“I chose to make this recipe because paneer is quite accessible and some people are kind of hesitant to go out of their comfort zone to make traditional dishes. Also a huge shoutout to our vegetarian community, there’s nothing more important than having loads of vegetarian recipes in your arsenal. I feel like I can’t live by eating meat every meal of the day so I love exploring different protein sources. I’m back in Dubai now, and re-exploring my community, this sauce is inspired by the essence of Sri Lankan produce and spices. I hope you guys like it.”
INGREDIENTS
-
100g of paneer
-
50g of yogurt
-
Chili powder
-
Turmeric Powder
-
1 teaspoon Whole Black Pepper
-
Curry Leaves
-
½ Cinnamon Stick
-
Ghee/Coconut Oil
-
3 Onions (quartered)
-
2 Tomatoes (quartered)
-
3 Green Chili
-
Butter
-
Dark Rum
-
Lemon/Lime
-
Ginger and Garlic Paste
METHOD
-
To make the sauce, start by tempering your peppercorns and cinnamon in a bit of ghee or coconut oil. Keep the heat on medium-low throughout the following steps.
-
Add 4-5 curry leaves and your onions and sweat till translucent, followed by green chilli and tomatoes.
-
Add your chilli and turmeric (1 teaspoon each), toss and keep the lid on for about 3-5 minutes.
-
Deglaze the pan with a shot of dark rum, let the alcohol cook out for about 30 seconds, and then pour in your coconut milk. Organic is always best!
-
Let the sauce cook out for 30 minutes on a simmer, let it cool and finally blitz everything up in a food processor/blender. REMEMBER to remove the cinnamon stick.
PANEER
-
Pre-heat Oven to 180°c.
-
Marinate Paneer with a mixture of yoghurt, chilli powder (½ tsp), turmeric (½ tsp), ginger and garlic paste and salt. Set aside for 15 minutes. Paneer doesn’t need a long time to marinade because it doesn’t have fibres to absorb it like meat does.
-
Get a pan to medium heat, oil it up and slap that paneer on.
-
Once the paneer is nice and brown, flip it and add your butter into the pan with a few curry leaves as well.
-
Treat it like a steak and begin to baste it with a tablespoon for about a minute.
-
Toss into the oven for 6-8 minutes, take it out and let it rest for about a minute.
GARNISH AND PLATING
-
Crush some pistachios, I like to keep it rustic by just hand-crushing it not too fine.
-
Chop some coriander.
-
Brush some of your beautiful sauce onto the paneer to help the pistachios stick, then proceed to do the salt-bay action very dramatically with your pistachios.
-
Make a pool of sauce on your plate, place your garnished block of paneer on top, sprinkle some coriander for freshness and YOU’RE DONE!
