Shahi Paneer (again...)

Ingredients:

1. 250 Gms Paneer ( Cottage Cheese) cut into cubes

2. 1 Onion - Finely Chopped ( or grinded into a paste in a food processor)
3. 2 Green Chillies - Finely chopped
4. 1 teaspoon - ginger paste
5. 4 Tomatoes - finely chopped ( or blended into a puree in a food processor)
6. Cardmom powder ( 1/2 tea spoon ) only two pinches would be used in the curry
7. 1/4 cup beaten curd
8. 1/2 teaspoon red chilly powder
9. 1/2 teaspoon sugar
10. 1/4 cup milk
11. Oil for cooking 2 table spoons

Instructions:

1. Add oil in a fry pan and heat the oil
2. Add the onions and fry till brown.
3. Add Ginger paste, chillies and fry further for 2 minutes.
4. Add the tomatoes and fry further for 5 minutes or until the oil seperates .( You can see the oil coming out of the onion and tomatoes paste)
5. Remove from heat add the curd and mix.
6. Put back on heat
7. Add some water to it ( 1/2 cup)
8. Leave it to boil to a thick gravy. ( like melted icecream consistency)
9. Add some milk and the sugar and leave it on slow heat.
10. Add the cubes of Paneer.
11. If you wish you can garnish it with coriander leaves.

TIPS: You can smoke the paneer with Heeng ( Asoeftida) before putting it into the gravy. Follow the instructions below to do that

a) Take a big pan, heat the pan and keep the paneer cubes in it , leave the centre of the pan empty , drop a tablespoon of oil in the centre and add a pinch of Heeng ( Asoeftida) powder and cover the pan with a tight fitting lid. You would see asoeftida smelling smoke coming out of the oil .

B) Leave the cover on for 5 minutes, you can switch off the heat. The idea is to let the smoke mingle with the paneer cubes. ( as described in the step 8 above).

Serve it with Naan, Rice or Roti
TIP : The paneer cubes can also be fried, but it is unncecessary. It does not add much taste , but it will make the paneer hard. Some people complain that if they do not fry the paneer then the paneer crumbles.
To avoid this the paneer cubes are to be added just at the end and once you remove the gravy from the heat.