After a long time , i had a chance to cook something with paneer and the cottage cheese is cooked in tomato onion gravy and these two are main ingredients in the recipe.The availability of paneer here is simply super and V loves paneer a lot.So having that in mind i wanted to make a variety of paneer recipes for him.You can expect more paneer delicacies here soon.Stay tuned for that and now i entered finally in a cooking challenge event by +Priya Suresh ,Shhhh secretly cooking challenge.This time i paired with +veena krishnakumar for this month and she gave two ingredients tomato and onion.
I planned to make a recipe but in a confusion i switch on the tv.There i saw the recipe with a twist there by Vikas Khanna.So i planned to that in the original way,so here comes the Punjabi special paneer lababdar.Unlike other paneer recipes,you need not want to puree tomato and onion but you have to saute few minutes and then grind into puree and then you have to cook that with paneer.I added green chilli and reduced red chilli powder here and this is perfectly goes with paratha and rotis.We had this with paneer paratha and with little pickle.This tastes mild but you can feel the heat from green chilli here.Definitely this is the super mild kid friendly recipe and those who does not want anything spicy,try this one you can surely enjoy this one.The recipe does not require any cashew paste or fresh cream for the recipe.I added few teaspoons of whole milk for the recipe and you did not need any tempering ingredients here,Ineresting,isnt it?Ok,lets move onto the recipe...
Paneer Lababdar(2 Persons)
Ingredients for making
- Paneer - 1 cup (diced into small cubes)
- Onion - 2 roughly chopped
- Green chilli - 1
- Ginger - 1/2 inch roughly chopped
- Garlic - 3 cloves
- Tomato - 3 roughly chopped
- Red chilli powder -1/4 teaspoon
- Turmeric powder- a pinch
- Coriander powder - 1/2 teaspoon
- Cumin powder - 1/4 teaspoon
- Punjabi garam masala - 1/4 teaspoon
- Whole milk - 3 teaspoons
- Ghee - 2 teaspoons
- Coriander leaves - garnishing
- Kasuri methi - a pinch
- Hing - a pinch
- Salt - to taste
How to make
- If you refrigerate your paneer pack,then take them out and allow it until it attains cool temperature.Then take bowl full of warm water.Chop the paneer slab into desired size and add it to the bowl.Leave it until you are ready to cook that.Then drain the water completely and use it.
- In a wok or kadai ,heat 2 teaspoons of ghee and add chopped onions,green chilli ,ginger and garlic.Saute till they get half cooked.Now add tomatoes and saute with a pinch of salt as it speed up the cooking this time.Adding salt enables faster cooking and you need not want to add extra salt after cooking.
- Then add all the spice powders,red chilli powder,cumin powder,turmeric powder which adds color to the recipe,coriander powder and garam masala and hing.
- Add little water and cook until the ingredients cooked soft.Then add it to the blender and make a smooth paste.
- Now add the puree to the kadai and bring to heat once again and cook until the ghee splits.
- Add 3 teaspoons of milk and cook in low flame.Check the seasoning and add salt if needed.
- Now add paneer to the gravy and simmer the flame for 2 minutes and cover it.
- Finally add kasuri methi and coriander leaves.Then switch off the flame and cover it for further few minutes before serving.
- serve this with parathas and rotis.
Cooking tips
- Use red chilli powder if you want more spiciness here.
- Use usual garam masala powder and i used store bought one for the recipe.
- Use fresh cream or cashew paste for more thickness to the recipe.But this one seems richer in color and also lighter in consuming.
