Saturday 11 June 2011

Paneer Butter Masala/Paneer Makhani





A recipe to treasure – Paneer butter masala is similar to butter chicken by taste and one of my favourites. It is a popular Punjabi dish, that you would come across any Indian restaurant and is generally loaded with cream to bring that buttery goodness. It is also known as paneer makhani, Paneer is Indian cottage cheese and makhan stands for Butter. I usually skip butter as we get that buttery taste just by adding cream. That is from my observation from numerous trials of making butter chicken and paneer butter masala. This recipe uses minimal cream, I just use 2 tablespoon, but you can add more if you wish.

N.B: Sorry I have to bore you with loads of pics, It's just that I am confused and can't decide which pic to choose!



Paneer Butter Masala
Serves 3-4
Preparation time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 - 25 minutes

Ingredients:
250 gm paneer cut into 1”cubes
160g, 1 medium-large onion sliced thin
200g, 1 ½ large tomatoes or 2 medium size
25g, ¼ cup cashew soaked in ¼ cup hot water
2 tablespoon – 1/3 cup heavy cream
2-3 teaspoons red chilli powder (I used Kashmiri chilli powder. You can use cayenne, paprika or a mixtureof chilli powder to adjust the heat).
½ teaspoon cumin powder
1 - 1 ½ teaspoon garam masala powder
2 teaspoon dry kasuri Methy leaves (fenugreek leaves)
¼ teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoon minced ginger
2 teaspoons minced garlic
3 whole cloves
3 green cardamoms
2 small pieces cinnamon sticks
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
2 tablespoon chopped garlic
Oil/butter - as required.
Water – 1 ½ - 2 cups
2 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves
Red food colour – few drops
Salt to taste


Preparation:

1. Soak cashews in ¼ cup of hot water for around 15-20 minutes and grind them to fine paste.

2. Puree tomatoes in a blender to fine paste. Mix both and keep them aside. Also mix chilli powder, cumin powder, salt, 1/2 - 1 teaspoon garam masala powder, kasury methi, sugar into this tomato puree.

3. In a frying pan, heat 3 tablespoon of oil and fry paneer until golden, stirring them occasionally. This can be done in couple of batches.

4. In another sauce pan heat 1 tablespoon of butter (I used the oil that I fried paneer) and sauté the chopped onions until translucent and soft. Grind this also into a fine puree.

5. Heat couple of tablespoons of butter/veg oil in the same pan you sautéed onion and add cumin seeds. When they splutter, add cardamons, cloves, cinnamon and sauté until they leave aroma.

6. Lower the heat and sauté minced ginger garlic until the raw smell goes off. Add pureed onion and sauté for about 5 minutes until it starts to change colour and is void of moisture.

7. Add in tomato puree mixture and sauté till it becomes thick and oil clears from sides, around 10 minutes.

8. Add 1 ½ - 2 cups boiling water, and bring to boil, You can also add 1 ½ cups water and ½ cup milk here. (Here I added 1 ½ cup water first, the mixed colour to rest of the water and added slowly to get the right colour I wanted).

9. Add in paneer, reduce the heat and gently simmer for 5-7 minutes until the gravy thickens a bit

10. Add cream (room temperature) and cook for further 2 minutes. Sprinkle rest of garam masala and coriander leaves and serve hot with naan, paratta etc.

N.B: Food colour is optional. I added here to bring some colour to the dish, which otherwise is a bit boring. If food colour is not added, the colour will be orangish.

Few other great recipes that I came through:



33 comments:

My Kitchen Antics said...

one of my favs:)
u know what..personally i like the ones with the white background better :)

Nitha said...

My fav too.. But I am always hesitant when i think about the calories ;)

Yours looks perfect..

Vardhini said...

Perfect dear .. lovely presentation.

Vardhini
Event: Dish it Out - Spinach and Garlic
Event: Healthy Lunchbox Ideas - Broccoli

Vineetha Sush said...

Loved all the pics..Agree with Nisha white background ones are the best.

Chitra said...

mouthwatering paneer butter masala

Unknown said...

This is my staple order for sidedish...Looks perfectly done and yummy

Mona said...

I love Paneer, especially in creamy gravy curries. The snaps are very delicious.

Ms.Chitchat said...

All the clicks are too good and very tempting, enjoyed them. Loved the recipe and even I do need some color to my dish,perfect paneer butter masala, bookmarked.

Reshmi Mahesh said...

Thats a great recipe and loved your presentation...All the pics are really good...Esp the white BG ones.

Fajeeda said...

nice one da........actually i don't make dishes with paneer becos my hubby don't like paneer much........but this is a must try dish......will try it out and will let u know........

Mélange said...

A classic Indian make Shabs..Hey,I can see your enthusiasm about clicks..Lovely!

Divya Kudua said...

My word!Shabs,all the pics are beautiful,PBM looks absolutely delicious!

Raksha's Kitchen said...

wow, nice recipe and awesome clicks

Indian Khana said...

My one of fav too :) ..looks just so perfect with those naans ...I liked the white background ones too :)

Raksha's Kitchen said...

An award waiting for you at:

http://rakshaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/awards-and-recognition.html

Shabs.. said...

Thank u so much friends and thax so much for mentioning about the white white BG....So many seem to like white background,wow. I prefer coloured ones, but I will try to shoot more on white background. Easy for me too:)

Shabs.

Prathima Rao said...

My fav paneer gravy...This has come out so creamy & perfect!!!
Prathima Rao
Prats Corner

Priya Suresh said...

PBM looks simply out of the world, excellent and extremely irresistible..

divya said...

Wow, that looks amazing!

Rinku Naveen said...

Shabs that last snap is absolutely stunning..
Actually yes white BG looks too good.
Not a big fan of Paneer but I guess the same recipe can be used for B.Chicken.

Sayantani Mahapatra Mudi said...

I love the purple table cloth and theose clicks are gorgeous. love this recipe and you made it so very beautifully.

Valarmathi Sanjeev said...

Wow..it sone of my favourite, mouthwatering click, looks absolutely delicious.

Hari Chandana P said...

Looks absolutely delicious and perfect.. love the presentation too.. awesome clicks !!
Indian Cuisine

Hamaree Rasoi said...

Shabs,
I have been going through your post for past few days...Your recipes are well explained and beautiful clicks...Though white background is my fav too but sometimes it becomes monotonous too. Isn't it? PBM looks very delicious
I'm your new follower. Keep in touch

Deepa
Hamaree Rasoi

Sravs said...

perfect paneer butter masala !! love to have with naans!!

Unknown said...

The pictures are so not boring, actually I would say, the more, the merrier :)

Absolutely adoring the pics and the recipe that goes with it :)

Jehanne said...

Hi Shabs
Remember you taught me some tips on shooting food photography? Now I have finally muster the courage to put the works into a blog! After such a long time eh..and it's still to be updated etc..so here we go:

http://www.thecookingdoctor.co.uk

Pls feel free to visit..

also, how do I join Kerala kitchen? my recipes will be malabari based so would be good to socialise on the net..!

Thanx a bunch again for inspiring me to blog too, and ur photo tutorials give me a good headstart..thank you Shabs.

Zareena said...

LOve this alot but thinking about the calories, I made it only once. Nice clicks as usual.

San said...

Everybody's fav among the veg gravies, paneer butter masala is the ruler and such a keeper for parties n get togethers.It is really rich n classic shabs.

http://sanscurryhouse.blogspot.com

Shabs.. said...

Thanks everyone for stopping by and for ur valuable comments and suggestions.

Jehanne, I went thru ur site and I loved ur recipes, way of writing and pics..I am having some trouble commenting there, at the moment. I will try again tomorrow. All the best:) I am ur first follower, Yay!

Ninu said...

I tried this and it came really good!of all the different recipes I tried out for paneer butter masala, this one emerged as winner! Thanks for sharing! Love your blog!

kankana said...

This is definitely one of my fav paneer dish and we make that often. And you didn't bore me with those beautiful pictures :)

Priya Menon said...

Thanks for this delicious receipe. I did some variations, added some vegetables and about handful of paneer and it turned out to be a super hit Vegetable Makhani. Thank you so much...simply love your receipes.

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