After my marriage whenever hubby dear gets to attend an evening meeting with his clients in any restaurant, he without fail would bring me a parcel of this dish on his way home after calling me to make just rotis saying the side dish is one the way. After much trial and error I learned to make this dish in a very easy way in my home itself without missing out the taste of eating out.
Matar Paneer Butter Masala
What u need:
Paneer cubes – 200 gms
Freshly shelled peas, boiled – ¼ cup
Onions, diced – ¼ cup
Green chili, slit length wise - 2
Butter – 2 tbsp
Red Chilli powder – 1 tsp
Fresh tomato puree – 2 cups
Cumin (jeera) powder – 1 tsp
Garam masala powder – ½ tsp
Milk – ½ cup
Cream – ½ cup
Sugar – 1 tsp
Kasuri methi – ½ tsp (optional)
Oil – 1 tbsp
Salt to taste.
To be ground to a fine paste:
Onion – 1 cup
Ginger – 2 inch piece
Garlic pods – 6 to 7
Cashews - 15
What to do:
In a kadai, melt the butter. Add the paneer cubes and shallow fry till they are golden brown. Take the paneer cubes and keep it separately. In the same kadai sauté the cubed onions and the green chilies till the onions turn golden in color. Add the fried paneer cubes that you have kept separate to the sautéed onions and keep the kadai aside.
Take another pan and heat the oil, add the ground masala paste and cook till brown. Now add the chilli powder, tomato puree and cook for a few minutes.
Add the cumin powder, garam masala powder and ½ cup water and cook till the oil separates from the masala.
Pour this tomato gravy into the kadai that already has paneer cubes. Now add the boiled peas along with milk, cream, sugar and salt and let it come to a boil. Cook for 10 minutes.
You can use butter instead of oil to make the tomato gravy if you don’t mind the calories.
Note: I used 3 big ripe tomatoes to make the puree. Oh and also if you don’t have cream, not to worry replace it with milk instead. Though kasuri methi is optional it really gives the dish a superb flavor. So don’t miss adding it if u have it in your pantry.