Paneer Butter Masala

Paneer Butter Masala 

I usually like trying out different versions of the same dish so that I might eventually find a recipe which suits my taste buds perfectly. Such was the case with Paneer Butter Masala also known as Paneer Makhani. Lets face it the name itself suggests it must have copious amount of butter but then the recipes I have had till date did have butter and a lot of ingredients yet there was something which was missing.

Now Butter and I go long back. My Dima 'maternal grandmother' would always compliment the Punjabis due to their use of butter in most dishes. All throughout my growing up years I was fed a meal of hot steaming rice with a good 50gm of butter and numerous boiled and mashed vegetables. Lucky for me my parents had got me admitted to swimming and till I  was involved in some pretty heavy exercise which kept my weight in check. Anyway coming back to the dish, now I know that everyone wants to be healthy and that's great. In fact on any regular day you'l find me with a bowl of steamed vegetables or a raw salad and some boiled egg or poached chicken but when it comes to certain dishes you cannot just try and make them healthy. It takes away the entire essence of the dish. Exercising and balancing your diet on every other day is how you stay healthy not by trying to make a dish named Butter Masala healthy.

Anyway back to the recipe. I had discovered the lovely robust chef Harpal Singh's videos quite by chance and after my tremendous success with his Kadhi I naturally knew whom to turn to for the Paneer Butter Masala. So here goes the recipe. I did use homemade paneer and believe me when I say that once you have made homemade paneer there is no looking back. You can use store bought paneer if you are not much inclined to making your own paneer .

Chef Harpal Singh Sokhi's Paneer Butter Masala

Serves 3

For the paneer :-

1.5 litre full cream milk
1.5 tbsp vinegar diluted with 2 tbsp water or 2 cups leftover whey

For the tomato gravy

6 medium sized tomatoes roughly chopped
6 green cardamom
3 blades of mace
100gm butter
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 cup fresh cream (I used Amul Cream but do use double cream if you have access to it )
Salt as per taste
1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp Kashmiri chili powder

For the final gravy

Ginger the size of half your little finger cut into julienne
2 green chilies de-seeded and cut julienne
1/2 tbsp butter
The freshly made tomato gravy

The final paneer made at home 

Start by making the paneer. Simply bring the milk to a roaring boil and then add the diluted vinegar or whey and lower the temperature and let the milk for the cheese and when you see the green coloured whey with the cheese floating around switch off the stove and cover and keep for 5 minutes . Strain the cheese but reserve the whey and tie the cheese in a cheesecloth or muslin cloth and drain it for 15 minutes to 20 minutes and then flatten it out with the cloth and put in on a plate and put another plate on top with a mortar and pestle or a heavy book on the plate and leave for 1 hour or so. Cut the slab into cubes and there you go , you have soft fresh paneer.

Store the whey in the refrigerator for future use. If you knead your dough for chapatis with whey the chapatis turn out extra soft, used in vegetable curries it enhances the flavour and if used for the next batch of paneer you will get the softest paneer ever.

Final tomato gravy 

Now start off with your tomato gravy. Melt 1 tbsp butter and add the chopped tomatoes and cook over medium to low flame till its mushy (covering and cooking gives faster results) and add the mace and cardamom and cook till it forms a paste and add the Kashmiri chili powder , add salt and cook for another minute . Let it cool down and blend it smooth .

Now mince the garlic. Melt 1 tbsp butter and saute the garlic and add the tomato paste and cook of medium flame , stirring continuously for 3 minutes and add 75gm butter and mix well and cook for 1 minute and add half a cup of cream and cook on low flame for another 2 minutes and your tomato base is ready.

Now melt 1 tbsp butter and saute ginger chopped julienne and the green chilies and add the paneer cubes and saute well. When the paneer turns golden add the tomato gravy and mix well and simmer for 3 minutes and serve with hot chapati or butter nan or Basmati rice.

Rajma

Rajma 

Truth be told I don't know when I fell in love with Rajma. It might have been that time when we passed through Delhi or in that beautiful place in Punjab whose name I cannot remember since I was 7 years old or 8 years old. At home my father would make Rajma but it was nothing like the delightful Punjabi ones. He always added paneer for one thing and would sometimes make this delicious dish with meat added to Rajma but by the time I reach my teenage years and had a taste of some good rajma in this Punjabi Dhaba I knew I loved it and it would always be my comfort food.

Over the years I have followed a couple of recipes all of which were delightful yet I kept trying different recipes which means somewhere in my heart I was not fully satisfied and then last year I came across this beautiful blog run by a Punjabi Kudi as she calls herself and tried out her recipe and I knew it was the right one for me. It was thick and hot and was deliciously tasty with the minimum use of spices. I follow this lovely lady's blog.

Before I move on I must say I always keep some homemade Punjabi garam masala at home which gives the dish that special flavour. This garam masala differs from household to household in Punjab . I basically use this recipe given by a wonderful friend of mine from the land of five rivers and it needs  Black cardamom,  Cloves, cumin seeds, coriander seeds and bay leaves and peppercorn.

So here goes the easy recipe

Makes 3 to 4 servings

1 cup of rajma washed and soaked overnight
1 large onion
1 tsp coarsely chopped ginger
1 tsp coarsely chopped garlic
1 large tomato
2 green chilies slit lengthwise
1 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves

Spices

1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chili powder
1/2  tsp garam masala
Salt as per taste

3/4th tbsp ghee

1 tbsp butter (optional)

Wash and soak the rajma and then pressure cook it over low heat till its soft and well cooked.                        In the meantime coarsely chop the onion, garlic and ginger and blend it smooth in a blender. Chop the tomatoes and finely chop the coriander leaves.

Now heat the ghee and add the cumin seeds. When they splutter add the onion ginger garlic paste and keep stirring till the raw smell goes away and add the tomatoes and green chilies  and cook on high flame for 50 seconds and lower heat and keep stirring till you get a nice paste and the paste seems glossy . Now add the rajma , salt, turmeric, red chili powder and garam masala. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve with plain basmati rice.  You may or may not add the butter once the rajma is cooked. I usually leave it out for a normal day serving.

Chole

I love Punjabi Food. Its robust, spicy and utterly delicious. To be fair living in Calcutta the options for real Punjabi food was scarce. There was of course this wonderful Dhaba in the middle of the city which churned out amazing dishes. The beauty of Calcutta is its diversity of food. Of course the diversity is best seen in and around Central Calcutta but nevertheless it is still there. You see each cuisine has an essence and after researching enough about Punjab's dishes and having had the good fortune of tasting some real Punjab da khana in a Punjabi home near Delhi I have come to the conclusion that original Punjabi food tastes its best when cooked in some desi ghee. I mean sure there are millions of recipes out there and you can always use health as an excuse but having used both the options I can definitely tell you that cooked in pure desi ghee the beauty of these dishes are simply at their best when they are cooked in that silky creamy ingredient.

If this cuisine were to be personified I would call it a beautiful voluptuous lady with glowing skin and dressed in a riot of colours.

If you have had the good luck to taste some delectable dishes in Punjab you would know that the use of spices is a bit more than in other cuisines of India. I like mine exactly that way and so here is my recipe for Chole collected from a dear old woman staying in the NCR region. Chickpeas are a store house of nutrition and cooked with all that spice it simply becomes divine.

Serves 4 to 6 people

2 cups of dried chickpea
2 medium sized red onions which are finely sliced
2.5 tsp finely minced garlic
2 tsp finely minced ginger
2 chopped tomatoes
3 to 4 green chilies finely chopped
Cinnamon (3/4th size of your little finger) crushed
3 black cardamom crushed
2 tsp cumin powder
3 tsp coriander
2 tsp chili powder
Pinch of turmeric
Salt as per taste
2 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves
1 tsp Punjabi garam masala made at home for which you use (1 bay leaf, 2 to 3 green cardamom, 4 black cardamom, 1.5 inch cinnamon , 5 to 6 cloves and about 7 to 8  peppercorn , 1 tsp cumin seeds, 2 tsp coriander seeds , pinch of nutmeg and 2 blades of mace) . Dry roast and grind this
2.5 tbsp ghee
2 bay leaves
Juice of Half a lemon

Soak the chickpeas overnight and then boil it with 5 cups of water and 1 tsp ginger. Heat 2 tbsp ghee and saute the garlic and ginger taking care not to burn them. Now add the onions and fry till translucent. Add the bay leaf and crushed spices. Saute for a minute and add the tomatoes and Half the chopped chilies and stir continuously , mashing it from time to time to form a thick spicy paste and add the ground spices except the garam masala. Mix well stirring for a minute and add the boiled chole with the remaining water. Bring to a boil and salt, turmeric, chili powder and half the garam masala. Simmer till it reaches a thick gravy like consistency. Add the rest of the garam masala, the rest of the chopped chilies and coriander leaves and the juice of lemon. Serve hot with soft chapatis or paraunthes with onion rings and a wedge of lemon.

Palak Paneer (Indian cottage cheese in spinach curry)

While washing chopping and prepping today I was taken back to a hot summer's evening earlier this year. My husband is a solar site engineer and so while I had visited him at site in Haryana we were invited by one of his juniors to dine with his family in the near-by village. While the initial thoughts regarding that day makes me find it hilarious, such as the young man telling me I should not take my husband's name and how I looked an appropriate wife in a churidar and hoe covering the head brings good luck. Most other days when he would come back with Arvind, I would be in trousers and a cotton overcoat. While I do believe in when in Rome do as the Romans do the idea of suffocating in the heat of June under a scarf was impossible. The family was wonderful and to be fair ti was the most delicious of meals I have ever had. The paneer and dal were exquisite , in no other restaurant of Delhi or Haryana have I tasted that good a dish, rather two dishes. I am naturally fond of clarified butter and it was my day. My remembrance of that day is more focused on the little girl I met in that household. Aged about 9 she was fascinated with this "sheherwali" , head uncovered, wearing a hint of lipstick and after the initial shyness remained attached to me throughout the visit. I guess children across borders in all states and nations are the same. They are full of questions, speak really fast when excited and are intrigued by anything which is different form their surroundings. In our 2 hour long conversation I did learn that her favourite subject was geography and that she loved "palak paneer" "Mujhe na palak paneer bohot hee pasand hai" (i just love palak paneer) (A beautiful curry made with cottage cheese and spinach) , what i do also distinctly remember is her telling me that she hates the kitchen and hates the idea of cooking. While I was craving palak paneer I could not but remember this little girl and could not help hoping that she never is pushed into the kitchen unless she expressly wants to. Here is remembering  you little girl , here is hoping that you travel the world and here is hoping you do whatever your heart wants you to do. With Amrit ji's recipe for palak paneer , cooked in clarified butter alone and chapatis with ghee on top this is an evening to remember. Here is to winters and all little girls and hoping they never are pushed into this activity that we all love against their will.

Anyways for those of us who do love cooking here is the recipe. Start by making the paneer. Its all in a  day's work.

For the paneer:

1 litre of whole milk
1 tbsp vinegar diluted with 1 tbsp water / 1 cup leftover whey

Bring the milk to a roaring boil and add the diluted vinegar or whey  . You shall see the cottage cheese forming in front of your eyes and when the whey has completely separated and you can see white clusters floating about in green water , turn off stove and cover and wait for 5 to 7 minutes. Then transfer everything to a clean thin cloth with a bowl underneath it to collect the whey and drain the water for not more than 10 minutes and then use a big flat bowl to transfer the content and press it down to a slab and then put a weight.

Now here is a trick. Many people use the "sil" of sil-nora. A slab of stone with an oval stone shaped object for grinding but while usign that would make yield set paneer it will be ahrd and we do not want our cottage cheese to be hard so press down with another plate and use something like a stone bowl or a heavy book, not one that can be thrown to injure people wink wink on top for a couple of hours. This way the paneer is  soft yet set perfectly. So lets say you start makign it at 11 a.m. , you should be done by 3 p.m. or say 4 p.m. Do reserve the water. It dishes a beautiful unmatched flavour to dishes when used.

For the palak paneer. Now I followed the recipe of Amritji but also took help from my over the years collected ones

So you have your :

1 big bunch of palak / spinach
1 heaped tsp to 1.5 tsp ginger garlic paste
Half a tomato
2 small but not tiny sized onions chopped very finely
2 to 4 green chilies
Pinch of bicarbonate of soda
Juice of half a lemon or a bit less.

2 green cardamom
2 cloves
cinnamon
1 tablespoonful to 1.5 tablespoonful of Coriander powder
2 tsp Cumin powder
1 heaped tsp chili powder
Pinch of garam masala
Salt as per taste
Clarified butter about 5 to 6 tablespoon

Start by first thoroughly washing the spinach /palak leaves. The bets way to make certain that you get all the dirt is immersing them in a big bowl of water and washing them with your hands while changing the water twice or thrice or a greater number of times. Now palak is a leafy vegetable with high water content, so you need not add too much of water. Do add a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to ensure that the green colour is maintained. In the meantime make a course paste of ginger and garlic, chop the onions as finely as possible and blend half the tomato.

Now blend you cooked spinach to a smooth paste. Add the chilies when blending and if you cannot handle so much heat just leave the chilies out.

Keep a bowl of warm water ready, I usually use the leftover water from the spinach. Cube the paneer and saute in clarified butter till golden but not beyond that and add them to the warm water. this step ensures that they stay soft and beautiful. Take some clarified butter and add your onions, saute till translucent. Add the garlic ginger paste and cook till done but not browned or worse burnt. Add the spices after smashing them with a mortar and then add the tomato and a wee bit of the spinach water to make a thick paste and add the coriander and cumin powder.  Now remember that too much cooking of spinach makes them loose colour. So add the spinach and bring to a  quick boil and then simmer and quickly add the paneer and  mix real well and add a pinch of garam masala and lemon juice with a bit of clarified butter and transfer to a bowl. The lemon juice aids digestion when taking leafy vegetables. Serve with hot flatsbread smeared with clarified butter.

Tip :-

If you have leftover whey from a previous paneer making session store it in the refrigerator and use it to make paneer the following time you are making it by bring the milk to a roaring boil and adding 1 cup of whey per litre of milk. It takes a bit of time to form the cheese but it gives the softest cheese ever