Mutter Paneer

Alright friends....I am back with the cooking recipe!! I know, I know, I had said in my last post that I will post the Mutter Paneer recipe soon, but that was like over a month ago and I had been busy so couldn't post it.  But now here it is!!  I got the recipe from http://www.vahrehvah.com/Mattar+paneer:3257 where they also provided video of how to make it, which always helps!!  I made the mutter paneer almost similar to how it was shown in the video with minor changes.  Before I go on to the recipe, here is the picture of the Mutter Paneer that I made :).

Mutter Paneer

Ingredients:
Vegetables:
Tomatoes (3-4 medium sized), Onion (1/2 big one or 1 small), Green Chillies (1 to 2 jalapenos), Cilantro, Green Peas (1 cup)

Spices:
Red chili powder, Coriander powder, Cumin powder, Turmeric, Salt, Garam masala (whole garam masala if you have them), Cumin Seeds, Sugar (if needed), ginger garlic paste (I had garlic paste and shredded ginger)

Other:
Paneer, Cooking oil, Cashew nuts (6-8 pieces broken), Cream/Yogurt (optional), Kasturi methi (I didn't use it)

Preparation:
- Chop onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and green chillies
- Shred Ginger
- Boil green peas (to be used later in the recipe)
- Cut Paneer into cubes
- Cook Paneer in a separate pan (with oil or butter) and keep them aside for later use

Process:
For Gravy:
1) In a pan, add oil and add broken cashew nuts and saute them
2) Once they become light brown, add chopped onions and add little bit of salt
3) Cook onions until they are slightly brown in color
4) Once they are slightly brown, add turmeric, ginger garlic paste (or in my case, garlic paste & shredded ginger) and mix it all up
5) Once the ginger garlic paste leaves the raw flavor, add chopped tomatoes and mix everything well.
6) Let it all cook for few minutes until tomatoes are slightly soft
7) Once everything is cooked, blend the mixture and make a paste out of it (gravy) and keep it aside.
8) Let the mixture cool off

Main:
1) In a separate pan, add oil and cumin seeds (and whole garam masala if you have them)
2) Saute the cumin seeds and then add the blended puree
3) Add some water (depends on how much gravy you want, but usually 1 - 2 cups)
4) Add chopped green chillies
5) Add coriander powder, cumin powder, and red chilli powder (according to taste)
6) Bring the mixture to boil (let it boil for 15 minutes on medium heat)
7) If you have Kasturi methi, this is the step where you add it in the gravy
8) When the gravy is kind of thick, add green peas and garam masala powder (if you didn't use the whole garam masala at the beginning of the recipe)
9) At this point, taste the gravy and if you feel it's bit sour due to the tomatoes or whatever, you can add little bit of sugar so that it will take away the sourness in the gravy.
10) Let it cook for another 5 minutes
11) Add the cooked paneer to the gravy and simmer it for few minutes
12) Turn of the heat and add chopped cilantro
13) Let it sit on the stove for few minutes and then serve!!

This took me about 2 hours to make it from preparation to the final touches of cilantro and the good thing is that it turned out great!!  I will definitely try this recipe again!  One thing that I tried for first time in this recipe is the gravy process.  Normally what I do is make the puree of tomatoes, onions and green chillies and then cook that with the spices, but this time I followed the video and cooked the tomatoes, onions, salt, turmeric, cumin seeds, and garlic paste and then made the puree out of it.  I don't know what difference it made, but I guess the tomatoes, onions, and mainly garlic paste were properly cooked before making its paste so the mixture has good taste.  Anyways, it was a different approach and it worked...so no complains :).

Hope you have fun making mutter paneer just as much as I did!!!