Potato-paneer-peas curry

All North Indian dishes like aloo palak, dal makhani, sarson-ki-saag are very foreign to me. After hopping blog after blog of different cuisines I finally dwelled to try out my lighter and drier version of paneer-aloo-mutter. For this I made the paneer at home from 2% milk. Making paneer at home is a breeze.

1. Heat 2% milk until it bubbles

2. Squeeze 2 to 3 tbl of lemon juice and let the milk separate

3. drain all the liquid and collect the solids through a cheese cloth and hang it for 8 hours and cut into cubes

• 1. Saute a cup of paneer cubes in a tablespoon of oil in a non-stick pan
• 2. Remove the cubes, add another tablespoon of oil and add cumin
• 3. Saute cumin until aroma comes for a minute. Add two pods of garlic grated and half an inch of ginger root also grated.
• 4. Add finely chopped half a medium sized onion and saute for 5 minutes. Add two small potatoes chopped into half inch cubes
• 5. Make a puree of two tomatoes and add to the onion-potato mixture
• 6. Add a tsp of garam masala, two teaspoons of chilli powder. Add salt to taste. Close with lid and allow to cook for 15 minutes until the potatoes are fork tender
• 7. Add fistful of frozen peas , paneer cubes and continue to cook for a minute. Add finely chopped coriander/cilantro.

Quarter cup cream can also be stirred in to get the restaurant taste. Since the paneer cubes will not be as hard as the wholemilk paneer I added them towards the end.

curdled paneer ready to be strained