Recipe: Methi Matar Malai Paneer

I posted the picture of Methi Matar Malai Paneer yesterday on my Instagram handle and received a lot of recipe requests from people. It got me thinking that while we love posting and making recipes which require some pro-level skills, and which look “complicated”…what we forget is that most people are looking for basic recipes which can be made with ingredients that are easily available in their kitchen.

As a kid I always used to enjoy standing on a stool in the kitchen and watch my mother and grandmother prepare meals and then I used to imitate that in my make believe kitchen, with my kitchen-set and with ingredients which are best left unmentioned! I was 13 years old when I first made a proper meal and gained the confidence of managing a kitchen. Funnily, I like to cook only for myself and that helped me when I moved to Delhi for my under-graduation. There was never a day when the fridge of my apartment wasn’t filled with my experiments and basic food. Ask my then flatmate and close friend Sarojini, what a boon that was! haha.

Anyway, last night as I wondered what to make for dinner, I found frozen peas, kasoori methi and paneer at home, and that led to making a delicious and creamy Methi Matar Malai Paneer. Here’s the recipe:

Procedure: 

1. In a mixer grinder add the soaked cashews, onion, garlic pods, ginger pod and grind it to make a fine paste.
2. In a pan, heat 2 tbsp refined oil and add this paste.
3. As the paste starts cooking, add salt to taste, sugar to taste
4. Add jeera powder, coriander powder, red chillies powder and one elaichi, if you like.
5. Cook this paste till oil starts separating from it.
6. Add peas and kasoori methi and cook.
7. Once peas soften and the paste is well cooked, add Amul cream and switch off the induction.
8. Add paneer cubes in the end and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.