Potato Peas Paneer

Ingredients

Potato- 1 cup diced cubes and washed
Paneer-1 cup cut into cubes(Don't forget to defrost the Paneer)
Fresh Peas- 1/2 cup
Tomato-2 medium sized cut into cubes
Green chilly-one slit into 4
Ginger- one inch grated(Instead of adding ginger paste, try to use grated ginger)
Coriander fresh



Dry ingredients
Roasted jeera powder-2 spoons
Chilly powder- 1 teaspoon
Turmeric-1 teaspoon

Procedure
Dry roast the jeera and powder it.Fresh jeera powder always gives a nice aroma and taste.You can Refrigerate the Jeera powder which increases it shelf life and also preserves the aroma.

In a Kadai, add 2 Tablespoons of oil.Make sure oil is hot.Fry the paneer.Simultaneously warm a cup of water with little salt.Add the fried paneer to the warm water.Soaking paneer in salt warm water makes it soft.

In the same oil fry the potatoes.Add a pinch of salt to the potatoes.

Then add the tomatoes,green chillies,fresh peas.

Cook until the potato and peas are done.At the same time you can observe that tomato blends well with the dish.Add the turmeric,grated ginger,chilly powder,jeera powder and salt.Be careful when you add the salt as we have already added salt to Paneer and Potato.Now whatever salt we are adding is for the gravy only.So you may need only little.

Grated ginger gives a fresh flavour to the dish.After 5 minutes once the raw smell of the dry ingredients goes, add the paneer along with the warm water.

Simmer it for 8-10 minutes.Mouth watering aloo paneer is ready which can be served with Roti or Pulav.

PS: Paneer can become chewy if it is stale or if it's fried for longer time. To avoid this make sure that oil is smoking hot when we fry so that within minutes we get the golden colour. Soaking in warm salt water softens the paneer.

Some tidbits on paneer.

Paneer is an Asian cheese made by curdling milk with lime or other acid.  Unlike cheese of the west, rennet is not used in its manufacture and that makes it a totally lactovegetarian item. 

Paneer is a traditionally North Indian food. It was apparently an accidental discovery.  The Mongols of yore carried milk in animal hide bags, and during the bumpy horse ride, the milk curdled. When you are really hungry after a day long horse ride, even curdled milk opens up  possibilities and thus was born paneer.  It seems it took the Mughals to actually do magic with paneer, and most of the paneer based dishes now are an outcome of Mughalai cuisine.

Like pizza, for people unused to paneer, it is an acquired taste.  The chewy bland cubes are revolting at first, but it grows on you and after a point, like pavlo's dog, you salivate at the thought of it.  Paneer is usually added to gravy based spicy dishes but there are a few sweets made using panner as well, the most popular being rosogolla.

The chewy feel of paneer makes it an attractive alternative to meat, both for taste and nutritional value - paneer is rich in protein and calcium, being a dairy product. In fact, it s supposed to have higher protein content than its far East counterpart - soy curd. unfortunately, like all things tasty and beautiful, it is also not really the healthiest of food for daily consumption, being rich in fat and cholesterol.

There is alleged therapeutic value to paneer as well, for example, it is said to heal disgestive disorders, and alleviate lower back and joint pain. Of course these are claims that have not yet been substantiated by formal scientific testing, as far as we know.