Mattar paneer

Ingredients:

  • 60g red onion
  • 20g ginger
  • 20g garlic (about 4 cloves)
  • 6 teaspoons garam masala
  • 1.5 teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder
  • 30 twists of black pepper (about 1 teaspoon)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
  • 0.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 0.5 teaspoon ground cloves
  • coconut oil
  • 3 teaspoons tomato paste
  • 400g can of tomatoes
  • 6 teaspoons jaggery (or any unrefined sugar)
  • 650g paneer
  • 325g frozen green peas
  • 100g cream
  • wholegrain rice

Methods:

  • Start boiling the rice.
  • Open a can of tomatoes. If they are not already finely chopped, handblender them.
  • Very roughly chop onions, garlic and ginger. No need to peel the ginger.
  • Place them into a bowl and add all the dry spices (garam masala, chilli, black pepper, salt, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon and cloves). Hand blender everything into a paste.
  • In a heavy bottom pot, heat a bit of coconut oil. Add the curry paste and fry for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly, until it smells really good. Add tomato paste and cook for another minute, stirring constantly.
  • Add the tomato can. Refill the can with water and add it in. Add in jaggery. Cook for about 20min.
  • Meanwhile, heat a non-stick pan with coconut oil. Cube the paneer and fry it until golden on most sides.
  • Taste and adjust salt, spiciness (chilli powder) and sweetness (jaggery).
  • Once it tastes good, add paneer and frozen peas and wait for the temperature to come back up.
  • Add cream and wait for the temperature to come back up.
  • Serve with rice.