paneer peshawari recipe with step by step pictures
paneer peshawari or peshawari paneer recipe is the recipe i just came along when i searched for a different recipe with paneer and with different sauce than usual onion tomato based one.I stumbled upon here and adapted the recipe from here .The recipe goes with the basic white gravy with onions and cashews along with fresh cream.But i modified the recipe a little by adding milk and black pepper in which the original recipe does not need.And one more thing,this is no ginger no garlic recipe.I recommend this recipe to give a try in summer as it did not have more spices and also heat ingredients like ginger and garlic.check out other paneer recipes here.
the recipe did not need any masala for making it spicy,just you need the coriander seeds and dry red chilli for the spice level in the recipe and you have to roast both of it and powder it coarsely and add it.For the color and flavor,i infused saffron in warm milk and added in the recipe.I prepared this recipe with plain briyani or kuska biryani which is more famous in Tamil Nadu and i will post the recipe of that soon here.
You have to cook the roughly chopped onions along with cashews and almonds in enough water and then grind it to a fine paste.This makes the reicpe more thick and rich and this is the base gravy for the recipe too.You can also saute the onions in a teaspoon of oil and grind it too.But the color will be little dark compared to the boiled one and also it has oil.So if you dont want to use oil in this method a very little like me,then go on with boiling method.
Coming to the photography of this post, i want to experiment with dark background other than black and it came out very well here and i did not use any reflectors or boards in the recipe.Yeah i planned to share my photography experience in few of my posts and i begin that here in this post and also i need more suggestions and ideas from you all readers and friends to improve my skills and i am a beginner in photography.
I recently introduced to DSLR and am learning the modes and exposures and also lighting with different backgrounds and ingredients.Some of my friends asked me about the lighting- i make the daylight more useful and i shoot them before 12 or 01 pm.So that you did not see any harsh lighting in the images.Here for this recipe shoot , i planned 3 recipes that day and you may see the background having 2 more dishes with some recipes.As this recipe is little less in color,a pale yellowish color,so i want to compensate the background with a dark color other than black.So i go with dark purple fabric which i bought recently and the pattern i loved is the crushed one and not plain one.
It really compensates the recipe and go well with that.Initially i thought giving a white background but the color is little pale and it is little difficult to shoot with white background and i shot these images after 1 pm.Initially i really refused to take pictures after 1 pm because the summer is here and you may get overexposed images.Here i did not use any reflectors and used just the lighting from window.And you may notice i always took some closeup images than overhead photography.I want the images and focused place to be little sharp and am learning the overhead photography which is a challenging one for me.Give your feedbacks in the comments about this post ,so that it will help me to proceed the photography posts in next one and in the future and also i planned to do it every friday.okay looking forward to see all your feedbacks and lets move on to the recipe.,
paneer peshawari recipe
cottage cheese cooked in onion with cashew and almond based gravy
- paneer , cubed - 1 cup
- Onion - 2 roughly chopped
- cashews and almonds - 1/4 cup
- green chilli - 1 finely chopped
- red chilli - 2 nos
- coriander seeds - 2 to 3 teaspoons
- saffron strands - as needed
- pepper powder - 1/4 teaspoon
- milk - 1/4 cup
- kasuri methi - 1 teaspoon
- bay leaf- 1 no
- cardamom pod - 2 nos
- oil - 1 tablespoon
- salt - to taste
- in a kadai,dry roast the dry red chilli and coriander seeds and powder it coarsely or finely.
- In a vessel boil the roughly chopped onions along with cashews and almonds along with enough water.Once it get boiled ,strain the water and make that into fine paste.
- Then heat the oil in a kadai,then add bay leaf along with cardamom pods.
- once it splutters,add the paste and cook it well till the oil separates.Then add green chilli to it and cook it low flame without burning in the bottom of the kadai.
- Now add the powder which we made from dry red chilli and coriander seeds and give a quick mix.Add enough salt in this stage or add after adding milk.
- Then slowly add milk to it and keep on stirring and then add the saffron which is dissolved in warm milk.Lower the flame and cook this for about 2 minutes.
- Then add the paneer cubes(you can shallow fry the paneer and then add,here i just added the soft paneer cubes).Then sprinkle pepper powder and gently mix it and cook it for a minute.
- Finally add kasuri methi and mix it and cook for a minute or two.Switch off the flame and serve piping hot with any Indian flat breads or biryani.
