A slightly spicy and tangy curry recipe of Indian cottage cheese cooked with onions, tomatoes, bell peppers and freshly ground kadai masala in a kadai or wok.
First roast the coriander and dry kashmiri red chilies in a pan on a low heat till aromatic.
When the spices cool, grind both of them in a grinder to a semi fine powder. Keep aside.
Finely chop the onions. Julienne (cut into very thin strips) the capscium/green bell pepper.
Finely chop 2 tomatoes. Roughly chop 5 tomatoes and add them to the blender. Make a puree of the tomatoes. Keep the tomato puree aside.
Crush the ginger-garlic to a fine paste in a mortar-pestle.
Making kadai paneer gravy
In a pan heat butter or oil or ghee. Then add the ginger-garlic paste and saute till their raw aroma disappears.
Then add the chopped onions and saute till transparent.
Add the ground coriander and kashmiri red chilli powder that we made. Also add green chilies. mix well.
Then add the finely chopped tomatoes and sauté till the tomatoes become pulpy and you see oil releasing from the sides of the tomato masala.
Then add tomato puree.
Stir well and continue to saute till you see oil leaving the sides. About 9 to 10 mins on a low flame.
Add the capsicum/green bell pepper julienne. Stir and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes on a low to medium flame.
Add water and salt and continue to simmer for some 7 to 8 minutes.
Later add crushed kasuri methi (dry fenugreek leaves) and garam masala powder and stir.
Add paneer cubes or slices. Stir gently. Cook the paneer for about 1 to 2 minutes.
You can also 2 tbsp of cream toward the end. Just stir the cream gently in the gravy.
Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and Serve Kadai Paneer Gravy with rotis, naan, steamed rice or jeera rice.
Notes
The gravy is tangy and this comes from the tomatoes. If you prefer to balance the tang, then add some cream towards the end.
Use fresh red and ripe tomatoes in this recipe. Avoid using tomatoes which are sour.
The recipe is slightly spicy. Reduce the quantity of red chilies if you don't want any spiciness.
The dry Kashmiri red chillies added here, give a nice red color to the gravy accompanied with the tomatoes. Kashmiri chilies have less heat as compared to other varieties of red chilies. If you don't have Kashmiri chilies, then use any Indian dry red chillies. Simply reduce the quantity depending on the heat and pungency of the chilies.