Any dish with butter prefixed grips us in jitters ...oh no more gym next time. Often wondered why the butter masala dishes need that butter and cream and sugar for silky and ripe feel. This week, I went through cooking blogs on the net and discovered healthy techniques that I further improvised. (1) Don't fry the paneer in oil but marinate it overnight in yogurt with spices to saute lightly in a pan (no oil because the yogurt clumps to the paneer cubes and does not burn or dry it). Fry light. (2) No sugar. Deploy the right tomatoes and onions. By trial and error, biting into the raw vegetable to sense the taste and piquancy, figure out combination of tomatoes and onions for the dish. Dark color and tart, dark color and sweet, light color and sweet, so forth. Work out the quintessence of your dish: which color and which taste you desire for the dish, then accordingly combine the tomatoes (cherry, plum, roma, vine, salad) and onions (shallots, onions [brown or pink]). (3) No butter. For the gravy, don't fry the onions in oil foremost but microwave the onions with salt and sprinkled water, then, simply saute the microwaved onions with tomatoes and spices till everything is mashed up well. Blend into a paste! No sugar (right tomato does the trick), very less oil (onions pre-microwaved), no butter (use a good blender for the smooth and buttery texture), cream only to garnish (the blended gravy is as such tasty so you don't have to stir the gravy further in cream, just drizzle with cream if you prefer). The internet is already replete with ingredients and recipes in cooking blogs. So I am not posting another recipe for these household dishes. However the spices common to all my gravies: garlic, cinnamon, cumin. Paneer (buttery) masala Mutter paneer (buttery) masala
