Butter paneer with pierogies instead

Butter paneer gets its body from cashews blitzed into the sauce, never from flour and never from reducing it to death. That is what makes it velvety rather than gluey, and it is the step people skip.

One warning about the order of operations. The pierogies go in at the very end and go straight to the table, because a crisp thing sitting in sauce is on a clock.

1. Heat the oven to 425°F. Tip the pierogies onto a tray from frozen, pour over the oil, season and turn until slicked. Spread them apart and roast 20 to 25 minutes, no flipping, until the tops have color and the undersides ring hollow against a spoon.
2. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a wide pan and cook the onion over medium-high with a good pinch of salt, 8 to 10 minutes. Let it go properly brown at the edges. Pale onions make a pale sauce.
3. Garlic, ginger and paprika in for a minute. Then the tomatoes, cashews, sugar and half a cup of water. Simmer 15 minutes, until the color deepens to brick and a spoon leaves a track.
4. Blitz until completely smooth, with a stick blender in the pan or in a jug and back again. Do not stop while it is nearly smooth, that last thirty seconds is the whole texture.
5. Cream in, then the peas straight from the freezer, and 2 minutes more. Take it off the heat and stir in the garam masala now rather than earlier. Toasting it at the end keeps it bright instead of dusty.
6. Fold the roasted pierogies through, coat them and serve at once. Crispy fried onions and toasted cashews over the top, cilantro, a squeeze of lime.

The peas are not a garnish. Matar paneer has been making that argument for a very long time.