Description
Paneer Makhani or sometimes known as Paneer butter masala is the quintessential tomato, butter and cream sauce. Our recipe tries to give a minimalist version and recommends to use fresh tomatoes.
Ingredients
Scale
- 4 ripe tomatoes (approximately 400 gms)
- 400 ml water
- 2 large garlic pods
- 1 green Chili small, desseded and the white ribs inside removed
- 0.5 tsp kashmiri red chili powder (use paprika if not available but avoid a hot chili powder)
- 4 cloves
- 4 cardamom pods
- 6 cashews
- 2 Tbsp Butter
- 2 Tbsp heavy whipping Cream
- Some butter to pan saute
- 1 tsp Kasuri Methi
- 0.5 tsp thin ginger Julienne’s
- salt to taste
- 8 small pieces of paneer
Instructions
- Wash and rough chop tomatoes
- Wash and split and deseed green chili
- Peel Garlic
- Add the 400 ml water, tomatoes, garlic, cloves, cardamoms, cashews, red chili powder to a sauce pan and set on low to medium heat (4/10 on a home cooking range)
- Cook uncovered for 60 to 90 minutes till the tomatoes start melting and creating a pulpy sauce
- Puree fine in an immersion blender
- Strain the mixture to obtain about 500 ml of puree
- Reduce again in a clean stock pot on low heat (30%) to about 60%. If the mixture gets very bubbly gently half close the pot with a lid to avoid spatter
- Mix in the butter and cream and reduce further till you end up with sauce like consistency
- Roast the methi leaves in a dry roasting pan without burning till the smell aromatic
- Grind them to a fine powder
- Set a large saute pan and melt some butter and once melted increase heat to high.
- Add the sauce one ladle at a time working quickly and shaking the saute pan and moving the sauce around with a wooden spoon
- Careful that if the sauce still has lot of water it may splatter so move quickly or just lift the pan off the heat
- Once first ladle is reduced add next ladle and reduce again. If it works you can add more than a ladle at a time, but key is to pan saute and caramelize the sauce a bit to bring out the sweetness
- Season with salt and taste and then finish by sprinkling the kasuri methi powder little at a time, mixing and tasting to balance the richness.
- Take the pan off the heat and add paneer and fold in gently letting the paneer cook on the residual heat. Only if needed set the pan on low heat to cook paneer.
- Serve and garnish with ginger julienne s and serve with roti or naan
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 120 mins
- Category: Entree
- Cuisine: Indian