Alu Matar Paneer

Lets get one thing straight. I prefer non vegetarian food over vegetarian any day of the week (yes, that includes Thursdays). However, among the vegetarian dishes one dish I love in particular is Matar Paneer (Cottage cheese cooked with peas as a curry). I have come to believe that my love for this dish has to come from my mom, who loves it while my dad absolutely detests paneer. This dish is another one of the many dishes that I learnt from my mom but I have updated it by adding one of my favorite ingredients : cashew nut paste. This is a completely optional ingredient and is used solely for making the dish tastier.

Now you may ask why am I making paneer today all of a sudden if I love non vegetarian food. Well, I prefer taking my lunch to office and today when I checked my ingredients supply I found that it had almost run out. What I had was  1 block of paneer (200gms), 1 onion and 1 tomato among the essentials. Egg curry was out of the question as I already had eggs for breakfast. Hence, my choice came down to matar paneer.

Ingredients:
  • Paneer (Cottage cheese) - 200 gms cut into cubes
  • Onion - 1 large chopped into large chunks
  • Ginger garlic paste - 2 teaspoons
  • Tomato - 1 medium (pureed)
  • Potato - 1 large chopped into small cubes
  • Peas - 1 cup
  • Cumin seeds (Jeera) - 1 teaspoon
  • Turmeric powder - 0.5 teaspoons
  • Coriander powder - 1.5 teaspoons
  • Red chili powder - 1 teaspoon
  • Cumin powder - 0.5 teaspoon
  • Garam Masala powder - 1 teaspoon
  • Cashew (optional) - half cup
  • Coriander leaves - 1 cup chopped
  • Salt to taste
  • Oil - 1 teaspoon
Cooking Instructions

  1. Put the chopped onion, ginger and garlic paste into a blender and blend them till a thick paste is formed
  2. Take a non stick Kadhai (Wok) and heat the oil in it. Add cumin seeds and saute for around 10 -15 seconds on medium heat
  3. Add the onion-ginger-garlic paste and saute till the raw flavor of garlic is removed. Add the Potatoes, salt and turmeric powder and mix them well. Add water (1.5 cups) and let the mixture cook.
  4. Once the water has dried off, add cumin powder, coriander powder and red chili powder and mix them well and saute for a few seconds
  5. Add the peas and some more water and cook till the peas soften
  6. Add the tomato puree and cook till the consistency of the mixture thickens.
  7. Now, as an optional ingredient, you can add the cashew paste and stir it well.
  8. Add the paneer cubes and lightly stir it in (to make sure the paneer cubes don't break)
  9. Add the garam masala powder and chopped coriander leaves and serve with chappatis/rice.
This is an extremely easy recipe which can be done with ingredients readily available at home. Let me know your feedback in the comments section.

And remember, Anyone can cook.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dim Posto - Eggs cooked in a poppy seed paste

Image
So today, I was in the mood for trying out a new recipe. On browsing through the recipes on the internet, I came across a dish called Dim Posto - an egg dish using poppy seed paste. I was intrigued by the simplicity of the dish and decided to prepare it in my own style. The end result is to be seen to be believed. Ingredients  : 3 eggs, hard boiled 4 tablespoons poppy seeds 8-10 cashew nuts 2 tablespoons yoghurt whisked with a bit of water 1 medium sized onion finely chopped 1 inch cinnamon stick 1 Bay leaf 3 cloves 4 green cardamom 5 cloves of garlic 1 inch ginger piece 2 green chillies finely chopped 1 teaspoon turmeric powder 1 teaspoon red chilli powder  1 teaspoon cumin powder 1 teaspoon cumin whole Salt to taste 1½ teaspoons sugar 2 tablespoons white oil A handful of coriander leaves finely chopped (for garnishing) 1 tablespoon cream (for garnishing) Cooking Instructions   : In a large pan, add 1 teaspoon of oil. Once the oil is...
Read more

Short cut Biryani flavored fried rice

Image
So today, after a hectic day at office, returned home and was not feeling like putting much effort into cooking as I was extremely tired. I thought of purchasing some chappatis from the dhaba near my home. However, the shop was closed so decided to make fried rice with biryani masala (the kind that is found readily in market courtesy various brands). I went for this against normal steamed rice as i would already be having something boring called Chicken Stew that I had prepared in the morning. This recipe was taught to me by my sister and I have improvised it with my own touches. Remember you will need a pressure cooker to make this. Ingredients Gobindabhog Rice - 1 Cup Onion - 1 large, sliced into rings Tomato - 1 large, sliced into circular pieces Biryani masala (any biryani masala available in the market) - 1 teaspoon Oil - 2 teaspoons Salt to taste 2 - 3 tablespoons of peas (optional) A handful of Mint leaves chopped (optional) Water - 1.5 cups  Cooking In...
Read more

Dahi Murgh -- Chicken marinated with yoghurt and spices and cooked on a slow flame

Image
So today being a Sunday, I thought i would make something nice and easy for Lunch. Back in the day, Sunday meant only one thing - the day I would gorge on mutton. The only problem of this was, since I love mutton, I used to purchase a lot of it  for 1 person. 500-750 gms and i would finish that off in a day. This had been going on for a long time till I decided to put my feet down (I was trying to lose weight and still am) and decided I would no longer cook mutton for myself. It has been 8-9 months since I last made any mutton dish. So anyway, coming back to the present, I decided on making a very simple recipe I had learnt from my mom and also read about on the internet. The dish is very tasty and can be had with rice or roti. Ingredients: Chicken - 800 gms with bone Yoghurt - 500 gms Onions - 2-3 large sized finely chopped Butter or any other bread spread fat (I used Nutralite) - 2 tablespoons Whole green Chili - 3 Ginger Garlic paste - 1.5 tablespoons Lemon...
Read more