Paneer Makhani

Yummy Paneer Makhani from Shalaka and Anuradha's kitchen

Here's how we did it....

Paneer Makhani

Ingredients

Paneer	340 g
Tomatoes	8
Salted butter	100 g
Oil	6 tbsp
Black cardamom	2
Green cardamom	1
Garlic	6 pods
Ginger	1 inch
Green chillis	3
Kasuri methi	1 tsp
Red chilli powder	2 tsp
Heavy whipping cream	1/2 cup
Sugar	2 tsp
Salt	to taste

Preparation

1. Dice the tomatoes - roughly, there is not need to be precise with the size or shape.
2. Cut the ginger and green chilies into fine julienne.
3. The garlic needs to be finely chopped.
4. Paneer should be cubed.

Lets cook!

Tomato gravy

1. Heat a non-stick frying pan on medium heat and add 1 tbsp of butter and oil, each, to the pan. Add to this black and green cardamom. Sauté for 1 minute.
2. Add tomatoes till you get a mushy liquid. This will take 12-15 minutes.
3. Strain this mushy liquid using a strainer or sieve. The idea is to get all the juices and not the chunky solid bits into the gravy. 
4. The chunky bits which stay on the sieve - take that mass and blend into a paste with a little bit of water (maybe 50 ml). You basically want  the goodness of the tomatoes infused with the black and green cardamom, in the pulp, and eventually into the gravy. Strain this paste. Repeat this step one more time. Once done you should have about 3 cups of strained tomato pulp.
5. Add butter and oil, 1 tbsp each, to a frying pan, and finely chopped garlic. Sauté for a minute or until the garlic turns light brown and add the strained tomato pulp that you made in steps 3 to 5. Add red chilli powder, 1 tbsp of butter, whipping cream, sugar and salt. Simmer. The contents should reduce to 3/4 of the original volume. This makes the gravy nice, thick, and creamy.
6. Yay! We're done with the gravy :D

Paneer Makhani

1. Add the remaining butter to a warm frying pan.
2. The cubed paneer goes into the pan - toss it in the butter just a little bit. We're not looking for it to brown. We're essentially trying to soften the paneer. 
3. Add the tomato gravy and kasuri methi to the paneer and mix everything. Simmer the contents for 10-12 minutes.

Final Tadka

Heat oil in a pan, add ginger and chilli juliennes, sauté till fragrant, and add contents into the makhani. Mix well.

Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve with onion rounds and lemon slices on the side. Paneer makhani goes well with naan or jeera rice.



We've played with Harpal Singh Sokhi's recipe for tomato gravy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKnmsIE03YI) and paneer butter masala (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKnmsIE03YI).