Paneer Butter Masala – Restaurant style
Every time when we go to an Indian restaurant one thing we have to order is Paneer! Without paneer the dinner is just not complete. It could be Kadai-paneer, Saag panner, Paneer butter masala, Palak-paneer, Paneer bhurji, Matar-paneer etc…whatever but Paneer has to be there. 🙂
As you know by now that I love good food but what you do not know is that I am crazy for panner. If you haven’t read my About page, probably you do not know this story. Like other foodies I also crave for tasty food. But for me I crave it at weird times (nahhh I am not pregnant). So that reminds me of me making a Paneer Butter Masala when I was preparing for my finals in Idaho… and guess what time did I make it? 3 AM…yes, at 3 AM!! See that’s the perfect example of me not compromising on good food and how crazy I am for Paneer!! And BTW I got A- in my final 🙂 So it was worth an effort. Right?
Most of you are familiar with Paneer but if you are not, Paneer is a fresh cheese made of milk and lemon juice. Very easy to make and super delicious.You can make it fresh and use it the same day.
Paneer is such a versatile ingredient that you can prepare your entire meal out of it. One of the most popular curries of Paneer is Paneer butter masala. It is cooked in a rich buttery onion-tomato gravy and flavored with bitter fenugreek leaves. I added almond paste to make the curry more flavorful and rich. If you prefer healthier version of this you can cut back on butter and use half and half and not heavy cream. You can enjoy this Paneer butter masala with Tandoori naan/roti or just serve it with plain jeera rice. I also tried making Roomali roti but it was not a successful experiment so I am not posting the recipe for it. 😦 But I will keep trying.
Remember the aroma and texture of this curry you get in a restaurant?? So creamy and smooth! I always used to wonder how do they make it like that?? After trying out few recipes I finally figured out a proper way of cooking this delicious dish which has the same aroma and texture of the curry you get in a restaurant. 🙂
So, here I present you my awesome recipe of an Authentic Paneer Butter Masala.
Total time: About 35 minutes
Yields: 4-6 servings
Ingredients:
- 2 cups Paneer cubed
- 3 Tbsp Butter
- 2 Tbsp Oil
- 2 Bay leaves
- ¼ tsp Cumin seeds
- 2 one inch of cinnamon sticks
- 2 Red chilies broken
- 1 big Red Onion chopped (2 cups)
- 1 Tbsp ginger-garlic paste
- 4 Tbsp Organic tomato paste (or you can use 5 tomatoes pureed)
- ½ cup almonds pureed with ½ cup milk
- 1 Tsp Garam masala powder
- 1 Tsp coriander-cumin powder
- 1 Tsp red chili powder
- ½ – 1 Tbsp Paprika powder (for color as well as taste)
- ¼ cup tomato ketchup
- Salt – to taste
- 1 ½ tsp Kasuri methi (the most important ingredient…do not skip this – you can easily find it in an Indian grocery store)
- ½ cup finely chopped coriander leaves
- 1 cup half and half/heavy cream
Method:
Soak almonds in half cup of milk and set aside.
Heat one Tbsp of oil in a pan. Add chopped onions and sauté it for about 10 minutes on medium-high flame till they are translucent. Add a pinch of salt to it. Keep it aside. Let it cool down a bit and purée it in a blender.
Now in a big pan add butter and a Tbsp of oil. Do not skip on oil otherwise your butter will get burnt. Once oil/butter is hot enough add bay leaves, cumin seeds, cinnamon sticks and red chillies all together. Sauté for about 30 seconds on medium heat. Now add ginger-garlic paste and sauté for another 45 seconds.
Add onion paste and cook for another 2 minutes. Once onions are cooked, add tomato paste /puree, coriander-cumin powder, garam masala powder, red chilli powder, paprika powder, and salt to it and cook on high heat till oil separate. It will take about 10 minutes. In between purée almonds with the milk. Once tomatoes are cooked add almond mixture and ketchup to it and cook for 3 more minutes.
Add paneer pieces and salt (if needed). Cook covered on low heat for five minutes. Sprinkle kasoori methi and mix in lightly. Thr bitterness of Kasoori methi will balance out the flavors of ketchup.
Remove from heat and mix in the heavy cream/half and half (I used half and half to cut back on some calories ;)). If you are using half and half you need to let the curry cook for 5 more minutes. But if you are using cream no need to cook further.
Taste and check the salt amount. Add more if requires. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and some cream if you prefer.
Enjoy this restaurant style Paneer Butter masala with Tandoori naan/roti or jeera rice. I can just eat it like that 🙂
Enjoy!
Amazing clicks and yet another amazing recipe! Loved reading through it all. Bookmarked this along with your soup n bread n pav bhaji! Love.
Thank you Radha! 🙂
I love paneer (and masala). But I’m not sure I wanted to know that it was as fattening as I thought. 🙂
Hey Lesley, It won’t be so fattening if you use less butter and half the amount of almonds plus use Half and half instead of full fat cream! 🙂 You will still be able to enjoy the flavors 🙂
Ya Grishma restaurant order can’t be complete without a paneer dish…you have made it look so pretty…and the taste..mmm…can just imagine the paneer melting in my mouth…superb.
Looks so yum n mouth watery ….love the pics
This is looking just tooo yummy. I am drooling out here . every body loves Paneer and so do we and butter masala is one of our fav way to eat paneer 🙂
I’m always a bit intimidated to make Indian dishes as they usually require quite a few ingredients I don’t have, but for this one I think I already have everything except Paneer and Kasuri methi! Will definitely have to try them once I have all the ingredients 🙂
It’s utterly delicious! You should make it if you all the ingredients on hand. You can easily fine paneer in Any Indian Grocery store and if you live in CA, you can even find it in Costco 🙂
Excellent Blog !!!!
Yum this looks so delicious! I have never been able to replicate restaurant style curries in my own kitchen so I have bookmarked this and am keen to give it a go!! Thanks for sharing
Love the picture and recipe.Its my altime favourite
Thanks for the recipe! It turned out great! It was a little on the sweet side, maybe because of the kind of Ketchup? What kind of Ketchup do you use? Also, do you recommend anything to thin the sauce out a little?
I am glad you liked it! I usually put some water or half and half to make the sauce thin and also about the ketchup I always use organic ones. I like this curry bit on sweeter side but if you prefer to cut back on sweetness, then you can try using half the tomato sauce and half the ketchup. I hope it helps and thank you for trying my recipe!
Stop talking in english all the time. Bharati people like you are ruining the beautiful Sanskrit and hindi language. just saying
Ganpati bapa morya
hey grishma..thnk u soo much for such a nice recipe..i made this for a small group of 20 ppl..and they loved it..it was a HIT..thnk u
Hi Grish,
Just wanted to tell you that I followed this recipe this past weekend, and I made one of the best paneer dishes ever! Totally delicious! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
hi sis….i tried out this recipe…twas damnnnn gud yar…n i made some small changes which turned out gud…in addition to almonds, i used cashews n raisins too…n could find paprika powder anywhere 😦 :(..thanks a ton fr this delicious recipe
I am so happy to hear that, Cashews are always good substitute of almonds. I never tried raisins though, I am sure it was good.
You can always use mild chili powder in place of paprika. It works just fine. Basically it is only used for color – so no big deal!
hi sis…i badly wanted de recipe of restaurant style kadai paneer n punjabi bindi masala…if u happened to know, plz post it soon sis…to tel u de truth, am a kind of person who doesnt get satisfied so esily…ave adopted many methodology for the paneer buter masala..but was not satisfied…now telling from my bottom of my heart, urs was awesome n tat wud be my final…plz try to post some punjabi side dishes for roti..thank u once again sis…
regards,
meena shankar
Dear Meena, I very much appreciate your comments and I would try to post more Indian stuff that you have mentioned above. Thanks for kind words 🙂 Have a wonderful day!
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This was delicious recipe, I and my wife realy enjoyed it.
Awesome recipe…going to make it today
Hi I made this today and it turned out to be awwwsum!! My whole family enjoyed it, thanks Greeshma, post more!!
It turned out delicious and its awesome!!! 🙂
Bull’s eye absolutely!!! I have been instructed not to make again otherwise we wouldn’t have anything to eat if we go out for dinner 😀 thanks a ton!!
Awww…that’s very sweet of you Vrushali 🙂 I am so glad everyone enjoyed it.
I would hightly recommend this curry to every one..One of the best paneer recipe.. I turned out delicious and is absolutely awesome!! 🙂 Thank you so so sooo much for this wonderful paneer recipe!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Anush, I am glad you liked it. Thank you for visiting my blog.
Awesome. For US audience(half&half use) otherwise we will find indian cream 🙂
can i use regular onions instead of red onion?
Of course you can! The taste will be different a bit though 🙂
Hi.. Your recipe looks so yummy.. Can i use half and half available in usa?? Cos i am living in states..
Bharathi, of course you can. I believe I am little late to reply but for the next time, yes!
Tried it and it came out so well! Thank you! My very fussy 2 year old are it with roti 👌
That’s great Maryann! I exactly know the feeling of your toddler enjoying something. Happy Eating! 🙂