Paneer Tikka Masala
Jan. 16th, 2022 07:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerI 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.
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.
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]](https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/canyonwalker/33413618/703867/703867_original.jpg "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!
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.
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.
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!
