Paneer is a popular Indian cheese that adapts quite well in the sense that it fits itself into most recipes. One could make paneer pulav by adding some fried paneer, paneer fry with spices as a starter, put it in kebabs, stuff in paratha, make desserts like rasmalai and so on. The other way of lending paneer different flavour is by choosing the ingredients for the gravy it will be in. Peshawari paneer is a fairly simple dish as we just need to bring most of the ingredients to boil and then blend. I have used coriander-red chilly powder freshly ground at home to enhance the flavour. You could either prepare this fresh when you make this dish or keep it handy as you could use it in a number of other dishes. I used a combination of red onions and white onions as teh former gives great flavour and the latter helps retain a light colour for the gravy. I have also tried the same recipe with tofu instead of paneer and had good results. Here is the recipe:
1 onion, large, chopped
1 tablespoon cashew nuts
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
1 tablespoon melon seeds
2 cloves
2 green chillies
1 piece of cinnamon stick
3 dry red chillies
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 to 1 ½ cups paneer, cubed
¼ cup milk
Salt to taste
Cooking oil (optional)
Put the onions, melon seeds, poppy seed, cashew nuts, green chillies clove and cinnamon in a sauce pan and add enough water to boil until onion is soft
Cool and grind the above to a fine paste
Roast the coriander seeds and dry chilly and grind to coarse/fine powder (depending on your preference)
Heat oil, if using in a saucepan and add the paste and fry briefly
Add salt, the coriander chilly powder and also the paneer. A dash of kasoori methi will also add flavour but is optional
Add the milk, little water if needed and simmer
Serve hot with any Indian bread or rice
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