Shahi Paneer

Making Shahi Paneer

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1. Put the onions, cashews, melon seeds, whole spices, garlic and ginger in a pan with 400 ml water.

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2. Bring to the boil and simmer 15 minutes until the onions are completely soft and the cashews swollen.

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3. Fish out the cinnamon stick and cloves, then blend everything to a very smooth paste.

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4. Pass the paste through a fine sieve, pressing hard. This step is what separates a restaurant gravy from a home one.

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5. Heat the ghee in a wide pan, add the sieved paste, and cook 8 to 10 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring, until it thickens and the ghee begins to separate. Do not let it colour.

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6. Add the ground coriander, white pepper, salt and sugar and cook 2 minutes.

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7. Loosen with 150 ml water to a pourable gravy and simmer 5 minutes.

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8. Add the paneer and warm through for 4 minutes — do not boil it hard or the paneer toughens.

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9. Stir in the cream, garam masala, crushed kasuri methi, saffron milk and rose water. Rest 5 minutes before serving.

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Notes for Getting It Right

• Boil the onions, do not brown them. Colour in the base means it is no longer shahi paneer.
• Sieve the paste. It takes two minutes and transforms the texture.
• Rose water is powerful — a teaspoon perfumes, a tablespoon ruins.

Ingredient Swaps

• In a sauce, full-fat crème fraîche can usually take the place of the double cream; single cream is thinner and more likely to split if it boils, so keep it below a simmer.
• If you only have ground ginger, a quarter-teaspoon for each tablespoon of fresh is the ratio usually given; it tastes warmer and less bright than the fresh root.
• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

What to Serve with Shahi Paneer

• Naan or laccha paratha
• Jeera rice
• A cucumber raita

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Aloo Methi, Avial, Beans Poriyal.

Leftovers and Storage

Refrigerate up to 3 days. Reheat gently without boiling. Freezing splits the cream.

The Numbers per Serving

Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: part of the energy comes from foods, or weights per item, with no recorded source. How the figures are worked out.

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