Easy Restaurant Style Cottage Cheese Recipe - Jhatpat Shahi Paneer - Paneer Makhni

Hello foodies,

With the advent of monsoons here, and the swetering heat and humidity, I have been inclined to spend as little time as possible in the kitchen. But as the same time the taste, quality and the health of my family is always paramount, I have found shortcuts to most of the laborious recipes. Today I am sharing one such recipe of shahi paneer/malai paneer/kasuri methi paneer, which takes only 10 minutes to put together, yet the taste is super awesome. Do try this short cut recipe of Paneer and your family wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the home cooked and restaurant version for sure. So let's get started...

Ingredients (you will need):

Paneer/Cottage Cheese, chopped - 250 gms

Salt, to taste
Red Chilli Powder, 1/2 tsp
Turmeric Powder, 1/2 tsp
Amchoor Powder/Khatai/Dried Mango Powder, 1/2 tsp
Coriander Powder, 1 tsp
Garam Masala, 1/4 tsp

Jeera/Cumin seeds, 1/2 tsp

Sugar, 1/2 tsp
Dried Fenugreek leaves/Kasoori methi, 1/2 tsp
Refined Oil/ Ghee/Clarified Butter, 1 tablespoon
Tomato Puree, 3 tbsp

Fresh Cream, 3 tbsp

Water, 1/2 cup

Cooking steps:
1. In a pan/kadai, heat oil/ghee and add cumin seeds/jeera. Saute the jeera taking care not to burn it for around 10-15 seconds.

2. Next add in the spices/masalas, turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder. Saute these for another 10-15 seconds.

3. Next add tomato puree, this is the time saving step as I am not using raw tomato puree but rather the packaged one. I have added 3 tbsps of tomato puree in this step.

4. Next add in 3 tbsps of fresh cream/malai, I used the cream available in the house but you may use the packaged version as well. Mix everything together and cook with continuous stirring for 5 minutes.

5. Next add in the sugar, amchoor powder and garam masala powder. Mix well.

6. Next add in the crushed kasoori methi, this gives a wonderful aroma to the paneer gravy. Mix well.

7. Add 1/2 cup of water and allow the gravy to come to a boil.

8. Once the gravy starts to boil add in the paneer pieces/cubes. At this step add in salt according to your taste as well. Allow the paneer to simmer in the gravy for 5 minutes. Switch off the flame, cover the pan and serve after 10 minutes.

9. Yummy and super quick paneer recipe is ready to be devoured with rotis, paranthas, naans, rice, pooris of your choice.

Do try this recipe and let me know how it turned out for you and your friends/family.

See ya...