Mutter Paneer

One of my favorite Indian dishes is mutter paneer. It may sound a little weird to the uninitiated, but you'll just have to trust the author. The homemade cheese may seem like a lot of trouble but seriously it is really easy. If you make a double recipe of the cheese you can make a delicious desert called ras malai. One of these times I will post a recipe.
This last weekend I made the chicken tikka masala and my wife did an excellent job with the mutter paneer.

I have lots of Indian Cookbooks but my two best are Betty Crocker's Indian Home Cooking and Madhur Jaffrey Indian Cooking. Neither one is complete by themselves, but between the 2 books you can pretty much figure out any Indian recipe.

Mutter Paneer

1 T butter
1 t cumin seed
1 cup diced red onion
1 T ginger root, finely chopped
1 large tomato, diced
1 T cilantro
1 t salt
1 t cayenne pepper
1 t garam masaala
1 16 oz bag frozen peas
2 cups of 1/2 inch cubes of fried homemade cheese (buy in Indian grocery store or make)
1 1/2 cups water
8 oz tomato sauce

Homemade Cheese (Paneer)

1/2 gallon whole milk
1/8 cup white vinegar

Boil milk, stir in vinegar and remove from heat. Line a colander with cheesecloth. Pour the mixture into the colander. The curds will separate from the whey. Wrap curd up in cheese cloth and leave in the colander. Place a weight like a Dutch oven on top of the bundle and let it sit for 5 to 6 hours to drain fully. Cut cheese into 1/2 inch cubes and fry in oil to use for mutter paneer.

To make the sauce, melt the butter in a pot. Add in the ginger and onion. Saute until the onion is starting to soften. Add the rest of the ingredients except for the cheese, peas and cilantro. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 1/2 hour. Next add in the cheese chunks (see recipe above) and the peas. Cook until everything is nice and heated - a couple minutes. Just before serving stir in the cilantro.