Paneer Masala (cooked in olive oil)

Introduction:
Let’s cook something that’s popular in a more healthy way. We will cook paneer masala in olive oil which is a healthier substitute to paneer butter masala/chicken tikka masala.This has a better taste, less cooking time, and most importantly a healthy twist which makes it lighter to digest.
Ingredients:

• 200 gms fresh cottage cheese (paneer)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil (pomace olive oil or refined oil)
• half tea spoon cumin seeds (jeera seeds)
• half tea spoon fenugreek seeds (methi seeds)
• half tea spoon coriander seeds (dhaniya seeds)
• 2- 3 dry red chillies
• red chili powder
• coriander powder (dhaniya powder)
• 2 medium sized onions
• 2 medium sized tomatoes (ensure they are red and ripe)
• 5 tablespoons tomato puree
• 1 table spoon fresh cream (malai)
• fresh green coriander (dhaniya)
• salt to taste

COOKING METHOD:
Add olive oil in a pre-heated pan/wok/kadai, add cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, coriander seeds dry red chillies, now add diced onions, diced tomatoes, tomato puree stir well and turn off  the gas, allow the tadka to cool for 5 – 10 mins
Grind the tadka in a mixer grinder to make a fine paste. After the paste is ready add some olive oil/refined oil in a pan and then add kasturi methi, paste (grinded in the mixer grinder) and then add fresh cream and stir it to mix well. Now add red chilli powder, dhaniya powder and salt to taste and cover the pan with a lid to cook on low flame for 5 mins, later remove the lid and you will notice that gravy has left oil in the sides of the pan which means that it is cooked well and now add fresh cottage cheese or paneer cut into large cubes and finally add coriander for garnish and serve it hot.
This dish can be served with roti/ naan/ parantha.

You can view many more reciepes  at www.countrymenus.com