Paneer cooking

A short post on Paneer cooking....following a question from a reader...

"Hello! Advice please oh spice master....cooked chana masala this week and had real trouble cooking the paneer. Receipe suggested frying in a little oil in medium heat but it just burnt and broke up...have had this trouble before.

Thanks in advance!

And my reply as follows:

Hello there!

If you are putting paneer in your chick pea curry, then you do have the option of simply carefully stirring it in once you are happy the chick peas are cooked through, along with the remaining final ingredients.

However, if this doesn't float your boat and you want it as per your original question then....

Paneer can be rather crumbly, which doesn't lend itself to being shallow fried or tossed around. Halloumi works OK like this, but its so salty you have to adjust all other seasoning in your dish.

So, assuming we stay with the paneer......

Firstly, the (fresh) paneer should be in roughly 1.5cm x 1.5cm cubes.

Secondly, you cannot do this in my opinion with "a little oil" unfortunately - you need a depth of circa 10-15cm of sunflower oil (or similar with high burn point such as rapeseed/ canola etc - keep a bottle so you can strain the stuff afterwards for re-use)

The oil needs to be put on the heat until it reaches 180 degrees - use a sugar thermometer or digital probe - and keep it there by regulating the heat. You then need either a "basket ladle" as I call them, or one of those very shallow wide perforated spoons. (See Equipment on my blog :-))

Failing that, there is the age old test to measure the temp - once it is about there, a cube of paneer dropped in should immediately get the oil bubbling around it - once this happens, reduce heat to a low medium to keep the temp there.

Do the paneer in batches of about 6 cubes (so as not to lower the temp of the oil too much) and use a relatively small pan to save on oil when reaching the 10-15cm depth (with lid in case of accidents!!)

Keep turning the paneer around in the oil until it is nicely mottled with dark brown edges through to light coloured centres on each facet of the cube, then remove and set aside to drain on kitchen paper.

Alternatively, you could have them as a side to the chana masala - perhaps skewered as kebabs. Here is a quick recipe from Prashad...

Make a marinade of 2-3 fresh green chillies, 4-8 cloves garlic, 2 handfuls fresh chopped coriander, 2 tsp ground coriander, 2 tsp garam masala, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp turmeric, 2tbsp plain yoghurt. Using 2x 250g blocks of paneer, cut each block into 9 equally sized cubes. and marinade with some chopped peppers and onion pieces for at least 8 hours or ideally overnight.

Thread each skewer with 3 pieces of paneer, onion and peppers, place on a lightly oiled BBQ/ griddle and cook for 20 mins until slightly charred, turning them every 4-5 mins to ensure they are cooked evenly on each side.