Ingredients
Serves – 4 / Recipe adapted from Nita Mehta`s
- Paneer (Indian cottage cheese) – 250 gms, cubes
- Vegetable oil – to deep fry
To grind to paste:
- Ginger – ½” piece, peeled
- Garlic – 4 to 6 cloves
- Black peppercorns - 3 to 4
- Cloves – 2
- Seeds of 2 green cardamoms
- Cumin seeds (jeera) – 1.5 tsp
- Coriander seeds (dhania) – 1.5 tbsp
- Cinnamon – ½” stick
- Fennel seeds (saunf) – 1 tsp
- Red chilli powder – 1 tsp or to taste
- Salt – to taste
- Juice of ½ to 1 lime
For coating:
- Gram flour (besan) – 4 to 5 tbsp
- Thick curd – 2 tbsp
- Cilantro – 1 tbsp, chopped
- Kasoori methi (dry fenugreek leaves) – 2 tsp
- Oma/ ajwain/ carom seeds – a pinch
- Salt – ¼ tsp or to taste
- Red chilli powder – ½ tsp or to taste
To garnish, fresh chopped coriander leaves
To serve, onion rings/laccha onions, lime wedges, mint chutney
Method:
- Wash paneer. You may soak in warm water for 3 mins to soften them, if frozen. Drain.
- Grind together all the ingredients under ‘paste’ using just a dash of water if needed to blend. Taste & adjust salt.
- In a mixing bowl put the paneer cubes, paste. Mix gently so that masala coats paneer well. Cover and refrigerate till serving time.
- At serving time, heat oil in a kadai/ deep fry pan.
- Sprinkle the paneer with the coating ingredients and mix well to coat. Add some more besan if paste does not stick to paneer well.
- Deep fry few cubes of paneer at a time till golden brown.
Garnish and serve hot!
Notes:
1. The ground paste may seem a bit strong & spicy when you taste it but it reduces after adding coating ingredients. So adjust spice level as per taste.
Posted by Prathima Rao
Food
