Shahi Paneer

Making paneer

Ingredients

milk powder - 4 tbspns(heaps)
water - 1 big glass
vinegar - 1 tbspn

Paneer is an Indian cheese n tastes yummy..
i usually prefer to make paneer with full cream milk but since i cant find any good full cream milk here in Africa ...i have used the nestle milk powder .

• take 4 tbspns(heaps) of milk powder in a boiling pan and add a big glass of water and mix it thorougly so that there are no heaps
• now heat this milk until it begins to boil ..at this stage add one tbspn of vinegar and after few secs switch off flame . the result will look like the pic below - the paneer n the water wud've separated
• filter this and spread the paneer on a plate..
• cover the paneer with damp cloth and a place a heavy vessel filled with water and let it set for a min of 3 - 4 hrs.. i usually leave it for 6-7 hrs. then cut into pieces and freeze it..

Ingredients for shahi paneer

Onion - 2 big ones
Tomato - 1 big one
Cloves - 6 nos
Cardamom - 6 nos
Whipped Cream - 20 cl
Paneer - 2 cups
Cashew nuts - few nos(optional)
Kashmiri chilli powder - 1 tspn
Coriander powder - 1 tspn
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tspn
Garam masala - 1/2 tspn
Oil - 2 tbspn

Method

• leave the paneer at room temperature atleast 2 - 3 hrs before preparing...so that it is soft
• now grind the onions n tomatoes to a fine paste n set aside
• heat 1 1/2 tbspn oil in a pan and add the cloves n cardamom n let it splutter and then add the ground onion tomato paste.
• keep stirring for a while n then leave it till the water from the paste gets dried . this will take around 20 mins...this step is very important as this gets rid of the raw smell from the onion-toamto pste
  
• when the onion- tomato begins to stick then add 1/2 tbspn of oil n keep stirring
• after few mins add the dry masala(Coriander powder, kashmiri chilli powder, turmeric,garam masala n salt acc to taste)
• saute this for a min or 2 and then add the whipped cream to this and keep stirring for 3 mins and then add the paneer cubes ...make sure that the paneer is coated evenly with the paste n care shud be taken not to break the paneer cubes.
• switch off from flame and transfer to another dish.
• garnish with cashew nuts (optional)... here i have not used cashew nuts for taste preferences
  
• serve with hot parathas or roti