Veth Chaman- Jammu Kashmir

We now travel to the top most region of India. We stop at Jammu Kashmir called as the Paradise of Earth by the Mughals. It has the great Himalayan mountains to the north and Pir Panjal to the south and are source of many rivers. After reading about the region I really want to go on a tour to Jammu Kashmir. The cuisine here is mostly non vegetarians. Even the Pundits of Kashmir consume non vegetarian foods apart from beef which is forbidden. Paneer is called as chaman and there are so many dishes prepared from paneer. Methi chaman, veth chaman are a few to mention. The gravy I am preparing today is veth chaman which resembles the dum aloo gravy a lot. Mustard oil is used in this preparation but as my family is not a great fan of mustard oil, I used the refined oil which I use for my day to day cooking. As I added kashmiri red chilly powder, the colour of the gravy turned out fabulous but it was not so spicy. Loved it with rice.

Recipe Source: NDTV

Ingredients:

For Paneer :

Water-1 cup

Asafoetida-1/4 tsp

Paneer-250 gm

Oil-2 tbs

Garam Masala:

Cloves-4-5

Cumin Seeds-1/2 tbs

Pepper-1/2 tbs

Coriander Seeds-1/2 tbs

Cardamom-3

Black Cardamom-1

Cinnamon-1 stick

Dry Ginger Powder-1/4 tbs

For The Gravy:

Oil-2 tbs

Cumin Seeds-1 tsp

Cinnamon-1

Clove-2-3

Cardamom-2

Turmeric Powder-1/4 tsp

Fennel Powder-1 1/2 tsp

Garam Masala-3/4 tsp

Kashmiri Red Chilly Powder-1 tbs

Ginger Powder-1 tsp

Curd-1 tbs

Milk-1/4 cup

Salt-to taste

Procedure:

1. Dry roast all the ingredients given for garam masala and grind it to a fine powder.

2. Allow it to cool down. Store in a small spice jar. Use it as needed.

3. To prepare paneer, heat oil in a non stick pan.

4. Roast the paneer pieces until all the sides are golden.

5. Heat water and add asafoetida.

6. Remove from heat. Add the fried paneer cubes and keep it aside.

7. To the same pan you fried the paneer, add oil and add the whole spices.

8. Now add all the spice powders and saute for 1 minute on low flame.

9. Add 3 tbs of the asafoetida water and cook the spice powders.

10. Now add milk, curd and salt.

11. Whn all the ingrediens are incorporated, add the paneer cubes and enough water to bring the gravy to the right consistency and allow it to boil for 5 minutes on low flame.

12. Serve hot wwih rice..