Paneer Malai Curry

I have always had a soft spot for paneer or cottage cheese. I just love it so much, I would have it just out from the packet. Well, there are many tasty dishes you can make out of these pure white cottage cheeses. I would like to share some for you. I had more coconuts than required at home. While I was wondering what to do with it. I came across this recipe to make paneer malai curry with coconut milk. 






Since I don’t favour sweets much, and did not want to use the coconut milk to make sweets, I decided to make this for dinner.

How to cook Paneer Malai Curry...

This is what you need:

Half a shell of coconut - grated

1 glass of milk

100 gms of paneer cut in cubes

2 medium sized onions chopped finely

1 medium size tomato chopped finely

1 tbsp ginger paste

2 tbsp garlic paste

3 green chillies slit for flavour

1 cardomon

2 cloves

A small stick of cinnamon

1 tsp of turmeric powder

2 tbsps of red chilli powder.

Ghee for frying paneer

Oil as required

This is what you do:

Heat some ghee in the dosa tava. Add the paneer and fry it till it becomes slightly brown on both sides. Take a bowl full of warm water with little salt. Put the paneer in this water to keep it soft.

Grind the coconut with the cup of milk and extract the coconut milk. Add required water to grind to get 2 cups of coconut milk.

Heat oil in a pan. Add cardamom, cloves and cinnamon. Then add ginger and garlic paste. Saute for a minute. Then add onions and green chillies. Saute till the onions turn translucent.

Now add the tomatoes and sauté for two minutes.

Add turmeric powder, red chilli powder and salt. Saute it till the raw smell disappears.

Add the coconut milk and paneer to the pan. Let it boil for 2 minutes. Check the spices and add if any required.

Paneer malai curry is ready to be served with roti. You can garnish it with fresh coriander. You can also use plain milk instead of coconut milk in which case it does not make the dish heavy.