Paneer Mattar Masala

This month has been a busy month. We have had friends and cousins from India every weekend. This weekend I had my husband's Uncle and Aunt from India. His Aunt is an expert cook and I had to make something special. So I tried this paneer mattar masala from another expert's blog - Rak's blog. The paneer turned out creamy and yummy and we all enjoyed it immensely.

The recipe I followed was quite close to what was on Rak's blog. I just skipped the yogurt and lemon bit! Also the step by step pictures, helped me not burn the onions - key to a yummy gravy!

Sending this recipe off to Priya's every tuesday book-marked event.



Ingredients
1 packet of Paneer - defrosted

1/2 cup of Frozen Peas
2 Tomatoes - diced
3 Green chillies
1 tea spoon of Ginger garlic paste
1/2 tea spoon of Red chili powder
1 tea spoon of Dhaniya powder
1/2 tea spoon of Turmeric powder
pinch of Garam masala powder
Coriander leaves for garnishing
Salt to taste
2 tablespoon of oil 

To Fry and grind to a paste
2 Onion - sliced
1 small Cinnamon
2 Elachi/cardamom
2 cloves
4-5 Pepper
1 tea spoon of oil or ghee

How To

Heat a pan with oil and add the cinnamon, elachi, cloves and pepper.
The add onion and fry till golden brown. Ensure it doesn't burn. (Look at the pictures on her site to know when to stop frying the onions). Cool and grind into a smooth paste.
Shallow fry the frozen paneer with a little bit of oil until it turns golden brown. Remove and keep aside.
Heat a pan, add oil. Once the oil is hot, add green chilies and then ginger garlic paste. Fry for 2 minutes and then add the onion paste from above and let it simmer at low heat for 10-12 min. Keep stirring the paste every few minutes. Keep doing this until oil comes out from the mixture.
Add the salt and red chili powder and dhaniya powder and mix well.

After this add the diced tomatoes and cook well. Add garam masala. Cook until the tomatoes are mushy.
Add the frozen peas and the paneer cook for a few minutes.
Adjust spice level and garnish with coriander leaves. Add some water if you like gravy in your paneer curry.
I love my paneer curry, the next day. You can enjoy it same day or warmed the next day!