45: Indian Cooking Extravaganza #2

This post will go into my personal favorite dish of the night, paneer makhani. This was the only dish I had made beforehand, so I was adequately prepared to make several pounds of this dish. This is one of my favorite dishes to make because it is so easy to make so much of and the taste is really good; there is a lot to like about it. Making the makhani curry is slightly involved but none of the steps are particularly difficult. With technology even the most tedious steps will take little time.

Again you can scale up as much as you like to make as much as you like. The following recipe serves about 8. This is close to the maximum I would recommend attempting in one pot; if you want to make twice as much (which I did for the party) I would recommend using two pots and combining them after they are done cooking. It might just take too long otherwise.

Ingredient list:

• 8 tspn butter
• 1 head garlic
• 1/2 ginger root
• 1/3 sweet onion
• 1 tspn turmeric
• 2 tspn hot chili powder
• 1 cup tomato puree
• 1 lb paneer, chopped
• 4 tspn kasuri (kasoori) methi
• 3 cup milk
• 4 tspn white sugar
• salt
• OPT: 1/2 cup sweet corn, 1/2 cup green peas

The prep is not bad. You can do steps 2 and 3 beforehand to make the rest flow even smoother. This quantity feeds the two of us about 3 or 4 times, so you get plenty of yield out of this! It is a great way to use up milk that is about to go bad as well.

1. Melt 8 teaspoons butter (about 3 Tbsp) in a large pot. Keep the heat on low-medium.
2. Peel the head of garlic and the half ginger root. (Adjust to taste. More is better.)
3. Also chop into small cubes approximately 1 pound of paneer cheese. You can obtain a brick of paneer about this weight from any Indian store, or even a halal store. You could sub in tofu if you wanted, but don’t you dare call it Indian if you do so… I’m watching you.
4. Using technology (like a chopper) chop the garlic and ginger along with the sweet onion.
5. Empty into the hot melted butter and fry until the mixture starts to brown.
6. Again using technology, chop/blend one roma tomato into about 1 cup of tomato puree.
7. Add 1 tsp turmeric, 2 tsp hot chili powder, and the tomato puree to the mixture. Stir a bit and let sit until a thin layer of oil begins to separate from the mixture. Usually about 5 minutes.
8. Add 3 cups milk, or cream if you are a fatty.
9. Add the kasuri methi (ask someone to help you find it at an Indian store; they will be impressed), white sugar, and salt to taste. Stir well.
10. Add the paneer and stir. Let sit for 3-4 minutes until the paneer feels soft and squishy.
11. Bonus: Throw in some green peas and sweet corn. Frozen is fine. These give the dish more texture and a hint of sweetness, which I thought tasted amazing. It may not work for you.

You know you’re done when the food looks exactly like it does in the picture above. The curry will be a soft yellow with green speckles of methi; the paneer will be soft but well-formed. Definitely serve over rice. I like to have roti as well on the side to make the leftovers last longer. And enjoy.