The well known and common recipes of Paneer are butter masala, matar paneer or palak paneer. So when I was thinking to give Paneer a slight different treatment, I suddenly got reminded of a recipe which I shared with you quite a while back. That was of “Kadai Mushroom” which met with pretty good response. So I thought to prepare the panner dish following a similar approach which would be known as “Kadai Paneer”. In fact, along with the traditional panner dishes, Kadai paneer is also quite popular these days and can be found in any good restaurant. If you like panner dipped in a spicy, thick gravy, this recipe would be ideal for you. A pure vegetarian delicacy it is, worth a try.

Ingredients to serve 4-5 :

1. Paneer – 300 gm.
2. Onion (sliced) – 2
3. Baby onion (cut into cubes) – 2
4. Green capsicum (cut into cubes) – 1 (medium size)
5. Chopped tomato – 1 large
6. Handful of freshly chopped coriander leaves
7. Slit green chilli – 2
8. Ginger paste – 1 teaspoon
9. Garlic paste – 1 teaspoon
10. Yogurt – 1 tbspoon
11. Cooking oil – 1-2 tbspoon
12. Butter – 2 tbspoon

Dry spices to roast :

1. Cumin seeds – ½ teaspoon
2. Coriander seeds – 1 teaspoon
3. Fennel seeds – ½ teaspoon
4. Black peppercorn – 6-8
5. Green cardamom – 2 (only the seeds)
6. Cloves – 3
7. Dry red chili – 1 (optional)

Procedure :

Dry roast the spices on a tawa till nice aroma coming out from them. Then grind them to fine dust.

Now heat cooking oil in a frying pan/kadai over medium heat and fry the sliced onion till golden brown. Then add tomato, followed by adding little salt, and cook till it gets soft. Grind the onion and tomato to a fine paste along with the spice dust.

Now melt the butter in the kadai, add ginger and garlic paste. Then saute the cubed onion, capsicum and green chili.

Add onion-tomato paste as the cubed onion and capsicum get soft.

Add yogurt and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add paneer cubes and mix well.

Now add ¾ cup of water and salt.

As water starts boiling cover the pan with a lid and let it cook over low-medium flame for 4-5 minutes.

Put the gas off, sprinkle over chopped coriander leaves and again cover the pan for 1-2 minutes.

Serve with roti, paratha or nan.