Wuzji Chaman | Paneer in Red Sauce | Kashmiri style

End of month and that means time for chefsacrossboundaries. This month's challenge was to explore the Kashmiri Cuisine and come up with a best, not the commonly known ones called my friend Nidhi.

Kashmir is a State well known for it's unique culture and tradition.I guess,You might remember pashimas and other winter related stuff. In addition to this is their unique food and related cultures. After doing my kind of research I narrowed down to a simple paneer based recipe. Paneer , the Indian cottage cheese is called Chaman in Kashmir.

What I'm sharing with you all is a part of wazwan cuisine.This is a simple gravy with fiery red color and straight and distinct flavors from dry ginger and fennel that blends with yogurt and the result is just nothing short of delicassy.This is generally served with plain white rice. Butwith  jeera rice also it tasted yum.

Ingredients

Paneer / Indian Cottage Cheese .................... 1 cup
Yogurt ....................................................... 1.5 tbsp
Kashmiri red chilli powder ........................... 1 tsp
Dry ginger Powder ...................................... 1 tsp
Fennel Powder .......................................... 1/2 tsp
Green cardamom ..................................... 2
Black cardamom ....................................... 1
Cloves ...................................................... 2
Cinnamon ................................................ 1 inch stick
Oil ............................................................ 1 tbsp + extra to fry
Salt ........................................................ to taste
Water ....................................................... 1/2 cup (adjust to consistency)

Method

• Cube the paneer into an inch pieces.
• heat oil in a deep kadai until just few minutes to smoke.
• Fry the paneer quickly until golden brown.Set aside.Do this process with proper temperature otherwise paneer might turn rubbery.
• In a separate kadai add a tbsp of oil , to that add the green and black cardamom, clove and cinnamon.
• Then add the ginger and fennel powder and immediately add the yogurt followed by red chilli powder and mix thoroughly.
• N ow add water and paneer and salt and allow it to boil . 
• when you aee the oil floating on the top, the gravy is ready.