Cooks Joy

It has been ages since I made any dish with paneer. I had this at my friend’s place and decided to make it for “Sinful Delight” and for “Dish it Out – Cheese and Tomato”. The gravy uses a lot of butter and cream. I reduced it to half, but still it is rich. If I make it again, I will probably just add a hint of butter and may be fat free half and half or just milk. Of course with all the rich ingredients, the dish had that restaurant taste and we enjoyed it.

This dish has a strong ajwain flavor, but you can adjust the quantity to taste. I halved the quantity since hubby does not like ajwain flavor, but I love it. The dish although easy requires some pre-planning. It helps if the gravy is made the previous day itself since it takes a lot of time to simmer to the required consistency. With the gravy on hand, putting the tawa masala together is very easy. Off to the recipe of this sinful delight. Recipe from Shy.

Ingredients
20 pieces paneer
1 tsp ghee + 2 tsp oil
1 tsp ajwain
1 cup chopped onion
1 tbsp ginger paste
2 green chillies
1/2 tsp red chilly powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 cup makhni gravy (recipe at the end of this post)
1 tsp garam masala
1/3 cup coriander leaves for garnish

Method
Heat ghee and oil. Add ajwain and saute for few seconds.

Add onions, green chillies and ginger paste.

Saute until onions are done.

Add coriander powder and red chilly powder. (The gravy will also have chilly powder and chillies. So adjust accordingly.)

Saute for a couple of minutes.

Add paneer and turn it around slowly to coat the spices.

Add the makhni gravy. Mix well. (Recipe for makhni gravy is at the end of this post. Will post step by step pictures in a separate post.)

Simmer for few minutes until the gravy coats the paneer well. Add salt if required since the gravy has salt.

The gravy thickens a lot on standing. So keep aside some gravy to coat it again before serving. Shy has mentioned this in her post and I experienced it as well.

Paneer Tawa Masala ready and we had it with rotis.

Makhni Gravy (Will post the step by step pictures in a separate post)

2.25 pounds tomatoes blanched

1.5 tsp ginger paste

1.5 tsp garlic paste

4 small green chillies

1.5 tsp red chilly powder

10 cloves

5 cardamom
Salt

1/4 cup butter

2/3 cup half and half

1 tbsp kastoori methi

1 tsp ginger

Method
1. To 4 cups of water add the tomatoes, ginger paste, garlic paste, green chillies, red chilly powder, cloves, cardamom and salt.
2. Simmer until the mixture thickens. It took an hour for me. If you find that the tomatoes are not breaking down even after an hour, mash using a potato masher.
3. Strain to remove whole spices. I did not have a strainer big enough to pass the gravy and so hand picked the whole spices.
4. To the gravy add butter and cream / half & half. Simmer for a couple of minutes.
5. Add kastoori methi and ginger pieces.
6. You can freeze excess gravy.

Enjoy!

On its way to Sinful Delights hosted at Zesty Palette and
Dish it Out – Cheese and Tomatoes hosted by Anamika.