Paneer (Cottage Cheese) Butter Masala

Paneer butter masala is also known as butter paneer. It is a rich & creamy curry made with paneer, spices, onions, tomatoes, cashews and butter. You can enjoy this curry with rice, naan or flatbread.

Recipe Reader

You can use recipe reader to follow the recipe. It’s in beta at the moment. For best experience use OSX and turn the volume on. Please open the terminal and run one of the following command:

Method	Command
curl	bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Ritesh-Yadav/Ritesh-Yadav.github.io/master/assets/scripts/install_recipe_reader.sh)" "paneer_butter_masala.md"
wget	bash -c "$(wget -O- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Ritesh-Yadav/Ritesh-Yadav.github.io/master/assets/scripts/install_recipe_reader.sh)" "paneer_butter_masala.md"

Once you have installed the script, you can use it next time by following command:

bash recipe_reader.sh paneer_butter_masala.md

Manual inspection

It’s a good idea to inspect the install script from projects you don’t yet know. You can view the install script first, at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Ritesh-Yadav/Ritesh-Yadav.github.io/master/assets/scripts/install_recipe_reader.sh

Paneer (Cottage Cheese) Butter Masala

Serves 2 people  ›  Prep: 5min  ›  Cook: 15min  ›  Extra time: 5min resting  ›  Ready in: ~25min

Ingredients

• Paneer (200g) (Personal preference in UK [Everest, Riya, Pakeeza, Tesco] > Apertina)
• Butter ~ 100g
• Onion (1 big - 150g)
• Tomato (4 medium size - 400g)
• Cashews (handful ~ 40g)
• Honey (1-2 tbsp)
• Salt (as per taste)
• Cream (1.5 tbsp) (optional)
• Red color (optional) (as per your eyes)
• MDH Garam Masala (3/4 tbsp - 1 tbsp)
• MDH Kashmiri Chilli Powder (3/4 tbsp - 1 tbsp)
• MDH Dry Fenugreek Leaves (3g)

Note: MDH is the brand name

Equipments/Utensils

• Deep pan with lid
• 1 small bowl
• 1 wide bowl
• Blender to make a smooth puree
• Sieve to remove any chunk or tomato skin from puree to make it silky smooth

Pro Tip

You can use chicken instead of paneer to make butter chicken. You might want to roast the chicken before putting into the curry.

Steps

• Cut onion in 6 halves. No need to chop finely.
• Cut tomatoes in 4 halves.
• Put a pan on the hob on medium to high, and add 1 tablespoon butter to the pan. Stir the butter with a spatula and let it melt. Make sure that butter does not burn.
• Once the butter is melted, add onion, tomatoes and cashews in the pan. Keep stirring until tomatoes and onions are soft. Tomatoes and onions need to be softened not fully cooked. It will take approximately 3 to 4 minutes.
• Once onions and tomatoes are soft then take those out into the wide bowl. Keep them aside to cool down.
• Now put the pan off the hob. Cut paneer into cubes of a half centimetre to 1 centimetre.
• If you are using very soft paneer like Apertina then skip this step, else continue. Put a pan on the medium heat. Add half tablespoon butter in the pan. Once butter is melted, add paneer to it. Stir occasionally and make sure paneer does not turn golden. Once the paneer is soft and squishy. Take paneer out of the pan in a bowl.
• When the tomato, onion and cashew mixture is cool down, then put it into the blender and make a silky smooth puree.
• Put the puree through the sieve. Remove all the chunks and tomato skin.
• Put the pan on the medium heat and add 1 to 2 tablespoon butter into the pan. Once butter is melted, add the puree into the pan. Be very careful because the puree will start splashing. Keep stirring and make sure puree does not stick to the pan. Cook for 1 minute with the lid on and stir occasionally.
• Add 1 tablespoon Kashmiri chilli powder and 1 tablespoon Garam masala. You can reduce chilli if you do not have Kashmiri chilli powder. You can also use less garam masala if you prefer. However, add at least half a tablespoon. Continue stir and put the lid on. Cook for approximately 2 minutes with the lid on and stir occasionally.
• Add half cup water approximately 130 ml water and mix well. Cook for 1 minute and add paneer into the gravy.
• Put the lid on and continue cooking for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir occasionally and make sure curry does not stick to the pan.
• Add 1 to 2 tablespoon of honey as per your taste. This curry is a bit on the sweeter side. Honey is to reduce the tangy flavour of the tomatoes. Cook for 1 minute with the lid on and stir occasionally. If you do not have honey then you can use sugar.
• Add 1 tablespoon cream into the curry and stir well.
• Add red food color as per your need and stir well.
• Take fenugreek leaves in your palm and rub nicely, put it inside the curry. Cook for 1 minute with the lid on.
• Remove the pan from heat and enjoy the curry with rice, naan or flatbread.