Name: Simmered Kashmiri Paneer
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: About ⅔ cup ghee, peanut or safflower oil, or raw sesame oil for frying; 3 tablespoons minced ginger or ginger mashed to a paste; ½ cup minced garlic or garlic mashed to a paste; 3 cups chopped onions (½-inch dice); 2 pounds very ripe tomatoes, or substitute 3 cups crushed good-quality canned tomatoes; ½ to 1 teaspoon Spanish pimentón (see headnote) or ½ teaspoon cayenne; 3 brown cardamom pods, smashed, or substitute 5 green cardamom pods, smashed; 1 teaspoon turmeric; 1½ teaspoons salt, or to taste; 3 to 4 cups water; 2 tablespoons minced seeded green cayenne chile; About 1 pound paneer (or store-bought)

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Mangoes & Curry Leaves

By Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

Published 2005

About

We learned this home-style dish from an Australian named Kate, whom we met in Rajasthan. She had learned the dish from her Kashmiri husband’s family. A slow-simmered tomato sauce bathes slices of golden fried paneer (fresh pressed cheese). The dish is vegetarian, with the rich and subtle spicing that is characteristic of the Kashmiri kitchen, and easy to make ahead. It’s worth taking the time to first fry the slices of paneer, and to let the sauce simmer down to a thick rich f