Restaurant Style Cottage Cheese Gravy/Curry
I am going to call this recipe another one of my restaurant style mother gravies. You can make this in a huge batches if your desire and store it for less than a week in your fridge. This may serve as the mother base gravy for at least three times with different veggies.
You can use this gravy for your baby corns/capsicums/ boneless chicken/ mushrooms/ tofu/baby potatoes or any veggie of choice. In the case of chicken, you may grind a few cashewnuts and poppy seeds (Khus Khus) immersed in warm water and made to a paste to give a richer texture to the non-veg dish. Omit it while prepping for the vegetarian dishes.
What your need at hand are:- two to three sliced onions and tomatoes, a few whole spices like a bayleaf, a few peppercorns, two green cardamoms,two cloves, a few fennel seeds, a cinnamon stick and a bit of ghee (use butter if you do not have ghee or oil) But the ghee does give the Indian dish its flavour and richness.
Add or reduce as per your desire. All these whole spices are sautéed in the ghee. Once sautéed in a wok add the sliced onions, shredded ginger and garlic until it becomes translucent and lightly brown. Then add in your spice powders.
To this onion mix add in a tsp. of turmeric, a tsp. of chilly powder, two tsps. of coriander powder and a tsp. of cumin powder. Let them all merge well, then add in your sliced tomatoes till it gets nice and mushy. Once mushy and all the spices blended in well, set it aside to cool down. At this point extract the cinnamon stick and the bayleaf as they would be too powerful in flavour when blended in the food processor.
Once cooled, grind this sautéed and mushy tomato onion gravy to a sort of paste.
Dice the paneer/tofu and fry them. I fried them in my left-over oil in which I had made my vadas for the vada curry (previous post), hence those tiny brown specks here and there. Once fried immerse them in a bowl of warm water/milk. This helps the cottage cheese to remain extremely soft to chew.
If you are using any other vegetable, please play around and use your common sense in the way it is sautéed, boiled or cooked. You need not immerse that veggie in milk or warm water!
Add the ground paste back into the same wok and run some water in the processor which would have some left over paste. Add that as well to the wok. Into this I added slit green chillies and slit baby corns to give another texture and feel to the curry. This step can be avoided. The choice is yours. As this merges well, add adequate salt and let the gravy reduce on a low flame in the wok.
Add a tsp. of honey(optional) and stir through. Check the seasoning. Crush a few fenugreek leaves over the dish. This is a very important step as it takes the dish to another level in terms of aroma and taste. The appearance of the dry herbs also makes it picture perfect!
If it lacks spice add more chilly powder or a tsp. of garam masala and slide the soft paneer into the gravy. This gravy is made richer and thicker with the addition of fresh cream. Allow it all to mix well. At this point check if there is salt as more the liquid the degree of saltiness decreases. Please add accordingly and entirely up to the preference of your family.
This is close to what one would be served along with hot rotis/naans in an Indian restaurant. Enjoy!
You can use this gravy for your baby corns/capsicums/ boneless chicken/ mushrooms/ tofu/baby potatoes or any veggie of choice. In the case of chicken, you may grind a few cashewnuts and poppy seeds (Khus Khus) immersed in warm water and made to a paste to give a richer texture to the non-veg dish. Omit it while prepping for the vegetarian dishes.
What your need at hand are:- two to three sliced onions and tomatoes, a few whole spices like a bayleaf, a few peppercorns, two green cardamoms,two cloves, a few fennel seeds, a cinnamon stick and a bit of ghee (use butter if you do not have ghee or oil) But the ghee does give the Indian dish its flavour and richness.
Add or reduce as per your desire. All these whole spices are sautéed in the ghee. Once sautéed in a wok add the sliced onions, shredded ginger and garlic until it becomes translucent and lightly brown. Then add in your spice powders.
To this onion mix add in a tsp. of turmeric, a tsp. of chilly powder, two tsps. of coriander powder and a tsp. of cumin powder. Let them all merge well, then add in your sliced tomatoes till it gets nice and mushy. Once mushy and all the spices blended in well, set it aside to cool down. At this point extract the cinnamon stick and the bayleaf as they would be too powerful in flavour when blended in the food processor.
Once cooled, grind this sautéed and mushy tomato onion gravy to a sort of paste.
If you are using any other vegetable, please play around and use your common sense in the way it is sautéed, boiled or cooked. You need not immerse that veggie in milk or warm water!
If it lacks spice add more chilly powder or a tsp. of garam masala and slide the soft paneer into the gravy. This gravy is made richer and thicker with the addition of fresh cream. Allow it all to mix well. At this point check if there is salt as more the liquid the degree of saltiness decreases. Please add accordingly and entirely up to the preference of your family.
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