Paneer Butter Masala, an Indian Delicacy Made With Home-Made Cheese

Paneer Butter Masala is an Indian delicacy made with home-made vegetarian cheese. This dish is very simple to make and tastes so good. You can even try it with any cheese available with you.

The cheese I have used here is popularly known in India as Paneer and made by vegetarian method without the use of rennet. You can see my instructable here on how to make vegetarian cheese without using rennet:

https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Paneer...

Step 1: Cut Paneer Into Cubes

The home-made cheese weighed about 150 grams and is about one centimetre thick. So, cut the cheese into one centimetre cubes using a kitchen knife. Do not discard the loose particles from the edges as they can also be used in making the dish.

Step 2: Ingredients

In addition to cheese, you need the following ingredients to make the dish. These ingredients are for about 150 grams of cheese, so adjust the quantity as required.

4 numbers medium sized tomatoes
100 grams of cashew nuts
Three medium sized onions
Two to three Garlic cloves
About a cubic inch of Ginger
One and half a teaspoon of Red chilli powder (Adjust it to your own taste)
One teaspoon of Cumin seed powder
One teaspoon of Garam Masala powder (It is a powdered mixture of different spices)
About half a teaspoon of Asafoetida powder
A tablespoon of cooking oil
About 50 grams of butter
A bunch of Coriander leaves for garnishing
Salt to taste

Step 3: Make Tomato Puree

Boil the tomatoes for about five minutes. This will enable to remove the skin of the tomatoes
Cut the tomatoes into pieces and make puree using a mixer-grinder

Step 4: Make Cashew Paste

Soak the Cashew nuts in water for about five minutes
Drain out the water and grind the soaked cashew nuts into rough paste

Step 5: Chop Onions

Remove dry skin of onions
Chop them into fine pieces

Step 6: Ginger Garlic Paste

Shuck garlic and remove skin from ginger pieces
Grind the ginger garlic into a paste.

Step 7: Preparation Step-1

Heat a frying pan over medium flame and add cooking oil
Add chopped onions and Ginger / Garlic paste and cook till raw smell disappears
Add all other spices and mix well
Add salt to taste
Add tomato puree to the mixture and cook for a few minutes
Add cashew nut paste and mix well

Step 8: Preparation Step-2

Now add butter to the pan cook till it melts and mixes with the other ingredients
Add little amount of water if required
Add paneer cube, cover the pan and cook for about five minutes