Paneer is Indian cottage cheese. It is one of the widely used ingredient in rich vegetarian cooking. It has got a unique flavour and many delicious dishes are made using paneer. During summer we used to eat a lot of paneer as there was a high chance of milk getting spoiled :) This is a very simple recipe and I make this often to go with roti’s. Incase paneer is not available, extra firm tofu is a good substitute.

Ingredients:

2 cups paneer cubed
1 cup capsicum cut in 1cm pieces
1 onion sliced
1 tomato chopped
2 tbsp cilantro
4 cloves
1 inch cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
4 peppercorns
1 green chili
1 tsp red chilli powder
A pinch of tumeric
2 tsp dhaniya-jeera powder (cumin-corainder powder)
salt to taste
3 tbsp + 1 tbsp oil

Method:

Saute the paneer pieces in a tbsp of oil and keep aside.

Take a vessel. Add oil and keep the flame on medium low. Add the cloves,cinnamon stick,bay leaf and peppercorns.

When they brown add the green chillies and sliced onions.

When the onions become transluscent add the tomatoes. Cover and cook for a couple of minutes till the tomatoes become soft.

Then add the salt,red chilli powder,turmeric powder and dhaniya-jeera powder. Mix well till the oil leaves the sides.

Then add the capsicum pieces and mix well. Cover and cook the capsicums.

After the capsicums are cooked add the saute’d paneer pieces and mix well. Cover for a couple of minutes. Then add the cilantro and put off the gas.

Serve hot with roti’s.

PS: I am sending this to Vandana for the ” Paneer-A delicacy” event.