Death by Paneer

We got the recipe for this dish from beloved friend and fellow foodie – Priyanka Garg. This is no ordinary dish but then she is no ordinary person. Her love for Paneer (cottage cheese) almost defines her and knows no bounds. She has obviously incorporated that in her cooking. What started as mere addition of paneer to basic recipes – like rajma paneer, kadhi paneer and even daal paneer (!!!) -  finally got out of hand when she created this dish. She shared with us a recipe comprising of chunky cubes of paneer in a crumbled paneer gravy. Craziness was redefined and our immediate reaction was that this paneer overload dish is basically – Death by Paneer (inspired from the chocolate overload dessert called Death by Chocolate)

So we experimented with the recipe in WhenIAte’s kitchen and it came out really delicious. How can it not be, with the excessive use of Paneer and the aroma of Indian spices. Try this at your own risk; we certainly relished this experiment.

Ingredients

Spices

10 – 15 ginger juliennes

2 cloves of garlic

4 -5 black peppercorns

1 black cardamom

1 green cardamom

2 bay leaves

1 red dried chili

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp Red chili powder

Garam masala to taste (since we are anyway adding all the spices)

1 tsp Coriander powder

¼ tsp amchoor powder

½ kg Cottage cheese

1 cup milk

3 medium red onions very finely chopped

1 tsp all-purpose flour               

2 tsp kasuri methi

Salt

Ghee (clarified butter)

Method - It is going to take some effort so gear up!

1. In a wok / large pan, heat ghee and add cumin. Once the cumin starts to crackly, add ginger, garlic paste, black pepper, bay leaves, red chili, cardamom. The aromas of the spices will start to fill the kitchen. Don't overcook or else the masalas will burn.

2. Add onions to it and sauté till they are golden brown and well incorporated with the spices.

3. Now add red chili powder, garam masala and coriander powder. Also add salt as per taste.

4. Dry roast kasuri methi on a hot pan for a few minutes only and then add to gravy. This really brings out the aroma of this very unique spice. A must in this recipe.

5. Now to make the base of the dish, grate 200 gms of paneer and add it to the masalas. Simultaneously also add the milk to it.

6. This is where your patience would be tested. We need to cook this mixture on med-high heat for about 20-25 minutes to really bring out the flavours. Adjust the quantity of milk to keep the right consistency of a gravy

7. Cut the remaining cottage cheese into rectangles / cubes. Take flour in a bowl and add water to it to make thick paste. Add salt and red pepper to it. Coat the paneer cubes in this marinade.

8. Shallow-fry these paneer rectangles till they become golden brown and fully crispy. These in itself are delicious.

9. Finally, add the paneer rectangles to the semi-dry paneer gravy and let the mouth watering begin.

Garnish with coriander and serve with crisp butter rotis.