Shahi Paneer

Aarush, my younger son asked ” so mom, am i a prince?” .I just raised my eyebrows and looked at him in surprise. Then he explained, ” Mom, our hindi lesson has a character called Appukkuttan, a “shahi gaj ” which means royal elephant. If this dish is called Shahi paneer and it is made for me, then i should be a prince right? I loved the way he explained the whole story to me and the connection he made between his lesson and my food. I told him softly” Yeah baby, you are my prince.”
Okay, I’m back to the dish now. Shahi paneer is a Mughal dish cooked for royal blood.But these days, as we all think of ourselves as kings and queens of our own world,we have all the right to cook and eat this royal dish. 🙂 Let’s see how it’s prepared.

serves – 6
Prep time – 15 minutes
Ingredients
Paneer/ cottage cheese ( cut into cubes) – 350 gm
Cashew nut paste – 3 to 4 tbsp
Milk – 1 cup
Onion – 2 medium-sized
Tomato puree – 5 tbsp
Sugar – 1 tbsp
salt – to taste
ghee/ oil – 3 tbsp
Kasuri methi – 1 tsp ( Dried fenugreek leaves)
Kashmiri red chilli powder – 1 tsp
Green cardamom – 3
Black cardamom – 3
garam masala – 1 tsp
Ginger juliens – 2 tsp
Fresh cream – 1/2 cup (Optional)

Method
1. Cut the onion into big pieces and boil in 2 cups of water. Drain and grind to a fine paste using mixie . Keep aside.
2. Heat some oil/ghee in a wok/kadai . Add the cardamoms and then the onion paste into the hot ghee and saute for 2 minutes. Now add the ginger juliens and tomato puree into the kadai and saute well. Add the red chilli powder followed by garam masla and saute till the time oil starts seperating.Add cashew paste. Now add some milk to get your preferred consistency of gravy.Add sugar and salt according to your taste.Mix well.
3. Now add the paneer cubes into the gravy and mix gently with spoon.
4. If you need a thinner consistency, add more milk instead of water for best results.Once the gravy comes to a boil ,switch off the flame.
5. Add Kasuri methi on top of the gravy. You may add fresh cream also if you need a richer gravy.

Serve hot with Naans or Kulchas. Enjoy!!!
Tips
1. Grind cashew nuts using milk in a mixie.
2. Ginger juliens should be very thin. If you are finding it difficult, grind ginger with tomato.

Thanks for dropping in ! Let me know your opinion about this dish here .