Avantika's Kitchen Delights: Matar Paneer (Regular)

Matar Paneer is a vegetarian dish and is a famous North Indian recipe.

It is prepared using Peas and Paneer, in a Tomato Onion based gravy, spiced with garam masala and various dry powders.

The aroma and good looks of this dish makes it everyone’s favourite dish.

MATAR PANEER REGULAR

This vegetable dish can be served as an accompaniment to rice or pulav. As it is a gravy dish, you can use it instead of daal too when you have rice.

It goes well with any Indian type of bread like rotis, phulkas, naan, etc.

This is not restaurant style, but a simple home made dish, hence the name Regular Matar Paneer.

I have not added cashews, milk cream, ghee, corn flour in this version to keep it simple and homely and healthy / fat free. These items make the matar paneer creamier and rich. I will be sharing this version of matar paneer in future.

To prepare Matar Paneer, we require following ingredients.

INGREDIENTS :

(1) 200 gms of Paneer cut into small cubes
(2) 150 gms of fresh or frozen green peas (I have used fresh peas)
(3) 2 medium sized Onions, chopped
(4) 2 medium sized Tomatoes, chopped
(5) 1 inch Ginger finely chopped
(6) 8-10 cloves of Garlic finely chopped
(7) 3/4 tsp of Cumin / Jeera seeds
(8) 1 whole Green chilli, chopped
(9) 1/4 tsp of Turmeric powder
(10) 3/4 tsp of red chilli powder (Kashmiri lal mirch powder)
(11) 1 tsp of Coriander / Dhania powder
(12) 1/2 tsp of Cumin / Jeera powder
(13) 1/2 tsp of Garam masala
(14) 1/2 tsp of Kasuri methi or dry fenugreek leaves
(15) 2 tbsp of Vegetable oil
(16) Salt to taste
(17) Chopped Coriander leaves for garnishing

PREPARATION :

Cut the block of paneer into small cubes.

A block of 200 gms of Paneer (Cottage Cheese)

A block of Paneer cut into small cubes

Matar / Peas

Chop the onions, tomatoes, a green chilli, ginger and garlic as shown in the figure.

Tomatoes, Onions and Green Chilli

A block of paneer, Vegetable oil, Cumin / Jeera seeds (from left to right in the first row).
Cumin / Jeera powder, Coriander/ Dhania powder and Garam Masala powder (from left to rigasht in the middle row).
Turmeric / Haldi powder, Kashmiri lal mirch powder / Red chilli powder, and Salt (from left to right in the last or third row).

Cubes of paneer, chopped onions chopped tomatoes (from left to right in the top row).
Finely chopped green chilli, 150 gms of fresh peas, and chopped coriander leaves ( from left to right in the middle row).
Finely chopped garlic, finely chopped ginger and kasuri methi (from left to right in the third row)

All ingredients set aside

METHOD :

NOTE : Throughout the preparation of this dish, I kept the gas stove on a low flame and kept stirring and mixing gently to avoid the dish from sticking to the bottom of the kadhai / wok.

(1) Take 2 tbsp of oil in a kadhai / wok and heat it. Add half tsp of Cumin / Jeera seeds and sauté them till they splutter.

Add chopped garlic to the warm oil and also add chopped ginger. Stir fry till they turn golden brown.

(2) Add chopped onions and chopped green chilli. Stir fry till the onion turns translucent. Add half tsp of salt to the onion mixture to fasten the cooking / frying of onions. This will take about 3-4 mins.

(3) Now add chopped tomatoes and stir fry till the tomatoes become soft and mushy. This will take 3-4 mins.

(4) Transfer the fried onion tomato chilli mixture into a blending / grinding jar and grind it to a smooth paste. Add half cup of water for easy grinding. Take out the ground paste back into the same kadhai.

(5) Now add all the dry spice powders like 1/4 tea spoon of turmeric powder, 3/4 tsp of red chilli powder, 1 tsp of Coriander / Dhania powder, 1/2 tsp of Cumin / Jeera powder and 1/2 tsp of Garam masala to the onion tomato paste in the kadhai.

Mix well.

Add half cup of water and mix well again.

Then close the lid and allow it to cook for 2-3 mins. This will blend the spice powders with the onion tomato paste and a good aroma will result.

(6) Open the lid and stir well. Now add 150 grams of fresh peas to the mixture. Stir well.

Add 300 ml or 1 and half glass of water to this mixture and stir again.

Allow the peas to cook. You may cover the lid again. This will take 5 mins.

(7) Open the lid and stir well again. Now add salt to taste. Remember that salt was also added in the beginning for frying the onions. So second time add accordingly.

Mix well.

(8) Add cubes of paneer to this gravy. Stir and mix gently till the paneer submerge in the gravy and allow it to cook.

(9) After the end of 2 mins of adding paneer, add chopped coriander leaves. few seconds later, crush half tsp of kasuri methi with hands and add to the paneer peas gravy.

(10) Stir well and close the lid for 2 mins. I feel this will cause the coriander leaves and kasuri methi to blend well with paneer peas gravy and generate aroma.

Open the lid and mix well.

Paneer takes 5 mins to cook and do not over cook it.