Matar Paneer

Matar paneer in Marathi

Serves: 3 to 4 persons
Time: 45 to 50 minutes (Preparation Time: 30 minutes, To make gravy: 15 to 20 minutes)

Ingredients:
250 gram paneer (Tips 1 and 2)
1 cup green peas (Frozen)
1 Big Onion, chopped
4 medium Tomatoes, chopped
Whole Garam Masala – (2 cardamoms, 1 bay leaf, 4 Cloves, 1 small cinnamon stick, 3 to 4 black pepper corn). Grind the masala ingredients (except cardamom) to a coarse powder
2 tsp ginger-garlic paste (4 to 5 garlic cloves + 1/2 to 1 inch ginger piece)
6-7 cashewnuts
1 tsp Coriander powder
1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds powder
1/2 tsp Amchoor Powder (Tip 6)
1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
1 green chilies (Optional)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 or 2 tsp red chili powder
3 tbsp Oil
Salt to taste
1 to 2 tsp Sugar (Tip 7) (Optional)
2 tbsp plain yogurt
Cilantro for garnishing

Method:
1) In a nonstick skillet, heat 2 tbsp oil. Fry cashew nuts. Then add finely chopped onion, add salt and fry till onion becomes translucent. After that, add turmeric powder and ginger garlic paste. Fry for few seconds and add finely chopped tomatoes. Let the tomatoes cook nicely, till soft and mushy. Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool down. Then blend this mixture to a fine paste. Add little water if required.
2) Cut paneer into pieces and shallow fry in a nonstick pan by adding little oil.
3) Heat 1 tbsp oil in a frying pan. Add ground garam masala and fry for 15 seconds. Add Cardamom, cumin seeds, let it splutter. Then, add onion-tomato paste and little water. We need medium thick gravy so add water accordingly. Add coriander powder, cumin powder, sugar, green chilies and red chili powder. Cook this gravy for 5 minutes over medium heat. Add salt if needed. Add peas and boil for few more minutes. Add paneer pieces, yogurt and stir very gently. After adding paneer pieces, avoid continuous strring. It may break the paneer pieces.
Garnish with cilantro and serve with naan or roti. Matar paneer tastes great with white rice too.

Tips:
1) Fresh paneer can be used without shallow frying. However, fresh paneer tends to crumble after adding to the hot gravy.
2) Paneer made with whole milk tastes very good. But it is very delicate to handle when freshly prepared. In that case, refrigerate for two days. Then shallow fry in a nonstick pan over medium low heat.
3) If whole garam masala ingredients are unavailable, use 1 tsp readymade garam masala powder. However, try to use freshly ground garam masala ingredients as they give nice flavor and aroma to the curry.
4) I have used frozen peas in the above recipe. If you are going to use fresh peas, cook them for few more minutes into the gravy.
5) Use good quality of red chili powder which will give nice red color to the curry.
6) Sometimes, tomatoes are less sour in taste. So taste the gravy and add little amchoor powder to make it little sour.
7) Little sweetness from sugar increases the flavor of curry. It is optional though.