Paneer Korma / Paneer Kurma Restaurant Style

Paneer Korma Resturant Style

Ingredients
Paneer / Indian Cottage Cheese - 2 cups
Onion chopped - 1 no
Tomatoes - 2 no
Ginger and garlic paste - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 and 1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
Kasuri methi leaves - 1 tsp
Cashew nuts - 5 nos
Roasted Poppy seeds - 1 tsp
Grated coconut - 2 tbsp
Cardamom - 2 pods
Butter - 2 tbsp
Fresh thick cream - 1/4 cup
Salt to taste

Paneer Kurma for Chapathi

Method
1. Chop the paneer into cubes, deep fry in oil until lightly browned, drain and set aside( or soak paneer cubes in hot water for 10 mins, drain and set aside to make it soft).
2. Blanch the tomatoes in hot water for 10 minutes or until skin of tomato slightly shrinks. Remove tomatoes skin and chop it coarsely.
3. Heat 1 tbsp butter in a pan, when butter starts to melt add chopped onions and sauté till onions are soft.
4. Add the ginger and garlic paste to the pan and sauté until raw smell leaves.
5. Add the blanched and chopped tomatoes, cardamom, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala powder, cashew nuts, poppy seeds and grated coconut to the pan, stir well for 3 minutes on low heat. Remove pan from heat and allow mixture to cool.
6. Once tomato mixtures reaches room temperature, grind this mixture in blender until smooth.
7. Wipe the same pan and return to heat, add 1 tbsp butter and add the ground masala paste, stir well on low heat.
8. Add 1 cup water to the pan, stir well and loosen the gravy.
9. Increase heat bring gravy to boil, add paneer cubes to boiling gravy and season with required salt. Let the korma boil for 2 minutes.
10. Finally garnish paneer korma with crushed kasuri methi and thick cream, stir well and serve with ghee rice or hot pulkas.

Chefs tips
1. Since everyone in my home loves paneer I used 2 cups you can use 1 to 1.5 cups paneer for this recipe.
2. Using fresh cream gives richness to the recipe, it's optional to use cream.
3. I used Kashmiri red chilli powder in this recipe to get bright orange color, if using ordinary red chilli powder use food color to get the color.