Matar Paneer

I made this the other night with some left over paneer I had from making palak paneer. Palak paneer is absolutely my favorite Indian dish. It looks absolutely disgusting, like green mush with white cubes...but it's so delicious. I haven't found a palak paneer recipe that I'm absolutely in love with yet, and until then, I won't post it.

Anyway, on to the dish at hand. I made matar paneer because I needed to use up the left over paneer and also because we *HEART* Indian food. I found this recipe from Christie's Corner. This is such an easy dish to make, it came together in less than 30 minutes, which is wonderful when you're exhausted from work. This dish was so yummy, I'm actually excited about the left overs for lunch tomorrow. Here's the recipe.

Matar Paneer
adapted from Christie's corner
Serves 4

1/4 cup canola oil
2 large onions, minced
2 Tbsp garlic, grated
2 Tbsp gingerroot, grated
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp cumin seeds
1 Tbsp Garam Masala
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp salt
1 cup paneer, cubed
2 cups peas, fresh or frozen
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup milk (see note)

1. Heat a non-stick skillet over high. Add oil then onions, and sauté until dark golden brown.

2. Add the garlic and ginger, reduce the heat to medium, and cook for 2 minutes.

3. Add the tomato paste and cumin seeds and cook for 30 seconds.

4. Reduce the heat to low, add the garam masala, brown sugar, red pepper flakes, turmeric, and salt, and cook for 5 minutes.

5. Add the paneer and cook another 5 minutes.

6. Add the peas, yogurt and cream. Cook 2 to 4 minutes or until the peas are just cooked.

7. Sprinkled with fresh cilantro. Serve immediately.

Note:

• *original recipe calls for 1/4 cup of heavy cream. I ended up using milk to lighten the dish and I didn't think the dish suffered from it.