Twisted Shahi Paneer

The Shahi Paneer is pictured alongside a caricature by my friend Daniel ‘Danny’ Byrne, who drew me during a visit to the Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix in 2012.

This is the Shahi Paneer, a delicious North Indian curry made with paneer (cottage cheese) and tomato based spicy gravy laced with spices. Though the traditional recepie has been followed from generations and has been mainstay preparation in Indian cuisine since the time of Moguls, as usual, I gave it a twist and made it much quicker!
Normally, this is prepared with a lot of dry fruit, particularly cashews, a significant amount of cream and a large quantity of tomatoes. And that takes forever to prepare and, though delicious, is heavy on the palate!
My twisted preparation was done with two large onions, a large tomato, a few green chillies and 500 grams cottage cheese, in addition to the spices, ginger, garlic and coriander.
Take the two large onions, seven or eight cloves of garlic, a large piece of ginger and a large tomato and grind into a fine paste. Add three green chillies and grind a little more. 
Pour the mixture into a large pan and heat in three tablespoons oil until the oil separates. Then add the cheese and cover for a few minutes. Add salt to taste, a teaspoon of red chilli powder, some turmeric, half teaspoon coriander powder, a teaspoon of garam masala and a pinch of lemon powder.
Cook for 15 – 20 minutes after adding half a litre of milk. The dish can be served immediately with steamed rice or flat bread! One can decide how dry one wants it and leave the gravy accordingly.