Shahi Paneer

The missus and I went to Taj Mahal for dinner back on Valentine's Day. We both broke out of our norm and tried dishes we've never had before. I had a Dal of black lentils and kidney beans that was amazing. My wife ordered the Shahi Paneer. Shahi is a Hindi term for Royal and Paneer is of course cheese so she had "Royal Cheese". The dish contains cashews and raisins and is a Punjabi dish most popular in northern part of India.

I think I need to blanch some cashews next time and purée it with the tomato base. My dish was not as sweet and I think it was lacking them.

Fry up some paneer cubes and set aside.

Purée the tomato, ginger, chili, onion, and garlic. Slide this gently into some hot oil and cook it till the oil starts to separate. Add red chili powder, turmeric, garam masala and a little salt. Cook for a bit then add milk or yogurt to make the gravy. Add the whole raisins and cashews and cook till the gravy thickens. Add the paneer and a dash of heavy cream. Cook for five minutes and garnish with chopped cilantro. I served it with plain basmati rice.

Some roti or chapati would have been good with this.