Handi Paneer

Gunjan Chopra -

Take a break from everyday cooking and please your cravings with scrumptious and tempting flavours of Handi Paneer. It is a dish where the paneer is tossed in a tomato and onion based gravy.

The traditional Indian Handi style of cooking is used to prepare this lip-smacking paneer dish. A handi is a type of pot in Indian cooking which has a shallow depth and a wide bottom. An amazing mixture of flavours will be a delight to enjoy with your family. Do try it out and let us know how it turns out.

How to prepare paneer at home

Paneer, also known as Indian Cottage Cheese is a very famous protein-rich food used in Indian recipes. This magically soft, melt-in-mouth ingredient clearly dominates the Indian food menu. Be it appetizers, starters, main course or desserts, paneer rules the vegetarian world.

It is so easy to make at home. All we need is to follow these simple steps and our homemade and fresh paneer is ready to use. This measurement will make approx. 100-120 gms of paneer.

Ingredients

  • 1-litre full-fat milk
  • 1 tbsp white vinegar
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 1 big soft cloth or a muslin cloth
  • Strainer

Procedure

  • In a stainless steel pot, boil the milk and bring it to the boiling point and switch off the flame.
  • Prepare a mixture of vinegar and water as per the above measurement and add it to the milk.
  • Let it stand for 5 minutes, you will see the curds separate from the whey.
  • Drain the curdle milk over the muslin cloth lined over a strainer.
  • Rinse off the curdle milk with fresh water to remove the sour smell.
  • Gather the cloth edges and squeeze the excess water and place heavy weight on paneer.
  • Keep it for an hour or so and our paneer is all set to use.

Ingredients for Handi Paneer

  • 1/4 kg tomatoes (cut each into 4 equal pieces)
  • 1/2 kg onions (diced cutting)
  • 20 grams watermelon seeds (matira magaj)
  • 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
  • 2 medium-sized green chilli
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 4 bay leaf (tej patta)
  • 4 cardamom (ilaichi)
  • 1/2tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
  • 1 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
  • 1/2 tsp coriander powder
  • 2 1/2tsp kitchen king powder
  • 2 tsp fenugreek seeds (kasoori methi)
  • Salt to taste

Method

  • In a pan boil tomatoes, onions, watermelon seeds and chopped green chilly for 10 minutes.
  • Allow it to cool down completely. Peel the tomato skin off. Once cooled down, grind it to a smooth paste.
  • Heat oil in a handi and add cumin seeds, cardamom and bay leaf until they turn completely aromatic.
  • Add ginger-garlic paste and the prepared grinded paste to it.
  • Add salt, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, kitchen king masala and fenugreek seeds and cook it for 15 minutes until the oil separates from the mixture while stirring occasionally.
  • Add diced paneer and mix properly until properly coated with the gravy.
  • Garnish it with coriander.