Mutter Paneer

Mutter Paneer

I’ve mentioned in the past about how the lovely, Mrs. Unmanly Chef, introduced me to Indian food.

During that education, she also opened my eyes to Indian dishes that have paneer in them. For me, paneer already had a meaning in my head, paneer in Farsi means cheese. And in Hindi, paneer also means cheese, but that’s sort of where the similarities end between Persian cheese and Indian cheese. Indian paneer is an un-aged cheese that doesn’t have a ton of flavor by itself. That actually works to its advantage though. Think of Indian paneer like you would Chinese tofu, you can use it as a meat substitute to do some delicious things in the kitchen.

Mrs. Unmanly Chef’s favorite Indian dish is Mutter Paneer, which is a northern Indian dish that has cubes of paneer and green peas in a tomato based sauce. It’s often served with rice or bread, it’s insanely easy to make. It’s also super affordable, which in turn allows you to save up all of your dollars. To buy more food of course.

Where can you find paneer? Typically any Indian grocery store will have it, Whole Foods also carries it. If you have access to neither of those, I’d recommend searching out any international grocery store in your area to find this ingredient.

Recipe – Mutter Paneer

Ingredients

1lb of Paneer

1 Cup of Heavy Cream

5 or 6 Whole Tomatoes

1 Cup Diced Onion

3 Cloves Crushed Garlic

2 Cups Chicken Broth

2 Cups Frozen Green Peas

2 Tbsp. Butter

1 Tbsp. Cumin

1 Tsp. Turmeric

1/2 Tbsp. Coriander

1 Tbsp. Garlic Powder

1 Tbsp. Garam Masala

1 Tbsp. Salt

2 Tsp. Chili Powder

1 Tbsp. Onion Powder

2 Tsp. Cinnamon

1/2 Tsp. Nutmeg

1 Tsp. Ground Ginger

Method

Score the bottoms of your tomatoes and boil in a large pot of water. Once the skin has begun to peel back remove the tomatoes from the water, peel the skin off, and set aside.

Cut your cheese into cubes and set aside.

In a large dutch oven pot, heat your butter as it begins to foam add your onions, then garlic. Stir until soft. Then add all of your spices and your tomatoes to the pot. Stir until the tomatoes are completely liquified. Once you have an almost soupy consistency, add your chicken broth.

Cook for about 30 minutes until all the flavors have really cooked together.

Now in batches, blend the mixture. If you have a emulsion blender be careful not to make a mess.

Once everything is blended and smooth, add your mixture back to your pot. Taste it, if tastes a little off add a little more garam masala or cumin. Stir the mixture for about two minutes, then pour in your heavy cream. Have the heat on a low temperature.

Add your cheese to the mixture and stir. Then add your peas, stir once more. Once the peas have cooked, serve over rice and enjoy!

*Make sure the peas don’t get mushy*