Dhaba style ...Methi aloo-paneer

Happy weekend!

It's not every day that one can spend long hours in the kitchen preparing elaborate meals. But on weekends and holidays when the family is at home and there is more than enough time to go crazy in the kitchen. You can easily dazzle everyone with delicious meals- starting from a beyond-the usual breakfast to a hearty lunch to a four-course dinner.

  Today i am here with such interesting rich and creamy dish with fenugreek,baby potatoes and paneer/cottage cheese, A Perfect  dhaba style dish .This recipe is perfect for Saturdays and Sundays when you have more hours to devote to prepping and cooking, but you can just easily make them on any day of the week if it so please you. Savor this yummy recipe with your family and friends. Make your weekend table a place for good food and good times. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 2 cups Fresh Fenugreek/Methi leaves
• 20 Baby potatoes
• 200 grams Fresh paneer/cottage cheese,crumbled
• 3 cups Full Fat Milk
• 2tbsp Fresh cream
• 1 Onion,chopped
• 2 medium Tomatoes ,pureed
• 1tsp Sugar
• 1/2tsp Turmeric powder/haldi
• 1tsp Cumin
• 1 Onion
• 2 tsp Ghee
• 1 tbsp Oil

For masala paste:

• 1 Onion
• 1inch Ginger
• 6-7 Garlic cloves
• 3-4 Green chillies
• 10 Cashew nut,cut into pieces
• 2tsp Poppy seed/Khus khus

For the Garam masala powder:

• 2(1 inch) pieces Cinnamon sticks
• 6-7 Cloves
• 4-5 Green cardamoms/elichi
• 1 Black cardamom/badi elichi
• 2tsp Coriander seeds
• 1tsp Jeera/cumin seeds
• 1tsp Fennel seeds/saunf
• 1/4 Mace
• 1/2tsp Pepper corns/kali mirch
• 1tsp Kasoori methi ( no need to roast)

Cooking Directions

1. Wash fenugreek leaves 2-3 times and drain.Sprinkle some salt to get rid of the bitterness if any.Keep aside for 30 minutes.
2. Wash baby potatoes well to get rid of mud if any and cut into half. Heat oil in a kadai and deep fry potatoes till light golden and take it on a plate.
3. Soak cashewnut and poppy seed in 2tbsp of warm water.
4. Grind all the ingredients for the masala to smooth paste along with soaked cashewnut and poppy seed.
5. Now dry roast all the ingredients to be powdered till you get the nice aroma of the spices.Let it cool completely before grinding to fine powder.
6. Now squeeze the fenugreek leaves to get rid of that extra water .
7. In a kadai, heat 2tsp of ghee and add cumin seeds. Once they crackle, add the fenugreek leaves and saute for about 5-6 minutes on low flame till all the moisture dries up and you get nice aroma.
8. Transfer the fried methi leaves to a plate and in the same pan add oil and add chopped onions and saute till light brown colour.
9. Add the ground paste, turmeric powder and roasted masala powder and mix all the spices well,saute the mixture till the oil comes on top.
10. Add the tomato puree next and saute till oil separates.
11. Add the fried baby potatoes, fenugreek leaves milk, cream, salt, sugar and a cup of water and cook for about 10 mins.
12. At last add the crumbled paneer and cook again for 3-4 minutes and switch off the gas.
13. Transfer to a serving dish,garnish with a tbsp of cream and serve hot with hot pulkas or roti.