No. This is not the dish which I have been familiar since my childhood. Rather, both this dish and the recipe is as new to me as to you all. Although, all the ingredients used in this recipe are very much the permanent space holder in the kitchen pantry, probably from the very first day of every kitchen in all the houses I have lived in. Also, the ingredients used in the recipe are more or less common to not only Bengali houses, but also to almost every Indian houses.
Still, the very dish Paneer Posto or Cottage Cheese Preparation in Poppy Seed & Cashew Sauce, for which I am writing the recipe post, has been tasted first time by me only a week before in true sense. But, so was the grand taste of the dish, that I fell in love with it and hurried for another opportunity to cook and eat and share the recipe with everyone.
If I have to admit, though Paneer Posto was in my ‘To Be Posted Recipe List’, however, my assumption of this dish was confined to a mere enhancement of ‘Aloor Dum’ by adding paneer cubes. Thankfully I was not happy with the outcome I was foreseeing. Hence, I cross checked with my mother and got a pleasant shock when she suggested a completely different recipe from the one, I was expecting. And I came to know that this is a treasure she has been cooking over the years and has been feeding guests, however, not including me among the fortunate ones😩.
No prize for guessing, it is but obvious that I tried the recipe. And why should not I? Yes, just like any other children I love the food cooked by my mother. But, there is a special place for all the dishes that combine my mother’s magic touch and the enchantment of poppy seeds. Yes, my mother is abnormally good with any dish which has poppy seeds/posto in it. Being it Aloo Posto, Jhinge Posto, Postor Bora, the satisfaction I get from those dishes prepared by her is unmatchable. Probably an outcome of the Bengali genes who have a unique love and hate relations with opium poppy since more than 250 years.
And yes, just like any other dish made with poppy seeds by her, this recipe was also a masterpiece (although this time it was made by me) and as mentioned above using ingredients easily available in kitchen pantry. The recipe is little different from the Paneer Posto recipes that we usually come across, and thus gives me another reason to crave for the dishes prepared by my Mom.
So, as I spend a little time mulling and drooling 😋over ‘Maa Ke Haath Ka Khana’ (food prepared by my mother), why don’t you try the Paneer Posto Or Cottage Cheese Preparation in Poppy Seed & Cashew Sauce recipe.
Also, I should not miss to mention, sometimes my love for dishes that include poppy seeds go beyond my Mom’s kitchen. This Lemon Poppy Seed Cake from allrecipes.com is one such example.
Click here and don’t miss to try the other curry recipes from this blog.
Recipe: Paneer Posto Or Cottage Cheese Preparation in Poppy Seed Sauce
Preparation Time: Around 21 minutes Cooking Time: 45 minutes approx. (Paneer Cubes fried simultaneously) Equipment Used: Knife, chopping board, grinder, 2 pans, turner, bowls Yield: Serves 3
Ingredients:
- 250 gram paneer or cottage cheese
- 1 capsicum or green bell pepper
- 2 carrots
- 1 tomato
- 1/8 cup cashews
- 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
- 1 green chilli
- 6 tablespoons mustard oil
- 1 red chilli (broken into halves)
- 4-5 small pieces cinnamon of around (1 cm X 0.75 cm each)
- 1 teaspoon nigella seeds
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 2 teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon sugar
- 1 and ½ cup water (does not include water required for grinding)
- ½ teaspoon ghee or clarified butter
Method:
- Take out paneer/cottage cheese 2 hours in advance if they are refrigerated
- Slice the bell pepper or capsicum along the lines and then cut them into strips
- Cut the carrot to 1 cm thick pieces
- Slice the tomatoes and soak 1/8 cup cashews
- Heat a pan and roast poppy seeds for 3-4 minutes or till you can feel the aroma of poppy seeds
- Grind the roasted poppy seeds with cashew nuts and 1 green chilli to a smooth paste
- Heat the pan again and add 4 tablespoons mustard oil
- When the oil turns hot, temper the oil with red chilli, cinnamon pieces, nigella seeds and fennel seeds
- Add sliced tomato pieces to the above ingredients
- Add the bell pepper and carrot pieces when the tomato pieces are tender, followed by poppy seed paste
- Stir the content in the pan and add ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon sugar
- Cover the pan and let the ingredients cook till the water evaporates and the fat separates from the paste
- In the meantime, cut the paneer into cubes
- Fry the paneer cubes in a separate pan after heating 2 tablespoons mustard oil and adding ½ teaspoon salt
- Fry the cubes till the sides turn little brown
- Add water in the other pan, when the fat separates from poppy seed paste
- Cook the gravy on sim and add the fried paneer cubes into the gravy, when the gravy starts releasing bubbles
- Continue cooking the gravy on sim till you acquire the desired consistency
- Adjust salt and sugar when you reach the desired consistency for gravy. I have added 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon sugar
- Remove the pan from heat and add ghee
Cut the bell pepper into strips.
Cut the carrot.
Slice tomatoes
Soak cashews.
Roast poppy seeds for 3-4 minutes.
Grind the roasted poppy seeds with cashew nuts and green chilli to a smooth paste.
Heat 4 tablespoons mustard oil.
Temper the oil with red chilli, cinnamon pieces, nigella seeds and fennel seeds.
Add sliced tomato pieces.
Add bell pepper and carrot pieces when the tomato pieces are tender, followed by poppy seed paste.
Stir the content and add ½ teaspoon salt.
Add ¼ teaspoon sugar.
Cover the pan and let the ingredients cook till the water evaporates and the fat separates from the paste.
Cut the paneer into cubes.
Fry the paneer cubes in a separate pan after adding salt till the sides turn little brown.
Add water in the other pan, when the fat separates from poppy seed paste.
Add the fried paneer cubes into the gravy, when the gravy starts releasing bubbles.
Adjust salt and sugar when you reach the desired consistency for gravy.
Remove the pan from heat and add ghee.
Tips:
- Cut the carrot into any size you desire. Just that the carrot should not be too small that the chunks cannot be felt, and should not be too big that they do not boil
- Adding vegetables in this dish is optional. You can skip the part of adding vegetables. Vegetables add flavour to the dish
- You can add more varieties of vegetables like, beans, peas, mushrooms etc. to this dish
- While grinding, grind the ingredients without water for one round. Subsequently add water little by little till you get a smooth paste
- Scrape the poppy seed paste time to time while cooking, so that the paste do not get stuck in the pan
- Avoid wasting oil by transferring the remaining oil used for frying paneer pieces into the gravy along with the paneer pieces
- The entire dish has been cooked on low flame
