Paneer and curry

½ kg paneer

¼ kg shlled fresh or frozen peas

One teaspoon ginger and garlic paste

Four red chillies

Six cardamoms

One inch piece of cinnamon

Twenty cashew seeds

Ten black peppers

One tea spoon jeera

One tea spoon coriander seeds

Quarter tea spoon haldi

One big onion

Four big ripe tomatoes

In a mixer reduce to a pulp one onion and the four tomatoes. Add some oil in a pan and pour in the mixture. Let the raw taste of the onion and tomato cook out for about seven to ten minutes. You might need to add about quarter cup water.

While this is happening fry in some oil the paneer which you have diced and set this aside. You just need to colour it a bit. You can soak this cooked paneer in warm water and use the same water into the dish. If you paneer is not great this keeps the paneer nice and moist. I did not fry the paneer in this dish.

Grind the ingredients for the masala to a paste.  Now in a pot add some oil and then the masala. Add a bit of water and cook the masala for two minutes. To this add the tomato and onion mixture which by now has lost its overpowering raw flavor and cook the two mixtures together till you get a nice gravy. When this gravy has cooked (you will know since the oil begins to float on the surface) add the paneer (with a little paneer water if you have soaked it in water as the paneer releases its flavor in the water too) and the peas

Cook this for a while till all the flavours marry. If you have used frozen peas go easy on the cooking at this stage as you will end up with a mash. If using frozen peas just drop them in a minute before the dish is done. The heat will do the rest.