Shahi Paneer

Mild spicy lightly sweet, creamy onion gravy with chunks of cottage cheese and dry fruits and raisins

Whenever I make the gravy for this dish, I love to make extra gravy, because I am not going to lie, its a bit of work. But the good news is, this gravy freezes very well up to 4-6 weeks. I always make twice the amount and freeze half. It comes in very handy  when you are cooking for a big feast or just craving some rich Indian food. I also use the same gravy to make Malai Kofta. So sometimes when I make one of the two, I make extra gravy, freeze half and a couple of weeks later make the other kind 🙂

Note: in the pictures, I have made 2 portions of the recipe (to freeze half!). So please ignore the amounts you see in photos, if you want to cook only for one time use and follow the written content.

The written recipe serves 3-4 people

You will need:

For the gravy:

2 big red onions – finely chopped

1 tomatoes – finely chopped

12-15 cashews – broken into small pieces

2 tbsp white poppy seeds (khas khas)

2 tbsp oil

1 bay leaf

2 cardamom pods

2 cloves

1/4 tsp shahi jeera

1/2 tsp Everest shahi biryani masala

1/2 tsp kitchen king masala powder/ garam masala powder

1-2 green chilies chopped

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1/4 tsp cumin powder

sugar/ honey

For the finishing touch for the gravy – 

1/2 tsp kasuri methi – crushed

1.5 tbsp fresh cream

1 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp kashmiri red chilli powder

Paneer 250 g

1/3 cup of mixed dry fruits – your choice of almonds, cashewnuts, pistachios and raisins

saffron

a pinch of cardamom powder and nutmeg powder

Procedure:

The gravy:

• Take the poppy seeds and cashew nut pieces in a sauce pan and add water to fill up the sauce pan and heat on medium flame till it comes to a boil.
• let this mixture boil for about 20 minutes, uncovered. Add more water if needed.
• Let it cool.

• Once cooled, discard the water and grind it to a smooth paste. Add water as needed while grinding.
• The mixture tends to fluff up, so use a bigger grinder jar.
• It is very important to make this paste separately and not grind it with the rest of the gravy because, you have to make sure the poppy seeds dont remain un-crushed.

• in a large pan, heat 2 tbsp oil and add the whole spices to it (cardamom pods, cloves, bay leaf and shahi jeera).
• When the whole spices start sizzling, add the chopped onions and cook covered on low flame. Add some salt to prevent the onions from turning brown and sticking to the pan.
• Take utmost care that the onions cook without browning.
• cook for about 6-8 minutes.

• Once done, add the remaining spices – chopped green chillies, corriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, garam masala powder, more salt and mix well. Let saute for a minute.
• Next add the chopped tomatoes and mix well cook covered for 5 minutes.

• to this mixture add the white paste (poppy seed and cashew paste) and simmer on low flame. Keep the pan covered and cook for another 5-6 minutes.
• Turn off the flame and let the mixture cool.

• Grind the cooled mixture to a fine paste. Add water as needed. Its important that the cashews and poppy mixtures is first ground separately, otherwise it wont get crushed properly. Trust me if there was a shorter way, I would tell you 🙂
• Strain the mixture through a fine sieve/ strainer, to get a silky smooth gravy to a clean large pan and keep aside.
• At this stage the gravy can be made ahead of time and even frozen for a few weeks
• When ready to consume, remove, thaw and follow the next steps
• Cut paneer into cubes or square slices. If the paneer is not fresh and soft, soak it in hot water, covered, for a few minutes to soften it.
• Heat the strained gravy and bring to a light boil. Add paneer and let simmer for a few minutes

• Next add the dry fruits and bring to a boil
• Add crushed kasuri methi leaves, nutmeg powder and salt if needed.
• In a small pan, heat butter and add kashmiri red chilli powder to warm butter and add that as tempering to the gravy.

• Soak some saffron strands in 1/4 cup of fresh cream

• Turn off the heat and add the saffron cream and mix well.

Serving suggestions:

• Garnish the gravy with some cream, saffron and shopped dry fruits.
• enjoy this lip smacking shahi paneer with some naan, roti, chapati, pulav or my personal favorite – roomali roti.