Ingredients:
- 1.5-2 cups of Paneer (store bought or homemade)
- 1.5 cup diced onion
- 1/4 cup cilantro
- 1/4 cup green onions
- 1/2 large tomato (optional)
- 1 chili
- 1.5 cup green peppers
- 2 garlic cloves
- Ching’s paneer masala sauce packet
- Salt (to taste)
- Chili powder 1 tbsp
Homemade paneer ingredients: (optional)
- Spoiled milk (I used 2% milk)
- Lemon juice 2-3 tbsp
- Cheese cloth
Alright, so lets get started..
- Cut up your paneer to your desired size and set aside.
- Cut your chili, onion, green pepper, (2 cloves) garlic, 1 tbsp ginger and tomato (optional)
- In a hot pot, add oil to the surface of the pan and sprinkle some cumin and custard seeds. Add the garlic, ginger and chilies next.
- Once that is roasted well, sprinkle some salt, pepper, add the onion, green peppers and sauté until it’s browned. Add 1 tbsp of chili powder and 1 tbsp of garam masala.
- Now add in your paneer and gently fold it into the mix. I like my paneer browned a little (so it has a crispy outer layer). This happens quickly, so make sure you have lowered the heat.
- In a separate bowl, take 2 cups of water and add your Ching’s Paneer masala mix. Mix well so that there are no bumps.
- Pour this into the pan and simmer the heat to medium. Let this cook for 1-2 mins and you can add more water if you want it soupy or keep cooking it for 5 mins or so and you’ll notice that the mixture is now a thick sauce. You can keep cooking it until you’ve reached a dry mixture that you like. Add your diced tomato (optional) salt and spices to taste.
- Add your sesame seeds on top as well as spring onions and cilantro.
- Enjoy this with some white rice or wrap this in your naan. You can also eat this alone or with some noodles on the side! Enjoy
Are you trying to make paneer from scratch? Great, you’re in the right spot! This was my first attempt and I was so shocked by how quick and easy this process really is. You only need a couple things that you probably have lying around the house. Make sure you have a good amount of expired milk (the paneer is made out of the amount that will curdle from the milk, so the more milk you have, the more paneer can be made). I used 1/4 of a gallon and i was only able to cook the amount you see in the image above, so keep that in mind.
First, take your milk, pour it into a pan and put the heat on high. Then, when you start to see that the milk is boiling, add 2-3 tbsp of lemon (this helps the milk curdle). The minute you see that the milk is starting to separate/curdle, turn off the heat. In a bowl add a cheese cloth (you can use a handkerchief too) as your strainer and pour the milk into it. Everything that falls into the cheesecloth is what turns into the paneer. Throw the rest of the milk and wash the curdled milk so the lemon juice gets completely removed. Now, take the cheesecloth and form a very very tight mold of the paneer. Now that the cheesecloth has a the paneer molded inside it tightly, add weight on top of the cheesecloth so that the paneer forms a shape. Keep something heavy on top of the cheese cloth and leave it for at least 2 hours (overnight is preferable but not required). After that, open your cheesecloth and you should see a tight white paneer ball. Now you can break it up into pieces and store it in your fridge for as long as you want. I really liked that my paneer was soft, so I preferred to let it sit for 2 hours.