Swaran Jawa's Mattar Paneer
This is the latest version of this recipe as of 5/7/10.

Ingredients

- Onions: 3 normal yellow
- Vegetable oil: 6 tablespoons
- Garlic: 4 big cloves
- Ginger: 1inch chunk
- Tomato sauce : 15 oz can
- Frozen peas: 20 oz 
- Whole Milk: 1 Gallon
- White vinegar: 4 tablespoons

Spices

- Tumeric: 1/2 tsp
- Salt: 2 tsp
- Red pepper: 1/4 tsp
- Cumin seed: 1/2 TBSP
- Coriander seeds or ground coriander: 1/2 TBSP
- Cinnamon sticks: 2 inches of thin sticks or 1 of thick stick
- Cloves: 4
- Brown cardamom pods: 2 - (best to get Indian cardamom from Indian food store)
- Nutmeg: pinch
- Mace: pinch

Equipment

- Food processor
- Spice/coffee grinder
- Cheesecloth
- Large cooking pot
- Large microwave safe bowl
- Frying pan

INSTRUCTIONS

- Combine 2.5 cups of water with 1 unit of masala base (see below) in large pot
- Add 20 oz frozen peas
- Put on high
- Add 2 teaspoons of salt
- Add 1/4 teaspoons of red pepper
- Cover, leave on medium
- At some point when peas are close to done, add 1 heaping TBSP of gharam masala (see below)
- When peas are wrinkled/shriveled, the gravy is done - put on low until paneer is ready (see below)
- You can add a half cup of water if you want more watery
- When the paneer is done (lightly fried) dump it in the gravy, stir it up a little & you're done!

MASALA BASE (gravy base)

NOTE: This makes 2 units of the masala gravy base.  Save off half in refrigerator or freezer for later use.

- Chop up onions really small in food processor (small diced)
- Put onions into large pot and add 6 tablespoons oil & turn up to high heat stirring often to not burn
	- Oil is important to keep the bottom of the pot from becoming a mess of burnt onion.
	- For slower results put on medium heat & stir occasionally
	- If too dry add more oil, can be spooned out later
- Chop up garlic cloves & ginger small in processor
- Turn down onions to low, keep stirring - note slowly browning
- When dark brown put in ginger/garlic mix
- Put in 1/2 teaspoon of tumeric
- When almost burnt, slowly start adding tomato sauce - keep stirring, waiting for oil to seperate? (spoon off?)
- Put a little water in tomato can & slowly pour it in 
- NOTE you can always put on low & leave for a while at any stage
- When deep reddish brown, it is done
- USE HALF, REMOVE OTHER HALF & KEEP IN FREEZER FOR SOME OTHER TIME

GHARAM MASALA (spice mix)

NOTE: This makes 2 heaping TBSP of the spice mix.  Save off half with your spices for later use.

- Roast 1/2 tablespoon of cumin seed in a pan on the burner for a few minutes
- Place the following ingredients in spice blender & grind until fine powder 
	- 1/2 tablespoon of roasted cumin seed
	- 1/2 tablespoon of coriander seed 
	- 2 inches of cinnamon thin sticks or 1 of thick stick
	- 4 cloves
	- 2 brown cardamoms - break pods & get seeds out (can only get at Indian store)
	- nutmeg & mace (pinch)
- Use half of mix (1 heaping tablespoon) for 1 unit of masala base

PANEER (cheese)

- Pour 3/4 gallon milk in large bowl (or all if you want more paneer! Yum!)
- Microwave for 27-30 to BOIL (there will be a large bubble of air)
- Stir in 4 tablespoons of white vinegar
- Keep stirring
- When cheese separates fully and gets clumpy (& liquid gets yellowish and clear) pour into collander with cheescloth 
- Squeeze out as much water as possible.  The more water you get out, the better your paneer will be. 
	- Initially squeeze out the water by hand, twisting the cheesecloth
	- Put the cheesecloth between two plates and squeeze the plates together as hard as you can.
	- Or, if you don't want to squeeze by hand, use my Mom's method instead: put cheesecloth between plates & stack books on it for a few hours
- When cheese is firm & cohesive it is done - it should not be crumbly! should be like almost like tofu in terms of consistency
- Put on a plate and slice into cubes - if it is crumbly, you did not press it enough
- Put a few tablespoons of oil in a frying pan at high & then put down to medium low
- Drop cheese cubes one by one in at side of pan to lightly fry them
- Dry cheese in cloth towel to remove oil
- Rinse cheesecloth after use