It is said “Trying is always enough”. This is what happened when I introduced paneer to my 2 yr old. I had prepared Paneer makhanwala for my friends and my son tasted it for the first time. Now he insists of having either kheer or Paneer. These two are his favorites. Here is the recipe of Paneer Makhanwala; I recently made for my friends.
Ingredients:
250 gms Paneer or Cottage cheese
3 medium Tomatoes
1 tbsp Tomato ketchup
1" Ginger, chopped
12-15 cashew nuts or 1/4 cup Water melon seeds
1/2 cup Milk
1/2 tsp Garam Masala
1 tsp Kashmiri Red chilli powder
1 tsp Coriander powder
1/2 tsp Cumin seeds powder
1/4 Turmeric powder
1/2 tsp Kasuri methi
1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
Salt to taste
2 tbsp Oil
1 tbsp Butter
Method:
Cut the Paneer pieces into cubes. Keep the pieces in warm water for some time; this would keep the paneer cubes soft. One can shallow paneer pieces, like I have done it.
Cut tomatoes and bell paper in appropriate size. One can avoid bell pepper if they wish to. Also make tomato puree by boiling the tomatoes and peeling the skin off.
Blanch cashew nuts in warm water for 3-4 minutes.
Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and fry ginger.
Add the chopped tomatoes and bell pepper and fry for a couple of minutes. Add tomato ketchup, coriander powder, cumin seeds powder, turmeric powder and salt as per taste and fry all of this for a minute. Allow the mixture to cool for a while.
Grind the boiled tomatoes into a puree form. Do the same process with the blanched cashew nuts.
Heat oil and 1 tsp butter in a pan, add cumin seeds. Once the seeds crackle, add the tomato puree into it and allow it to fry till it leaves oil.
Add the cashew nuts paste and mix it well. Cook it for a couple of minutes and keep adding water to make the right consistency.
Add red chilly powder, garam masala and kasuri methi into the pan and mix it well.It would look like this.
Add the fried paneer pieces into the mixture and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Turn the gas off and let the gravy cool a bit.
The paneer makhanwala is ready to be served.