Thursday 22 March 2012

Paneer Makhni - Indian Food Week Day 1

As promised, I'm going to post a week's worth of Indian food recipes - from Korma to Bhaji, including Parathas and Kulcha.
These recipes are not meant to be easy or quick (well, maybe except this first one...) - it's more of an experiment with flavours.
If you'd like tips on quick Indian food and how to prepare the basic sauce in advance to save time, see my earlier post on curries. I will try to keep these recipes as simple as I can make them and hope that you guys try them out too and let me know how they turn out!

Paneer Makhni
Nom nom nom - that's all I have to say!
Ingredients:

Paneer Makhni ingredients
250 grams Paneer, cubed
Olive oil
1 tsp (Coconut) Butter
1 Onion, chopped
2 cm piece of Ginger, peeled
3 Garlic cloves
2 Tbsp Cashews, soaked in hot water until soft (up to an hour)
1 tsp Cumin Powder
1/2 tsp Coriander Powder
1-2 tsp Chilli Powder
1 tsp Garam Masala
1 tin chopped Tomatoes
1 tsp Turmeric Powder
1 Tbsp Tomato Paste
1 tsp Brown Sugar
1 tsp Salt
1 Tbsp dried Fenugreek leaves
125ml Cream - I used Soya cream for less fat

Note: I added about 3 Tbsp of the Basic Curry Sauce to this dish to add flavour. If you like your Indian food flavourful and spicy, add a bit more of each spice or some Basic Curry Sauce. I also added some Purple Sprouting Broccoli because it was begging to be used. Do not hesitate to add a little bit of vegetable to this curry (peas are particularly good!), just cook them and add them to the sauce before the cream and paneer.  

Paneer Makhni about to be devoured!


How to:
Heat up 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Cook the paneer cubes until golden brown, mixing every now and again for an even colour. Once cooked, set aside.
In the same pan, cook the onion until light brown and caramelized (about 10 minutes). Take off the heat and let cool.
Put the cooled onion in a blender with the ginger, garlic, cashews, cumin powder, coriander powder. chilli powder and garam masala and blend it all into a paste, adding a bit of water if necessary.
Heat a splash of oil and the butter on medium heat and cook the paste until nicely fragrant and the oil starts to separate, about 5 minutes.
Blend the tin of tomatoes and add to the paste in the pan. Cook for about 10-15 minutes on low heat, until the sauce has reduced a bit.
Add the tomato paste, turmeric, sugar and salt, mix well.
Add the cream and the paneer, mix gently making sure it is all heated through.
Add the fenugreek leaves, mix and serve on some brown basmati rice.
You can add a small piece of butter on top of the curry when serving. It will still be less fattening that restaurant Makhni!

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