchilled, you get the best taste only when refrigerated. When you have some unplanned guests at home you can surprise them with this new dessert. Hardly takes some 20 mins for the whole process and then the refrigerating time. Here is the recipe!

Ingredients

Basmati rice - 2 tbsp

Milk -300 ml
Sugar - 21/2 tbsp (adjust as per taste)
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Sliced almonds - 8 or 10
Crushed Pistachios, Raisins and few strands of saffron for garnish

Method

1. Soak basmati rice for 1/2 an hour in water. Drain the water, blend it to a coarse paste.
2. Soak almonds in hot water for 10 mins and peel of the skin. Slice into thin slices.
3. Boil the milk in a broad bottomed pan, preferably non-stick. Stir in-between so that the milk doesn't stick to the bottom. Adding a teaspoon of water before pouring milk to the pan will help milk not to stick to the pan.
4. Add little bit of water to the rice paste and liquify it. This way you can avoid forming lumps while adding it to the milk. Now add the rice paste and almonds to the boiling milk. Give a nice stir and cook on slow flame for 10-15 mins. You can also reserve few slices of almonds for garnishing at the end. Keep scraping the sides of the pan continuously so that the milk and rice mixture doesn't stict to the sides or bottom.
5. Now, add sugar and cardamom powder, mix well and simmer for another 5-7 minutes while continuing the scraping process. By now it could have thicken. Switch off the flame and allow it to cool. Garnish with crushed nuts and saffron.
6. Refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour and enjoy chilled.