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.

Women's day special potluck Recipe - Mutter Paneer

Mutter Paneer is one of the easiest and tasty dish you can prepare for any special occasion. I have made this for a potluck party at office on this women's day.

The ingredients required for making Mutter Paneer are as below. This will serve 8-10 people.

Paneer cubes- 400gm (Used Milky mist paneer)
Mutter - 250gm (Used Safal's frozen green pea's)
Onion chopped - 3 big
Tomato chopped - 2
Garlic pod - 8
Ginger - 2 inch

Salt - As required
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 3tsp
Coriander Powder - 2tsp
Garam Masala Powder - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tsp or as required

Garam Masala  :-
Cinnamon -1 inch piece
Cardomom - 1
Big Elaichi /Big Cardomom - 2
Dry red chilli - 2
pepper - 4
jeera - 1 tsp
cloves - 3
Bay leaves - 1

Coriander leaves - For garnishing

Preparation:-

Grind chopped onion garlic and ginger together in a blender. Make a smooth paste and keep it aside. Grind tomatoes and make it to puree and keep aside.

Heat the cooker and pour oil into it. Add garam masala's such as cinnamon, Elaichi, Big Elaichi, Dry red chilli, pepper, jeera, cloves and bay leaves. Saute it for one minute to get the nice smell of the masala.

Add the onion-ginger-garlic paste into it and saute. Saute till the paste turn color to light brownish and add pureed tomatoes. Stir for 3 more minutes.

Add  turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder and salt into it and stir for a minute. Pour little water into this mix and cover the cooker and cook for sometime. Stir it in between.

Once you see that the oil is getting separated then add the mutter. Saute for 5 minutes and add the paneer cubes. If the gravy is too thick then you can add little more water. Add garam masala.

Pressure cook in low flame for about five minutes or till first whistle. Switch of the flame. The gravy is ready. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

Tips:

If you like a little bit creamy taste then add some milk cream on top of the curry before adding coriander leaves.

Fry the paneer cubes in little ghee before mixing with the gravy. This gives a golden color to the paneer and little crispiness also.

For the milk cream just take the malai from the milk. Boil milk and keep it covered for an hour. Now you can see the malai formed on top of that.

Tasty Palak paneer recipe - Cottage cheese in Spinach gravy

Palak paneer is one of the healthy food you can prepare at home. This is very easy and it will not take much time to prepare.

To prepare homemade fresh paneer refer the post "Home made fresh Paneer - Indian cottage cheese"

Ingredients :-

Palak - 1 bunch
Jeera - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
salt - as required
Green chilli - 2
Onion - 1
Tomato -1
ginger - 1 small piece


Preparation :-

Remove stems and clean the palak leaves with lots of water and keep it aside. The palak should be cleaned thoroughly as there are chances of dirt and mud get stuck on the leaves.

Heat a kadai with little ghee/oil in it. Add jeera and let it splutter for a minute. Add the cleaned palak leaves and cover the kadai. Stir it in between and after 3-4 minutes you can see all the palak turned to dark green color and the volume gets reduced. Switch off the flame.

Now let this cool for sometime then grind it with green chillies.

Now grind tomato, ginger, onion together and keep it aside. Heat oil in a kadai and add the onion-tomato paste and saute well for 5 minutes. Once the oil gets separated add the ground palak leaves to this and saute well till oil separates. Cook for 5 minutes and check that the raw smell/taste of the palak is not there.

Add some water and cover it and cook well. Add palak cubes to this mix and cook for some more time. Once done switch off the flame and serve hot with roti/chapathi.

Tips:-
To make this gravy rich just add some milk cream once cooked.
Palak can be fried before putting into gravy.

Paneer Masala

Paneer recipes are favorite for many. We can prepare paneer in different styles. Here I am going to make a simple paneer masala which don't require much effort and can be prepared in 20 minutes if you have the paneer cubes readily available. To make fresh paneer at home follow the recipe "Home made fresh Paneer - Indian cottage cheese"

The ingredients required for making paneer masala are as below.

Paneer cubes- 250gm
Onion chopped - 1 big
Tomato choped - 1
Garlic pod - 3
Ginger - 1 inch
Green chilli - 2
Milk Cream or Malai - 2 tbsp (Optional)
Salt - As required
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 2tsp
Coriander Powder - 1tsp
Garam Masala Powder - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tsp or as required
Coriander leaves

Grind chopped onion garlic and ginger together in a blender. Make a smooth paste and keep it aside.

Heat the kadai and pour oil into it. Add the onion-ginger-garlic paste and green chilli into it and saute. Saute till the paste turn color to light brownish and add chopped tomatoes. Stir till the tomatoes are soft.

Add  turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder and salt into it and stir for a minute. Pour little water into this mix and cover the kadai and cook for sometime. Stir it in between. Once you see that the oil is getting separated then add the paneer cubes. If the gravy is too thick then you can add little more water. Add garam masala. Cover the kadai and cook in low flame for about five minutes. Switch of the flame and add the milk cream or malai into this gravy. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

The milk cream is optional. If you like a little bit creamy taste then do this else just garnish with coriander leaves.

Tips:

Fry the paneer cubes in little ghee before mixing with the gravy. This gives a golden color to the paneer and little crispiness also.

For the cream just take the malai from the milk. Boil milk and keep it covered for an hour. Now you can see the malai formed on top of that.