Paneer ki Sabzi

When a Bengali makes an 'Obangali' (non-Bengali) dish one is skeptical as to how it would turn out but still trial and error is what we base our experiences on. This one's a mild curry made simply with one whole packet of Nanak's paneer I picked up from a nearby Indian grocery store.

You make medium size cubes of paneer and immerse them in warm water till it turns soft. I pureed one whole tomato and half an onion and left it on the kitchen countertop. Along with that also collected all the other ingredients important for the spicing up of the dish. They were fenugreek leaves, turmeric powder, cayenne pepper for the color, whole cumin seeds for tempering, 1 cinnamon stick, few cardamoms, a couple of cloves, one bay leaf, one whole teaspoon of ginger and one tablespoon of garlic paste.

In a large wok I heated up vegetable oil and on turning warm tip in the cumin seeds, bay leaf and whole garam masala roughly pounded. Once the oil starts leaving aroma and the cumin seeds turn a little brownish then add in the fresh ginger-garlic-paste. Give all a good stir and a mix for about a minute roughly and once it starts turning reddish in hue pour in the pureed tomato and onion paste into the mixture. Stir them occasionally and make it turn into a nice reddish color and before the oil starts separating from the spice mixture see if it is catching up at the bottom of the vessel or not. In goes the dry ingredients and a dash of water if required and stir continuously until it turns into a thick paste. Quickly add in the paneer cubes and mix it all up. Add in one and a half cups of warm water and let it come to a boil and put it on simmer and close the lid of the wok. Let it boil for five more minutes and last but not the least add a sprinkle of garam masala and enough salt for taste and simmer for five more minutes on very low flame and turn off the gas.

Before serving add a cube of butter and let it melt into the gravy. This dish is best enjoyed with warm phulkas or rotis. A very simple home cooked dish that takes about thirty odd minutes to prepare and is quite simplistic and can be easily emulated in your own kitchen.