Matar Paneer

Matar Paneer

The beauty of Indian cuisine, that I always maintain is,once the percentages of the basic ingredients are altered, the taste of the dish will dramatically change.So, the same dish, when prepared with the same ingredients will result in different taste everytime the quantity of the ingredients are altered. Taking cue from this fact and coupling it with the advent of the winter, I restyled the good old Matar Paneer into a much more tastier dish. The winter always brings in fresher, newer and tastier vegetables in the market and I bought some 500 gms of Green peas that morning for the dish cooked later in the day. Moving away from the original recipe, I tweaked it by using only Ghee as the cooking medium.

Serves: 3

Preparation Time: 20 mins

Cooking Time: 30-35 mins

Ingredients:

• Paneer - 250 gms.Sliced.
• Green Peas - 300 gms.
• Onion - 2 medium sized ones.Sliced into small, uniform pieces.
• Ginger Paste - 1 tbsp
• Garlic - 1 tbsp
• Tomato - 2 medium sized ones. Made into a fine paste.
• Salt - To taste
• Melted Ghee - 
• 2 tbsp for frying the paneer
• 2 tbsp for lightly tossing the green peas
• 4 tbsp for the curry.

Powdered Spices:

• Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
• Coriander Powder - 2 tsp
• Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp

Whole Spices:

• Bay leaf - 1
• Green Cardamon - 2
• Cinnamon Stick - One 1 inch piece.

Preparation:

• Lightly fry the paneer slices in 2tbsp of melted ghee and keep aside.
• Lightly fry the green peas in 2tbsp of melted ghee and keep aside.

Cooking:

• Heat 4 tbsp of ghee in a kadai.
• Once the ghee melts, add the whole spices.
• When the spices start to sputter, add the ginger and garlic paste.
• Wait for the smell of the ginger/garlic to evolve. Then add the sliced onion.
• Adjust the heat to medium and wait for the onion slices to turn brown.
• Then add the tomato paste and the powdered spices at the same time.
• Stir the mixture for  12-15 mins, until the raw-ness of the tomato disappears.
• Add some amount of salt and stir for 2 mins.
• Then add the paneer and peas at the same time.
• Add warm water, the quantity of which depends on the desired amount of gravy.
• Reduce the heat to low and let the mixture simmer for a further 15 mins, so that the spices blend uniformly and homogeneously.

Serve with Roti/Parantha.