This Malai paneer is a semi-dry, creamy, mildly spiced dish made with soft paneer cubes, onions, light cream, spices and herbs. The recipe not only gives you a restaurant style dish, but is ultra-easy without using too many ingredients.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 5 minutes
  • Cook time: 20 minutes
  • Total time: 25 minutes
  • Yield: 2
  • Category: Side Dish
  • Cuisine: North Indian

Ingredients

  • 250 grams paneer ((Indian cottage cheese))
  • ½ cup light cream (or 25% to 30% fat cream)
  • ¾ or 1 teaspoon coriander powder
  • ½ teaspoon kashmiri chilli powder (or deggi mirch or ⅓ teaspoon of any red chili powder)
  • ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 2 tablespoons oil (- any neutral oil)
  • ¾ cup finely chopped onions (- about 1 medium to large onion)
  • 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste (or ½ inch ginger + 2 to 3 small to medium garlic cloves crushed to a fine paste in a mortar-pestle)
  • ⅛ teaspoon garam masala
  • ⅛ or ¼ teaspoon crushed dry fenugreek leaves
  • salt (as required)
  • 1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves (- for garnish)

Method

Preparation

  1. First chop the paneer into cubes and set aside.
  2. Finely chop the onion.
  3. Peel and crush the ginger-garlic to a fine paste in a mortar-pestle.

Making malai paneer

  1. Heat oil in a frying pan. Add the onions.
  2. Keep on stirring while the onions are sautéing, so that there is uniform browning.
  3. Saute till the onions start turning golden on low to medium-low heat.
  4. Then add the ginger-garlic paste. Sauté till the raw aroma of the ginger-garlic goes away - takes about 15 to 20 seconds.
  5. On a low heat add the coriander powder, red chili powder and turmeric powder.
  6. Stir and saute the spice powders for a couple of seconds. Make sure you don't burn them.
  7. Then add the paneer cubes. On a low heat gently mix, sauté and stir for one minute till the paneer cubes are coated with the masala. Do not cook the paneer too much at this step.
  8. Add cream and and continue to gently stir till the cream coats the paneer cubes well.
  9. On low heat, cook for about 2 to 3 minutes after adding the cream. Season with salt and stir to mix.
  10. Lastly sprinkle crushed fenugreek leaves and garam masala. Stir to mix again gently.
  11. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve Malai Paneer hot as a starter snack or with naan, roti, chapati or bread.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.