Paneer Makhani
Paneer Makhani
Creamy paneer is cooked in a velvety smooth, bright red butter sauce that is delicately spiced. It's finished with cream or butter for a bit more decadence.Recipe courtesy of Hari Ghotra
Prep Time
10
minutes
Cook Time
30
minutes
Servings
4
Total time: 40 minutes
Ingredients
- 400 gram paneer, diced
- 2 medium red onions, roughly chopped
- 2-3 green chilies, roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon ginger, grated
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
- 4 cm stick of cassia bark
- 4 green cardamom pods
- 3 cloves
- 5 whole black peppercorns
- 7 ripe red tomatoes roughly chopped (or a 400g can of plum tomatoes)
- 3 tablespoon ghee
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 2 teaspoon coriander seeds, crushed
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon kashmiri chili powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon kasoori methi (fenugreek)
- 2-4 tablespoon greek-style yogurt or cream
- 1 cup hot water
- 1 tablespoon honey
- knob of butter
- 10 milliliter cream
- handful of fresh coriander leaves (cilantro), chopped
Directions
- Put onion, ginger, garlic, chilies, green cardamom, black pepper, cassia bark, salt into a pan and cover with water (approx. 1L).
- Bring to a boil.
- Add a can of tomatoes to the pan and leave to simmer for 15-20 min on medium heat, stirring occasionally.
- After the sauce has reduced and the mixture has come to a thick saucy consistency, remove it from heat.
- Let the mixture cool down.
- Remove the cassia bark and discard.
- Blend to a fine sauce (for a very smooth sauce you can strain it through a sieve).
- In a second pan, heat the ghee and add the cumin seeds.
- As soon as they crackle stir in the tomato sauce very carefully.
- Fry the sauce then stir in turmeric, Kashmiri chili, crushed coriander and dried fenugreek, and stir for 2-3 minutes.
- Once the sauce has thickened, reduce the heat and stir in the yogurt or cream, honey and butter.
- Cook for a minute or two and add the fresh homemade paneer.
- Stir to coat with the sauce then leave to simmer for 5 minutes on a gentle heat.
- Add a little hot water to loosen the sauce (if required) and add the honey.
- Garnish with coriander (cilantro) leaves and top with a dash of cream before serving.