Matar Paneer

Here goes one of my favorite vegetarian dishes. The quantity serves 4 persons.

Ingredients:

• Cottage cheese (Paneer) : 500 gm
• Green Peas : 250 gm
• Onion: 2 large ones
• Tomatoes: 2 large ones, or 1/2 cup puree
• Oil : Sunflower or other white oil for cooking
• Salt and sugar
• Cumin seeds : 2 spoonful
• Curd : 3 tbsp
• Green chili
• Ginger and garlic : as per taste, or ginger-garlic paste (2 tsp)
• Spice : turmeric, cumin powder, red-chili and coriander powder
• Bay leaves : 2 leaves
• Cardamon (2 pieces), Cloves (3) and Cinnamon stich (two 2" ones)
  

Method:

1. Cut the cottage cheese into 2-inches cubes, remove excess moisture using papers, and apply with a powder made of salt, turmeric powder and little red-chili powder. Keep for marinade.
2. Boil the peas with little salt and sugar added to the water until they become tender. Discard the water.
3. Heat 3-4 spoonful of oil in a non-stick pan. When it stars smoking add bay-leaves, cinnamon sticks, cloves and cardamoms, then the cumin seeds. They will start sputtering. Soon after that add the coarsely chopped onions. Keep stirring until the onions get transparent ans golden brown at the edges. Take out the content (discard bay-leafs) and keep aside.
4. Now add heat more oil in the non-stick pan and fry the paneer cubes, until they get little crispy brown at the surfaces. Keep them aside.
5. Blend the fried onions (that also contains cardamom, cinnamon, cloves) with chopped green chilies and 2 scoops of curd, coriander and red-chili powder, little salt, half of the cilantro leaves. Make a fine paste out of these contents.
6. Heat little oil at high flame, add little more cumin seeds and ginger-garlic paste (or finely chopped ginger and garlic). Keep stirring continuously. Add the chopped tomatoes (or 4-5 spoonful of tomato puree) and stir the mixture for a minute. Then add the boiled peas and saute for few minutes.
7. Next add the onion paste paste made previously, and cook for 5 minutes. Finally add the paneer cubes and rest of cilantro leaves and mix well, cover with a lid and cook at low flame covered with a lid for 5-10 minutes.
8. Serve hot, garnished with fresh cilantro leaves.