Paneer Tikka Masala

Hello boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun! Back in 2011, when I was living in Antrim, Northern Ireland, my roommates (the lovable beer chugger and the fatherly big talker introduced in the Upma post, or as you may remember them, roommate #1 and roommate #2) and I all worked in the same office. Coincidentally, roommate #2 and I were even on the same team so before we moved in together, we had a chat about how to co-exist at home without bringing our mutual work (and everything related) into our personal lives and friendship.

After we were satisfied that we could make it work, we (and roommate #1) moved into our house and things went swimmingly. Now, as it happens, we were often at loggerheads at work, more so just before a test cycle or a big data load. Roommate #2 had a more client facing role than I did and would sometimes agree to make changes in the data to be loaded on the client's request. I had the more technical role of getting my team in India to implement these changes and given that these were all last minute, I was almost always firmly against them. What would start as reasonably rational discussions would sometimes spiral out of control until they became louder and angrier causing everyone in the office to stop what they were doing and look bemusedly in our direction and send our manager hurriedly towards us to get us to calm down. As we'd look daggers at each other, he would stand in the middle, the only thing missing being the striped black and white referee's t-shirt! We'd eventually reach an agreement, successfully  complete our data load and laugh in retrospect about how silly we had been to row in the first place.

After this had happened a few times, our manager stopped intervening and it soon became fairly routine for people to walk into the office on the week before a big data load, and bear witness to our shouting matches. So much so, that it was considered a good omen for us to row before a data load and management would get nervous if we didn't! Sometimes emotions would spill over and follow us home leading to uncomfortable silences which roommate #1 would duly diffuse with good food and our tradition of standing around the cook-top and splitting each roti 3 ways and eating off the same plate as the next roti cooked. This one tradition probably cemented our friendship far more than all the booze in the world!

Today's recipe is for a dish that we shared around that cook-top innumerable times as we wolfed down roti after roti until we couldn't eat any more.

For Paneer Tikka Masala, you will need the following:

Paneer                                      300 gms

Tomatoes                                  2-3 medium

Onion                                         1 large

Green pepper                            1

Ginger garlic paste                    1 tsp

Red chilli powder                      4 tsp

Turmeric (haldi) powder          1 tsp

Dhaniya (coriander) powder     4 tsp

Jeera (cumin) powder              1-2 tsp

Garam masala                          1/2 tsp

Dry fenugreek (kasoori methi)  small handful

Yoghurt                                     1 cup

Salt                                           to taste

Cream                                       dollop

Oil

Prep:

1. Cut open the packaged paneer.
2. Slice into thickish rectangles.
3. Dunk into a bowl of hot water for a few minutes to soften.
4. Finely chop/grate the onion.
5. Cut the sides off the tomatoes. (These are for your shashlik style paneer tikkas.)
6. Pureé what's left of the tomatoes.
7. Cut the green peppers into pieces about the same size as the tomato pieces. (Again, shashlik style)
8. Drain the yoghurt as best you can.
9. Grab a bowl.
10. Stick in the softened paneer, tomato sides & green peppers.
11. Spoon on the yoghurt.
12. Sprinkle on 1/2 tsp haldi, 2 tsp red chilli powder, 2 tsp dhaniya powder, 1/2 tsp jeera powder, and salt (to taste).
13. Mix well.
14. Set aside for about 30 minutes.

Method:

Paneer tikkas:

1. Put the oven on (Fan oven on 180 degrees).
2. Cover the bottom of an oven tray in grease paper.
3. Spread on the marinated paneer mixture.
4. Pop the tray into the oven for 10-15 minutes until the paneer is a nice golden.
5. Turn the oven off.

(In parallel) Masala:

1. Turn on the gas.
2. Bung a pan on.
3. Splash in some oil.
4. Count to 20.
5. Slide in the grated onion.
6. Cook until the onions are light brown.
7. Pop in the ginger garlic paste.
8. Mix well and cook until the onion is nice and brown.
9. Sprinkle in the rest of the haldi powder, red chilli powder, dhaniya powder, jeera powder and garam masala.
10. Mix well.
11. Splash in some water and watch it sizzle angrily.
12. Once the water dries out, pour in the pureed tomatoes.
13. Mix and cook until the oil separates from the tomatoes.
14. Add in a cup of water.
15. Add salt to taste.
16. Bring to a simmer.
17. Mix in the paneer, tomatoes and green peppers from your oven tray.
18. Cook together for a few minutes.
19. Turn the gas off.
20. Wait for a minute.
21. Stir in the cream.
22. Adjust salt.
23. Sprinkle on the kasoori methi.
24. Pop a lid on for a few minutes.
25. Mix and serve.
26. Stuff face.
27. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

Tip: You can do the paneer mixture in a pan if you don't have an oven. A non-stick would be best. Don't overcook the paneer. Rubbery paneer is not nice. Also, the cream is optional. I don't always put it in since it dulls the flavours of the masala but that's just me.

And remember, overeating is a myth. A full tummy is a happy tummy!

Chilli Sesame Prawns

Hello boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun! One of the first things that came to my mind when I was moving back home to India from the UK was, 'What do I do with all my cooking ingredients?'. Sure, I thought of how many suitcases I'd need to pack my things in and how much excess baggage I'd have to pay for, but neither of these worried me nearly as much as what I would do with the pressure cooker that served me faithfully for over 3 years! I mean, this little guy moved with me from India to Northern Ireland and then to England. I saw more of my pressure cooker than I did my family! In the end, I left it in the possession of my TWM who promised to love him and raise him like his own (and also attempt to cook dal in it). With my pressure cooker cared for, I was now faced with the problem of finishing off all the perishables in the fridge. I had chicken and fish and prawns and a bunch of veggies that would have to be chucked away if my roommate and I didn't finish them on time. The problem? With only a few days left to go, my roommate (Ms. Popularity herself) had dinner invites almost every day and even with my enviable appetite, finishing off all the food seemed a near impossible task. So I inquired about Ms. Popularity's availability and food preference as I chalked up a mental list of dishes to cook. She wanted chicken biryani, I wanted prawns. The only logical thing to do was cook the prawns as starters and the biryani as a main course. The upside (apart from getting to eat some of my favourite food) was using up twice as much stuff in one go. 

The biryani was the easy part. It takes time and effort to make but I have a preferred recipe so there wasn't a question around how I intended to make it. The prawns on the other hand, posed a dilemma. How do I cook these buggers? I love prawns. You could stick them in a curry, fry them, grill them, even toss them in a seafood stew and I'd eat them with relish. There are innumerable recipes with prawns as appetizers and to pick one is no easy task! That's when I remembered, when I was little, we'd frequent one of my favourite Chinese restaurants in Poona, a place called Chinese Room. It was here that I had chilli sesame prawns for the first time and every other time after that. The odd thing is, despite how much I loved them, it never occurred to me to actually cook them and I (almost always) opted instead to cook (the equally delicious) butter garlic prawns. With nothing to lose and ingredients to use, I decided to put my childhood memories on the line and cook chilli sesame prawns. If you're wondering why I would cook Chinese starters with an Indian main, I'm guessing you haven't ever been faced with the sorrow of bidding your kitchen goodbye and the overwhelming urge to cook as many new things as you possibly can in the short time you have left together. So I cooked them. I loved them, my roommate loved them even more and I added another recipe to my ever expanding repertoire.

If you are a prawn lover like I am, this is a dish you really must try out!

For my Chilli Sesame Prawns, you will need the following:

King prawns                    300 gms (De-shelled and de-veined.)
Dried red chillies             10
Ginger                             2" piece
Garlic                              6-8 cloves
Cayenne pepper              1 tsp (I use this for some extra bite. Not a deal breaker.)
Butter                              big knob
Oil                                   splash
Sesame seeds (white)      handful
Salt                                 to taste

Prep:

1. Cut the dried red chillies into 3 or 4 pieces each.
2. Julienne the ginger. (Basically just cut it into straws.)
3. Mince the garlic.

Method:

1. Turn on the gas.
2. Bung a pan on.
3. Splash in some oil.
4. Pop in the butter.
5. Watch the butter melt into a golden pool and mix in with the oil.
6. Toss in the chopped chillies.
7. Pop in the garlic.
8. Slide in the ginger.
9. Mix and move around until the ginger and garlic are cooked. (Keep it moving or else your chillies will burn.)
10. Throw in the prawns.
11. Add salt to taste.
12. Sprinkle on the cayenne pepper.
13. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes until the prawns are done. (They'll go a nice pink. Do not overcook them; if you do they'll become hard and rubbery. If they roll into a tight ball, they're overdone.)
14. While the prawns are cooking, turn on another burner and bung a smaller pan on.
15. Bounce in the sesame seeds and toast them until they are a nice pleasant brown.
16. Turn both burners off.
17. Top the cooked prawns with the toasted sesame seeds.
18. Mix and serve.
19. Stuff face.
20. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

Tip: Prawns cook very quickly so keep an eye on them at all times. Channel your inner teppanyaki chef and toss the contents of your pan at regular intervals.

And remember, overeating is a myth. A full tummy is a happy tummy!