Paneer, or cottage cheese, is versatile and can be cooked in many ways. But those who are not big fans of paneer, this new recipe can make you change your mind. Toshali Mandal cooks up a storm and gives the traditional paneer a contemporary zing. Here’s how you can have an exciting vegetarian dish on your Sunday menu.
Paneer Shashlik Kebabs
Ingredients:
For marination
500 gm of paneer
½ teaspoon of salt
½ teaspoon of chilli powder
2 cups of onion and peppers diced
A generous pinch of chaat masala
Few wooden skewers
For tempering
½ cup of hung curd
Salt to taste
2 teaspoons of ginger garlic paste
A handful of chopped coriander
Crushed kasauri methi
For dip
4 tablespoons of mustard oil
2 teaspoons of carom seeds (ajwain)
2 teaspoons of chopped green chilly
2 teaspoons of chopped ginger
1 tablespoon of gram flour (besan)
3/4 teaspoons of turmeric
Direction
Cut the paneer into 1.5”x1.5” cubes. Sprinkle salt and chilli powder and keep it in a warm place for 15 minutes. If the paneer releases any water remove it. In a separate bowl, whisk together hung curd, salt, ginger garlic paste, chopped coriander and crushed kasauri methi. In a separate pan, put mustard oil on high heat. Immediately add ajwain, green chilli and ginger and stir for a few seconds.
Turn off the heat and add besan and turmeric. Stir for a minute or till besan turns into a light brown colour. Immediately add this tempering to the curd marinade and whisk it. Apply this marinade on the paneer, diced onions and peppers. Using wooden skewers, alternatively skewer paneer cube, onion and pepper cube and repeat. Do this till all the pieces are used. Place the skewers on a grilling tray and grill them on a preheated OTG for about 15 minutes on either side blasting with some ghee. Remove sprinkle chaat masala and serve.
Note: You can soak the wooden skewers in water for two hours before using them. This way they will not burn while cooking.