Kadhai Paneer

Last night I came home from office after a 2-hour drive through the horrible traffic jams. The journey would have ideally been somewhere between 45 minutes to a little over an hour. And I came home to find that my mom was not only busier than I was, but also that she too was stuck in a traffic jam. Since it was close to dinner time and no dinner in sight, I volunteered to prepare the entire meal. The rice, dal and my very simple spicy pepper squid (another post) turned out well, I hunted for simple paneer recipes and came across Tarla Dalal’s Kadhai Paneer recipe on http://www.tarladalal.com.  

It was easy and tasted really, really good. Here's how you make it:

Preparation Time: 30 min.

Cooking Time: 20 min.
Serves 6.

Ingredients

500 gms (1 1/8 lb.) paneer (cottage cheese)
100 gms capsicum
2 tsp coriander (dhania) seeds
5 whole red chillies
3/4 tsp dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi)
2 green chillies, chopped
2 tsp chopped ginger
4 tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsp chopped coriander (dhania)
3 tbsp ghee (I don’t like oily food so I did cut down on the ghee and added vegetable oil to nearly half the quantity mentioned here)
salt to taste

For the paste
6 cloves garlic (lehsun) mixed with a little water

Method

1. Slice the paneer and capsicum into thin long strips.
2. Pound the coriander seeds and red chillies together.
3. Heat the ghee, add the garlic paste and cook on a slow flame for a few seconds.
4. Add the capsicum and pounded spices and cook on a slow flame for 30 seconds.
5. Add the green chillies and ginger and fry again for a few seconds.
6. Add the tomatoes and cook until the ghee comes on top. (note: I’ll be using tomato paste next time. Also I ended up adding about 2 Tbsp tomato ketchup to make it a little “saucier”)
7. Add the kasoori methi and salt and fry again for a few seconds.
8. Finally, add the sliced paneer and cook for a few minutes.
9. Sprinkle coriander on top and serve hot.