Contrary to what the name suggests, this dish is quite light and is a regular at our home. My twenty-year old son loves it and ensures nothing is left over for another day. This a versatile menu and goes well with different accompaniments i.e. rice, roti, paratha or pulao. One advice from my side. The cream is not essential particularly if you are preparing the dish for home consumption. It tastes equally good without. I normally use the cream only when I am entertaining guests. One has to be careful about the quantity of the fenugreek leaf as any excess makes the dish taste slightly bitter. This is a dynamic option for either lunch or dinner. Since most vegetarians and non – vegetarians equally enjoy paneer, you can’t go wrong with the Paneer Methi Malai. Happy fooding around!

Paneer Methi Malai

Author: Reetika Mitra
Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 10 mins
Total Time: 20 mins
Yield: 4 1x

Description

A Vegetarian Delight

Scale

Ingredients

400 gms Paneer, cut into cubes
½ Tsp Cumin seeds
1 large Onion, chopped
1 Tsp Ginger paste
1 Tsp Garlic Paste
½ Tsp finely chopped Green Chillies
1/3^rd Tsp Kashmiri Red chilli powder
1/3^rd Tsp Turmeric powder
1/3^rd Tsp Coriander powder
1/3^rd Tsp Cumin powder
3 Tbsp Oil
4 Tsp Curd, beaten in a small bowl
½ Cup Milk + ½ cup water, combined together
1 Tsp Sugar
1 ½ Tsp Kasoori Methi leaves (sun-dried fenugreek leaves)
1 ½ Tbsp Cooking Cream (Optional)
Salt to taste

Instructions

Heat oil in a deep bottom pan. Over medium flame add the whole cumin seed. Once they start to splutter add the chopped onions and the green chillies. Keep stirring over medium flame for 2 to 3 mins until the onions are half done and are translucent in colour.
Next add the ginger and garlic paste. Mix well and bring the flame down to a medium low as we will add the powder masalas and don’t want them to get burnt.
Add the turmeric, Kashmiri red chilli, coriander and cumin powders to the wok. Cook the masalas over LOW flame till for a couple of minutes before adding the beaten curd to the mix. Keep stirring vigorously over LOW flame else the curd just might curdle. Keep stirring and cooking till the gravy starts releasing oil.
Now add the milk combined with water, followed by the diced paneer. Season with sugar and salt to taste. Increase the Flame to a Medium and boil till the gravy thickens and the paneer is done. Sprinkle the kasoori methi and also add the cooking cream.
Take off from heat, pour into a serving bowl and serve hot. This recipe of the paneer goes well with rice or pulao, though can be very well teamed with a phulka, poori, paratha or kulcha.

Notes

You may even add 1 Tsp cashew paste made out of 4 or 5 cashews. This is totally optional. But I do tend to use this and the optional cooking cream when I host meals at my place. For daily cooking I never use either of these, yet it tastes delicious!

Nutrition

Serving Size: 4

Paneer Methi Malai