Served with love: Mutter Paneer - Peas and Cottage Cheese Curry

Friday, April 3, 2009

Mutter Paneer - Peas and Cottage Cheese Curry

Come winter and the markets would be flooded with what the vegetable vendors called "delli walle mutter" (green peas from Delhi). The Delhi green peas were indeed very sweet and tender, we used to love eating them straight out of the pod!

My mum would make lovely peas patties - one December when we had the family New Years party at our place, we pestered mum to include that in the menu. Now, shelling enough peas to make patties for a huge family of 23 was no easy task and we - a gang of 6 cousins - assured her that we would help.

Of course (and needless to say), in a short time, none of us were shelling the peas - someone found a worm in a pod and put it on another's neck, fights erupted and the group broke away. But the peas did get shelled (courtesy mum and aunts) and the patties duly devoured by the ones who demanded them.

It's been years since I have even laid my eyes on green peas in pods, the frozen ones suit me just fine! And my kitchen is incomplete with them frozen green peas and frozen paneer, they come in very handy especially when I am caught with no veggies!

Mutter Paneer is something I make very often. This version results in a very creamy gravy without any cream, very restaurant - like without the calories.

Ingredients:

Peas - 1 cup

Paneer - 1/3 cup

Onion - 2 medium sized, chopped

Ginger and Garlic paste - 1 tsp each

Tomato - 1 large, chopped

Cashewnut powder - 2 - 3 tbsp

Low Fat Milk - about 100 ml

Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp (or to taste)

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Cumin seed powder - 1 tsp

Coriander seed powder - 1 tsp

Kitchen king masala - 1 1/2 tsp (I use Everest Kitchen King masala)

Kasoori methi - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Salt - to taste

Method:

In a pan, dry roast the kasoori methi and crush it to a fine powder. Set aside.

Heat oil and fry the ginger garlic paste till fragrant. Next, saute the onion till it turns pink. Then add the chopped tomato and fry till the tomatoes become mushy.

Grind the above to a fine paste, using some milk to assist in the blending.

Return the paste to the pan and add the cashew nut powder. Stirring constantly, fry the paste till the oil separates.

Add all the dry masalas, salt and sugar and fry for a further 2 mins.

Then, add the peas, the milk and some water and cook for about 5 mins. Finally, add the paneer and the kasoori methi and cook for a further 5 min - add water depending on how thick you want the gravy to be.

Serve hot with rotis/naans or jeera rice.

Let's Go Nuts: Cashewnuts is being hosted by Poornima this month, so cook with cashews and send it to her by April 30! Needless to say, this is my entry to the event.