Paneer Tikka Masala

Today's post is about the delicious paneer tikka masala. I have been planning to write this post from past three days, but just felt lazy to write it down. :) As today is Friday I thought of sharing this so that you get an excellent dish recipe for the weekend... hmmm

I still remember the first time I tasted paneer, it was when I went to Calicut for an exam with my father and I had it at the very famous "The paragon restaurant". Hmm.. I think I just liked it that time. But now I just love paneer dishes and try to prepare as much paneer variety as possible. 

This recipe is a combination of many paneer tikka recipes which I got from the internet. This is really easy to prepare and very tasty also. This is a must try if you are a paneer lover.

Ingredients required for preparing this dish are

Paneer - 200g (Milky Mist Paneer)
Onion - 1 medium
Tomato -1 medium
Capsicum -1 medium

Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander Powder- 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Garamasala - 1/2 tsp
All Purpose Flour /Maida - 1 tsp
Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp
Cumin Seeds  - 1 tsp

Lime Juice  - 1 lime
Kasoori Methi - A pinch
Thick  Curd - 3 tbsp
Salt - As required

Tomato Pure - 2 tomatoes
Oil - As required
Water - 2 cup

Onion Chopped - 1 big

Cream Fresh /Milk
Coriander Leaves - optional

Cut Paneer, Onion, tomato and Capsicum in big cubes and keep it aside. Take a bowl with thick curd and add Chilli powder, salt, kasoori methi, lemon juice and oil, mix well. Add the paneer cubes to it and mix well. Now add the onion, tomato and capsicum cubes to this and keep it aside for 15 minutes.

Heat a wide nonstick pan and add very little oil(say 1tbsp) and add the marinated paneer and veggies and fry both sides till done and keep it aside.

Heat oil in a kadai and add cumin seeds and once they splutter add the chopped onion and saute for a minute. Here we don't need to saute till the onions are brown in color. Add turmeric powder, salt, ginger garlic paste, Maida and saute for two more minutes. 

Add tomato puree followed by coriander powder,cumin powder,red chilli powder and mix well. Let it cook for five more minutes or till you can see the oil gets separate. 

Add enough water and allow it to boil. Add water such that you get enough gravy after you add the paneer and veggies.

Add the cooked paneer and veggies to this gravy and allow to cook for next 3 minutes. Add garam masala powder also to the gravy. Add cream to this gravy as required. I added milk as the cream was not available at home. Now cook this mix for about 3 minutes and switch off the flame. 

Garnish with coriander leaves. The tasty paneer tikka masala is ready :)

Tips:-

While frying paneer, onion , capsicum and tomato; add tomato at the end to avoid it getting overcooked.

This dish goes well with Jeera rice or butter naan.

Pakoda Kadi Recipe / Besan Pakoda kadhi - Gram flour and yogurt curry recipe

Besan pakoda kadhi is and easy and tasty dish made up of gram flour and yogurt. Kadhi and white rice is one of the best combination. 

For Pakode 

 1 cup gram flour /besan

 ½ teaspoon turmeric powder

 1 teaspoon chilli powder

 Salt as required

 water as required

For Kadi

 1 cup yogurt, preferably sour

 1 teaspoon Fenugreek / methi seeds

 ½ teaspoon turmeric powder

 1 teaspoon chilli powder

 1 red chilli broken into pieces

 curry leaves 1 spring 

 Asafoetida / hing  A pich

 salt to taste

 Oil

For seasoning

 1 teaspoon cumin seeds

 Ghee 2 tsp

Prepare Pakode

Mix gram flour, salt, turmeric powder and chilli powder in a bowl with little water. Mix it well and add water to make it to a thick paste, which requires for making pakode.

Heat kadai with oil (say 6 table spoon) and pour spoonful of batter one by one to the hot oil. Fry until turn into nice and crispy golden brown in color and drain on oil absorbent paper and leave to cool.

Prepare Kadi

Take a bowl with the yogurt and add 1 tbsp of gram flour and mix well. You can mix it using a blender to get a smooth paste. Add 1 cup of water, salt, red chilli powder and turmeric powder and mix well.

Heat 1 tsp oil in a kadai and add methi seeds, broken red chilli and curry leaves. Saute for few seconds until methi seeds turn to light brown color. 

Add the prepared yogurt mixture to this and stir continuously. If the mix is getting thick add some more water. Boil it for 3 minutes and stir in between. Add a pinch of hing to kadi. Switch off the flame and add the prepared pakodas and keep it covered for 2 minutes.

The kadi becomes thick after you add the pakodas, so make sure to keep a watery consistency before adding pakodas.

For seasoning

Heat a small kadai with ghee and add the cumin seeds to it. Once the cumin seeds splutter add this mix to the kadi and serve hot with rice.

Tips:-

This curry must be served immediately else it will become very thick and mushy.

If you are not serving kadi immediately then do not add the pakodas to the curry. Add pakodas only at the time of serving. Keep 4-5 pakodas in the serving bowl and add the curry on top of that.

Moru kaachiyathu / Easy moru curry - Buttermilk curry

An easy recipe which you can prepare if you are really lazy and not in a mood to prepare any curry. This moru curry and rice is very good combination. This is very easy to prepare and the ingredients required are as below.

Buttermilk – 500 ml
Onion Sliced – 1
Ginger –  1 small chopped
Green chili – 2 chopped
Dry Red chili – 1
Turmeric powder –  1/2 tsp
Mustard – 1/4 tsp
Fenugreek – 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves
Salt
Oil

Heat oil in a pan & splutter mustard & fenugreek seeds. Add red chili, green chili, onion, ginger, curry leaves. Fry it for 2 minutes. Add turmeric powder & salt. Mix well.

Add this mix into the buttermilk and stir for a few minutes. Its Ready :)

Tips:-

Use small onions for better taste.

You can add buttermilk directly to the seasoning without switching off the flame. But in this case you should be very careful and stir continuously to avoid curdling. Stir continuously until the steam comes out. Don't let it boil and switch off the flame.