Easy Vegetarian Recipe: Potatoes & Cottage Cheese in Milky Gravy

Jun 9, 2011
Sohna Ravindran

Easy Vegetarian Recipe: Potatoes & Cottage Cheese - Photo taken by Sohna

A delicious and very easy to make Bengali recipe that features potatoes, cottage cheese and milk.

This is quite a delicious vegetarian recipe and surprisingly easy to make. It's a very popular Bengali dish and is known locally as Chanar Dalna. While this recipe does contain chilies and pepper, the spice can be reduced by de-seeding the chilies and avoiding the pepper. It tastes great either way.

The gravy does thicken once refrigerated so it is best to have this dish the day it's prepared.

Serves: 4

Easy Vegetarian Recipe: Potatoes & Cottage Cheese in Milky Gravy

Ingredients:

2 medium potatoes (or 4 small ones)- peeled and cut into cubes
300 grams paneer (cottage cheese)- cut into cubes
3-4 cloves
3-4 cardamom pods
1 inch cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 teaspoon cumin powder
1 onion
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste (or freshly crushed ginger and garlic)
3-4 green chillies- slit (for less heat, remove seeds)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Salt to taste (around 1/2 teaspoon or so)
1 teaspoon pepper (optional)
14 fl.ounces (400 ml) milk
3 fl. ounces (90 ml) water
1 tablespoon oil
3 teaspoons ghee

Directions:

Heat oil in a frying pan and slide in the potatoes.
On medium heat, fry the potatoes and cook until lightly browned in patches. Remove from heat and place on napkin to absorb oil.
In the same pan (do not add more oil), slide in the paneer and fry until golden brown. Remove from heat.
Mince the onions and cumin powder in a food processor (or crush onions with cumin powder)
In a deep pan (or a wok), melt butter and add cloves, cardamom and cinnamon stick. Stir until cardamom becomes puffy (around a minute)
Add cumin seeds and stir until the aroma is released.
Add the onions and cumin powder and stir for 2 minutes.
Spoon in the ginger-garlic paste and stir for a minute.
Add potatoes, paneer, sugar, salt and green chillies.
Ensuring the heat is on medium, add the water and cover with a lid until potatoes are just about done (about 5 minutes). Stir occasionally to ensure that the potatoes and paneer do not stick to the bottom of the pan.
Pour in the milk and cook on low heat for about 7-8 minutes until the gravy is thickened.