khoya matar makhana or khoya matar paneer paneer : Banaras special curry

Khoya matar makhana is a special curry and we were introduced to this exotic sounding curry when we shifted to Banaras after my dad's transfer from Chandigarh. Somehow my mother never made this khoya matar makhana but she would often make a version of matar paneer that was close to the original khoya matar. In fact many Banaras families make their matar paneer with khoya in it because it gives them the pleasure of both.

Khoya matar makhana is a wonderfully rich and yet subtle flavoured curry. Very creamy in a different way and sweetish spicy, so much different from the usual Punjabi curries we had grown accustomed to. I am not very sure if this curry belongs to Banaras but that was the place we had it for the first time and till date I have never tasted it anywhere else.

That Banaras loves it's khoya and milk products so much I am pretty sure in my heart that khoya matar makhana evolved in Banaras, taking makhana from the neighboring state Bihar.

Yes the reason why I believe this curry belongs to Banaras is that the people of this city are obsessed with khoya, there is a whole market dedicated to khoya named khoya gali near chowk area, and that's not all, there is one kachori gali too and you know how famous is banarasi kachori ....

Like many other banaras special curries, khoya matar does not use any onion garlic and can be a fasting curry too during navratras. I will post a navratra version of this curry sometime.....

Coming back to the recipe, this curry is a creamy rich looking special kinda curry but surprisingly it is not high on fat like those those shahi sounding creamy buttery curries.

Yes, milk powder has very low fat content if you use skimmed milk powder and this khoya is made from that. Also as I have used paneer for this recipe that too has fat in it but overall this curry is lower on fat than the other creamy buttery paneer curries. Nevertheless, this curry is medium rich when fat level is considered although I find it topping the scale of deliciousness.

ingredients....

khoya 1 teacup loosely packed ( I used home made khoya )
green peas (I used frozen this time) 1 cup ( 2.5 cups when not using paneer )
paneer chopped into small cubes 1 cup ( optional as the original recipe is khoya matar makhana)
Use a cup and half of shallow fried makhana if not using paneer
raw tomato puree 1 cup freshly made with raw tomatoes (this is not part of the original recipe, do not use if making khoya matar makhana)
bay leaf 1 no.
salt to taste
ghee 1 tbsp
milk 1 cup (optional, I used water instead )
  
to be made into a paste...
ginger 1 inch piece
green cardamoms 2 nos.
black cardamom 1 no.
cinnamon 1 inch piece
cloves 4 nos.
cumin seeds 1 tsp
black pepper corns 1 tsp
red chilly powder 1-2 tsp

preparation....

Make a paste of the ingredients listed for paste with little water..

Pour ghee in a kadai and add the fresh tomato puree if using, bay leaf, the masala paste and salt to taste.

Now heat the mixture over medium flame and stir to bhuno it a bit....ghee will be separated within a couple of minutes.

Now add the khoya in it. In the meantime I microwaved the peas for 2 minutes, they can be boiled on gas stove too.

Bhuno is the process of dry roasting such a mixture especially a masala paste, so bhuno again till the khoya masala mix bubbles a bit...

Add a cup of water or milk ( adding milk will result in a whiter curry but a bit more rich ) or water , the cooked peas and cubes paneer ...

and let it boil covered till the ghee floats on top...the whole cooking process takes less than 10 minutes...

Serve hot with naan or chapati. The curry is creamy in a different way and the granular texture of khoya makes a surprising gravy. A little sweet and a little spicy and it tastes very good with any plain roti, naan, rumali roti or kulcha.....

Enjoy this quick yet rich curry and think of the ghats of Banaras. Khoya matar makhana or khoya matar paneer both will become your favourite ways to indulge in Indian khana.

home made khoya in microwave

 Khoya or khoa is thickened milk till it gets dry , almost like a ball of evaporated unsweetened milk . It is normally used to make sweets like peda and burfi and many more sweets or mithais as we call them . I miss getting fresh khoya off the counter for making my gujias most and always end up reducing the milk for hours on end in a thick base kadai . But that i do when i have to make gujias for holi n khoya is needed in large amounts . Sometimes just a 100 gm or 50 gm khoya is needed and reducing it the traditional way is not at all practical . Milk powder comes handy for this purpose and that is a must have item in my pantry , milk powder or dairy creamer whatever you call it , it can give you khoya instantly without messing up with you kitchen and utensils.........yes in a glass or ceramic bowl and a couple of minutes in front of the microwave.............that's all you need to do .

making khoya using milk powder ...

A teacup of milk powder goes into a 500 ml capacity bowl .

Add a tbsp of water to make a loose paste....

Cover with a plastic lid loosely and microwave for a minute on high....the mixture will push the lid up as it heats up . Take it out and check , it looks like this....

Cover again and heat for another minute , this time the mixture will push up the lid after every 5 seconds or so , stop for 2 seconds every time and repeat for 3-4 times .After 10 seconds and pausing twice it looks like this....

 Another go in the microwave and it dries up and becomes crumbly , daanedar as we call it ........
........daanedar khoya minton me taiyyar ..........it took less than two minute (1 minute 25 second to be precise ) for this quantity and you get a tea cup of loosely packed khoya .

This khoya tastes similar to the one we get in khoya gali of Banaras n i suspect the traders make it with powder milk themselves. The khoya available in delhi is spurious and i never buy that after just one trial..

Home made khoya by reducing the milk in a kadai for hours tastes different and certainly better than this . This khoya wins hands down because of it's quick availability. I made it to make a special curry , khoya matar , a specialty of Banaras apparently , though i ended up adding paneer to the curry and it was a khoya matar paneer ....recipe coming up next , stay tuned ....