I’ve got another restaurant style recipe for you! This is the newest one: Restaurant Style Paneer Butter Masala, (Check out my Restaurant Style Instant Pot Chana Masala for more restaurant style ideas, some tips and tricks to replicate your favorite Indian menu options.)
You might be able to tell, we’ve been trying to get our restaurants favorite without venturing out as much lately! Satisfy our cravings without breaking the bank or diets!
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This one is for everyone’s favorite paneer dish! Paneer Butter Masala. Sounds so indulgent right? Cheese, butter, creamy gravy! Its actually not too bad though. I mean, you can totally omit the butter if you’re looking to save the calories, its not going hurt the flavor terribly. But we all know that little addition of butter really makes it taste amazing! Its just that little bit of indulgence you need in your life some days.
So here are some of the little tricks I used to make this Butter Masala sauce really taste restaurant style:
- Ratio of tomatoes to onions – normally for most of my Indian dishes I do a 1:1 ratio of tomato to onion, its just to keep things simple and straight forward. Not here however! You will need at least 4 tomatoes to 1 onion! Seems like a lot of tomatoes but you need it for that rich tomato flavor.
- Order of cooking the spices. This step is pretty critical. I’ve gotten into the habit of adding all of the spices to flavor the cooking oil before adding the main ingredients. In this recipe, you want to add the whole spices to the oil but leave out the powdered spices until the end. This ensures the powdered spices do not end up burning while the other ingredients are cooking through.
- Use the blender! This gives you a nice and easy smooth mixture. Its the perfect texture and allows for even distribution of all of that flavor you’ve just cooked up!
- Cashews! This is a nice little trick I’ve started using to get creamy sauces. Add the cashew nuts to the mixture as you are cooking and blend it. This is of the best methods to get a creamy sauce without the addition of a heavy cream. Less calories and less guilt, but more flavor!
Now jump down to the recipe and prepare this amazing dish!!
Restaurant Style Paneer Butter Masala
Equipment
- Blender
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 4 cloves
- 4 peppercorns
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 dried red chili pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic paste
- 1 teaspoon ginger paste
- 2 tablespoons cashews
- 4 tomatoes chopped
- 1 onion chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 2 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon salt more or less to taste
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 cup water
- 14 ounce paneer cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1 tablespoon kasuri methi dried leaves (optional)
- 1 tablespoon cilantro chopped leaves
Instructions
- In a saute pan, add cooking oil and heat to medium heat. Add cinnamon stick, peppercorns, cloves, bay leaf, dried red chili to the oil. Allow to cook for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Add ginger and garlic pastes and cashews to the whole spices. Cook for an additional 2 minutes.
- Add the chopped onions and tomatoes and stir to combine. Cook for about 5 to 7 minutes. Stirring occassionaly.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool to the touch. Remove as many of the whole spices you can find. Blend the tomato and onion mixture until smooth.
- Return the tomato and onion mixture to the saute pan and cook at medium heat. Add butter, turmeric, garam masala and salt. Also add water and stir to combine. Cook for about 3 minutes.
- Add paneer cubes to mixture and allow to heat through. Remove from heat.
- Top with kasuri methi and cilanto, if using. Serve warm with buttered naan!
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