canyonwalker: Cheers! (wine tasting)
[personal profile] canyonwalker
I realized this week I haven't blogged much about cooking lately. I wrote a flurry of entries about cooking last winter then posted only infrequently on the topic since. It's not that I'm not cooking anymore.... I guess I just got so accustomed to it I started thinking of it as ordinary and not worth sharing. But some meals are worth writing about! Like the paneer tikka masala I cooked last week.

Paneer tikka masala with green beans and paratha (Jan 2022)

Here's the finished product (above). I steamed some green beans as a veg dish to go along with the paneer (right). The beans taste pretty good dipped in the tikka masala sauce, too. On the left is a piece of paratha, and Indian style bread.

"Why not just order in Indian food?" some might ask. "Don't you have good Indian restaurants nearby?" Let me tell you, I live in an area with a large south Asian population. There are tons of Indian restaurants nearby. But I don't always want to go out for food or game out how much I have to pre-tip a delivery driver to get them to bring me the food before it gets cold. Plus it's fun to cook at home. Especially when I can buy the right ingredients to make it easy to get great results.

Paneer is an Indian style farmer's cheese. I can buy it in blocks at various stores. I don't think Safeway carries it, but our local green grocer does. And, of course, the area's many Indian groceries do. And even Costco around here has stocked it for years.

Cooking paneer for paneer tikka masala (Jan 2022)

I bought the cheese at Costco in a package of 2, 1.1-kg blocks. They're wrapped separately so I used just one of the 1.1 kg blocks here. I cubed it into 160 pieces and sauteed them. Yes, exactly 160 pieces. You can count the bits in the picture if you like; I know it's 160 from multiplication (I cut the block in 10 slices then 4x4).

After browning the cheese to get a slightly crispy edge on it I scooped it out, patted off the cooking oil, and added it to a pan with tikka masala sauce to simmer.

Paneer Tikka Masala Shortcut - Sauce from a Jar [Nov 2020]

Tikka masala is a tomato, onion, and cream based sauce with a variety of spices. I've experimented with making it from scratch. The results were good but it takes a lot of time. I find it easier to buy it in a jar. Tikka masala sauce, even Safeway carries. In fact now they carry 2-3 brands of Indian sauces. I got this particular one at Costco, though. It's cheaper there.

While the cheese was simmering in the sauce I steamed the green beans and thawed and toasted the paratha. Paratha is an Indian style flatbread made with wheat flour. I've never tried making it from scratch though I imagine it's not too difficult, theoretically. I've just had... underwhelming... results making bread so I prefer to buy something good. The paratha in the first picture came in a frozen package from Trader Joe's. I thawed and browned each piece in 2-3 minutes on a skillet with a dab of olive oil.

Et voilà!

This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting

Profile

canyonwalker: wiseguy (Default)
canyonwalker

May 2025

S M T W T F S
     1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 293031

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated May. 29th, 2025 11:36 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios