Paneer Pasanda, chefs favorite

Ingredients

To make stuffed paneer sandwich

• 250 g Paneer (Indian cottage cheese), cut in triangles
• 1 tbsp Khowa (optional)
• 3 tbsp Paneer grated
• 1 tbsp Coriander leaves finely chopped
• 3/4 tsp Green chillies crushed
• 2 tsp Mint leaves finely chopped
• 1 tbsp Raisins
• 3/4 tbsp Cashew nuts chopped
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 cup Corn flour mixed with 1/4 cup of water to make slurry
• Oil to shallow fry the paneer sandwich

To make tomato cashew paste for paneer pasanda recipe

• 4 Tomatoes medium sized, cubed
• 10 Cashew nuts
• 1/2 Blade of mace javitri
• A pinch of grated nutmeg jaiphal
• 1 inch Cinnamon stick
• 3 Green cardamom
• 3 Cloves
• 4-5 Black Peppercorns
• 3/4 cup Water

To make paneer pasanda gravy

• Prepared tomato cashew paste
• 1 tsp Ginger paste
• 1/3 cup Brown onion
• 1 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon Coriander powder
• 3/4 tsp Cumin powder
• 1 tsp Dried Fenugreek leaves kasuri methi
• 3/4 tsp Garam masala powder
• 1/4 cup Cream
• 1 tsp Sugar
• Salt to taste

Pre- preparation

To make tomato cashew paste

• Firstly, in a heavy bottom pot, add tomatoes, cashews, cinnamon stick, green cardamom, cloves, pepper, mace, and nutmeg.
• Then, add 3/4 cup of water into the pot and place the pot on the stove.
• Bring it to boil and then cover and cook until tomatoes are soft. Take it off the heat and cool completely.
• Once it cools off well transfer the cooked tomato-cashews into the blender. Then blend it to a smooth paste.
• Meanwhile, we will also make brown onion paste, For that, add brown onions into the blender along with few tablespoons of water.
• Then blend it to a fine paste.

To make stuffed paneer (Pasanda)

• To begin with, let’s make stuffed paneer sandwich. Firstly, add grated paneer, coriander leaves, mint, cashews, raisins, crushed green chillies, khowa and salt to taste. Mix everything well to form a stuffing.
• Once the stuffing is ready, next, slice the paneer into circles with the thickness of half inch.
• Then, slice the circle of paneer slice into halves horizontally.
• Repeat the same for all the paneer circles.
• Once the paneer are ready to stuff, take one pair of paneer. place the stuffing on it. Then, top the other slice and cover the stuffing, do not press much.
• Repeat the same for all the slices to make paneer sandwich.
• Next, then take the cornflour slurry and dip the sandwich into it.
• After that, in a pan, shallow fry the paneer sandwiches into hot oil.
• Carefully, shallow fry all the sandwiches from both the sides until just golden, do not, over cook them. Once they are done, transfer them onto a kitchen towel and set aside

Making of paneer pasanda

• To make pasanda gravy, firstly, heat together butter and oil.  While the butter and oil heats, add cumin seeds, bay leaf and cinnamon sticks, fry for few seconds.
• Once the cumin seed crackles and the aroma releases, add grated ginger and fry for another few seconds.
• After that, add kasuri methi, turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder and cumin powder.  Mix well and allow it to cook on low for another minute.
• Then, sprinkle a tablespoon of water to avoid the burning of masalas.
• Once the spices releases oil, add brown onion paste.  Mix well and cook on high for a minute.  Stir at intervals to avoid burning.
• Then add, salt and mix.
• Next, add tomato cashew paste and mix.
• Cover and cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until the masala oozes out oil.
• Then, add water to make the gravy of required consistency.  Bring it to a boil and cook for another couple of minutes.
• Finally, add garam masala powder, cream and sugar.  Mix and cook for a minute.
• Once the pasanda gravy is ready, gently add fried paneer sandwiches to it and coat them with the gravy. Paneer pasanda is ready to serve. Dish, garnish with cream and coriander leaves, serve.

Notes

Chefs secret to get the actual extract of the gravy make one day prior of your making the dish, it would be more palatable and tasty. once it cool down you can refrigerate it and use as required . on the day you are making the dish just shallow fry the stuffed pasanda of the paneer and add to the gravy and adjust the consistency.