Paneer Tikka Masala

It's a tedious task to decide every meal every day. But to N's utmost amazement, M is always ready with an answer. Not that it is always a welcome answer, since it mostly involves extensive cooking and spending more time in the kitchen then relishing the dish. But then again, isn't that a happy trade off we foodies always make. And in this recipe's case, it really was a happy trade off!

This dish is prepared in two parts separately and then combined together. The first part is to prepare delicious well roasted paneer tikka and the other is to prepare finger licking good gravy.

For sure - this is the best paneer dish ever cooked in M and N's kitchen!

Ingredients

For tikka
1 cup Paneer (cut in cubes)

1 cup Veggie Assortment: Bell peppers, capsicum, onions

Marination

1 cup curd

2 tsp heaped gram flour (besan)

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste

1/2 tsp cumin powder

1/2 tsp garam masala

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp red chilli powder (prefer Kashmiri mirch for color)

1/2 tsp turmeric powder 

1/2 kasturi methi

black pepper

salt

For Gravy
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp cumin
2 onions chopped
2-3 tomatoes pureed
2 tbsp canned tomato puree (it gives good texture and color)
1 cup milk (you may use 1/2 cream)
1 tbsp ghee/ butter
1/4 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
Pinch of haldi
Pinch of sugar
Salt

Method

For tikkas

1. Mix all the vegetables, paneer, and the marinade mix around 2 hours before you wish to make the tikkas.

2. Arrange the tikkas on sticks. We use thin bamboo sticks to minimize impact on the veggies and ensure uniform heating. You can do this on the steel sticks that come along with ovens. Save the left over marination.

3. Grill the tikkas in the oven at maximum temperature for about 20 minutes or till whatever time they are golden brown. Keep the sticks in the middle to avid uneven browning.

For Gravy

1. In a pan, heat ghee / butter, add cumin to it and let it crackle. Add chopped onions and ginger garlic paste. Saute till golden brown

2. Now remove it from heat and grind this into fine paste.

3. Add this paste to a pan and add tomato puree of both kinds to it. Add all spices as well till ghee begins to separate from the masala.

4. Now add left over marination as well as the milk to this gravy and keep stirring as it comes to boil, gravy will begin to thicken.

5. Let it cook for another 7 -8 mins on slow.

6. Add tikkas to this uniform gravy.

Garnish with coriander and enjoy with crisp and hot tandoori rotis.