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!