Friday, May 27, 2011

Aloo Mutter Butter Paneer (Potato, Peas and Cheese)

Note: this entry is linked to the Real Food Holidays Blog Carnival – Shavuot 2011 blog carnival. It's certainly not a traditional Jewish dish (unless you're one of my Jewish friends from India, in which case, this dish isn't breaking news), but it does highlight a different and tasty way to eat your Shavuot cheese outside of the more traditional European blintzes and cheesecake.

At the wedding of two very good friends of ours, we were treated to some very, very good Indian food. Our favourite dish was basically deep-fried cheese and potato balls in a very yummy sauce. I found the recipe quite quickly, however, balked on actually cooking it up because of the deep-frying involved.

Shortly after, I found some paneer at the local grocery store and it was sitting in the fridge for a few weeks - quietly waiting. The opportunity came up at the end of March and I decided to use it in a butter-chickeny-kinda sauce with some other vegetables.

I winged the recipe and it tasted great.


print recipe

Aloo Mutter Butter Paneer (Potato, Peas and Cheese)
A great alternative to butter chicken, this dish uses soft Indian cheese as the main protein source.
Ingredients
  • 2+2 tbsp butter
  • 2 onions, minced
  • dash salt (if butter is not salted)
  • 1 tbsp ginger, minced
  • 1 tbsp garlic, minced
  • 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds, crushed
  • 1 tbsp garam masala
  • 1 28oz can tomatoes
  • 400g paneer, cut into 1/2" cubes
  • 2-3 potatoes, boiled and cut into 3/4" cubes
  • 1/2 cup frozen peas
  • 1/4 cup half-and-half cream
  • 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
Instructions
1. Melt butter in a dutch oven on medium and fry onions with salt until translucent.2. Add garlic and ginger and stir for another 1-2 minutes.3. Add fenugreek, garam masala and tomatoes, stir and bring to a boil.4. Reduce to medium-low, cover, and let simmer for 20 minutes.5. Puree mixture with an immersion blender and let simmer for another five minutes.6. Add paneer, potatoes and peas and let simmer for up to five minutes.7. Stir in remaining butter, cream and cilantro, and let simmer for 1-2 minutes until warm again.
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 6 servings
Recipes by the Haggis and the Herring: tasty world recipes tested in our kitchen
Try other tasty recipes
MyMeatlessMondays Hearth and Soul Hop at A Moderate Life

11 comments:

  1. Daniel that does sound good, but where did you get fenugreek seeds? Mind you, I've never looked for them so maybe they're easier to find than I think. And I just noticed paneer at our local store a couple of weeks ago, I'm sure I've never seen it before. This sounds like a "not so fattening but just as good" version of butter chicken!

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  2. Would you believe No-Frills? Paneer *and* the fenugreek seeds.

    Loblaws/Weston has an entire line of house-brand Indian spices and canned beans - Suraj. I get pretty much everything there. They even have a canned fava bean and chick pea mix that I've used for hummus before. Very good.

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  3. I think I will have to make this for Elliot when he comes home!

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  4. I love butter paneer! And butter chicken, and anything in this amazing sauce. Your recipe looks great!

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  5. Daniel, thanks, No Frills is where I shop all the time, I guess I've just never looked for them so didn't realize they had them.

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  6. Dan, looks like another great meal, thanks for sharing with the Hearth n Soul!

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  7. I see that you have done a very good job with this dish. It's one of my fav panner dish :) Thanks for sharing it with hearth and soul hop

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  8. This looks so yummy! I love Indian food in general and have yet to cook paneer at home. Great recipe!

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  9. Hi Daniel,
    Thanks for sharing this at the Real Food Holidays Blog Carnival. I love Indian spices, this looks delicious!

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  10. Looks Yum! I am a big fan of Indian Food too.

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  11. this is a sweet collection of recipes you have - I too am making a collection of vegetarian recipes from different parts of the world.. happy to follow your blog - Hopefully you will follow mine as well - ain't no better gratification than to have someone show interest in the blog you write, right :) cheers, priya

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