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You are here: Home / curry / Taste & Create: Punjabi Home Style Paneer Curry

Taste & Create: Punjabi Home Style Paneer Curry

August 20, 2009 By Laura 12 Comments

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I have had a potentially life altering revelation today. Well, life altering for me, anyway. It all started with my Taste & Create partner, Simran from Bombay Foodie. We have been paired before but this was no disappointment because I love her blog and I love the food she makes. After a short time skimming her pages, I found a paneer curry, and remembered that I actually had real paneer in my freezer for once and so my choice was made.


The recipe calls for 2 tomatoes–normally, in the past, I have used canned tomatoes. Very high quality canned tomatoes, the same ones that have worked successfully for me in many other recipes. But today, I had just picked my first gigantic heirloom tomato (my mom sent me the plants so I have no idea which breed exactly) and I thought to myself well it is probably always tomato season in India, so even though I think of curries as made with canned tomatoes maybe I should give fresh a try. Gorgeous just picked heirloom fresh, no less.


I gave myself several hours to make the Punjabi Home Style Paneer Curry–which when you look at the recipe you will realize is kind of insane. But here is the thing, in the past I have attempted allegedly simple Indian curries (tomato-based) and found they required much longer simmering than the recipe claimed to get rid of the overly acidic tomato taste.

Apparently that taste was caused by using canned tomatoes.


I am mortified to confess that while I have always accepted the vast superiority of fresh picked tomatoes raw, I have never really believed that it would make much difference in a well-cooked sauce. Oh when I am wrong I am sometimes really wrong.


This was amazing. Barely any work and done in about 45 minutes. It has left me with a terrible dilemma now though–would frozen tomatoes suffice (frozen right after picking, I mean) to use the rest of the year? Should I make a whole bunch of curries and freeze them all? I cannot go back to the canned taste, not after this.


My only change was to add peas and sprinkle salt on the onions while cooking to release their water. I used one super huge heirloom tomato and then supplemented with 2 quite small zebra tomatoes, all from my garden (wish I had taken their pictures now). The zebra tomatoes account for the less red nature of the curry, since they are yellow/green when ripe. I did not peel but instead just processed the tomatoes with my immersion blender in its jar. My onions were medium to big. As always, I used a paprika chili powder to eliminate heat issues for my kids and served with cayenne pepper for John.

Filed Under: curry, Indian recipes, paneer, peas, vegetarian

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Comments

  1. Simran says

    August 20, 2009 at 1:54 pm

    You are right, it's always tomato season in India. Which is why no recipe ever calls for canned tomatoes.

    I am glad you like the curry; it's my mom's recipe.

    Reply
  2. Laura says

    August 20, 2009 at 2:00 pm

    Simran: it is possible you have no idea how lucky you are. 🙂 Canned are truly better than what passes for fresh in the grocery stores 3 seasons a year in most of the US.

    Reply
  3. Cate O'Malley says

    August 20, 2009 at 9:15 pm

    Although I love Indian food, not a big fan of paneer, but this looks delicious!

    Reply
  4. jerricapuck says

    August 21, 2009 at 1:03 am

    I love curry.

    If you don't mind, would you check out my newest blog post?

    http://jerricapuck.blogspot.com/2009/08/anyone-need-santa-letters.html

    I'd appreciate it.

    Reply
  5. Grace says

    August 21, 2009 at 9:49 am

    why aren't peas present in every dish ever? golly, they're good. 🙂

    Reply
  6. noble pig says

    August 21, 2009 at 12:28 pm

    I want those peas! Now!

    Reply
  7. the twins says

    August 21, 2009 at 4:38 pm

    i love paneer and your dish looks so good!

    Reply
  8. Tovie says

    August 21, 2009 at 6:15 pm

    That looks soooo good. I'm going to have to try it.

    I can't speak for your curry, but I freeze tomatoes every year to use in recipes during the winter and they are so much better than canned.

    Reply
  9. Cynthia says

    August 21, 2009 at 11:17 pm

    It is amazing the difference in taste, cooking time etc with certain ingredients isn't it.

    Reply
  10. Palidor says

    August 22, 2009 at 8:52 am

    Yum! I love paneer curry. I could eat the whole pot!

    Reply
  11. HoneyB says

    August 22, 2009 at 11:21 am

    Looks delicious! I'm with Palidor – I could eat the whole pot too!

    Reply
  12. Vicci says

    August 22, 2009 at 9:17 pm

    I took an Indian cooking course a few years ago and we learned how to make paneer. I'm going to dig that info out of wherever it is and make this soon (my first tomato is within days of ripening– yay!!!)

    Reply

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Hi! I’m Laura and I am a recovering history major who has re-channeled all of my passion for learning about the history of different countries to learning about their food culture. That doesn’t mean every dish on here is strictly authentic, but it does mean that even my adaptations are not undertaken lightly. My goal is to show you–by doing–that these dishes are possible in your kitchen. Including desserts because I have quite the sweet tooth! Read More…

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