Fried Cheese: The Way to a Man's Heart

Comfort foods. Weekly repeats. Perfect meals to end stupid days. Dishes so mastered and honed over time they can be whipped up blindfolded, and if not served once a week, induce withdrawal. My food crack comes in the form of tacos or something involving lemongrass. S needs a dose of fried paneer cheese curry.

Paneer is a wallflower of cheeses. Plain, bland, and if served up cold on a platter, would be passed over in favour of its creamier and sharper Italian and French cousins.

I’d had paneer many a time in paneer saag (cheese and spinach curry) at Indian restaurants but little did I know it could be fried. FRIED! Resulting in a golden brown crust and a soft, salty, squeaky interior. Making fried cheese curry is a bit of a labour of love but can be sped up with a little multi-tasking.

 

First cut the cheese into cubes and marinate in a mixture of 1-2TB mustard oil, ½ tsp salt, ¼ tsp cayenne, ½ teaspoon cumin. Let the spices penetrate while making the base for the curry sauce. Heat 2TB of an oil with a high smoking point like coconut oil and fry the cheese cubes on all sides until golden brown. This takes patience and a lot of flipping and if the pan has gone to shit like mine, causes a bit of a smoky mess. Once fried, set cubes aside. Depending on the state of the oil, reuse or dump and put in some fresh.

"Hey, wait a minute! Why doesn’t it melt?" It has something to do with the way the curds and whey are separated and not having the resulting types of protein that break down when heated. Read more about it here. http://culturecheesemag.com/cheese-iq/squeaky-cheeses

In a food processor or mortar and pestle, mix or pound a big piece of ginger, two cloves garlic, a handful of mint or coriander, and one small white onion. After a paste is formed, let it sit so the garlic can release its anti-oxidant powers (the internet says this happens but it could be total bullshit).

I’ve strayed away from the original recipe due mostly to laziness. As I’ve mentioned before, a teaspoon of any good garam masala and a dash of turmeric and cumin is all that's needed. I fry the paste to remove the strong onion taste and add cumin seeds, cardamom pods (just one!), ½ tsp of turmeric, 1 tsp garam masala, ½ tsp ground cumin. After 2-3 minutes of stirring and frying on medium heat, add a bit of water, some frozen peas and mushrooms, and simmer about 5 minutes. At the end add about a ½ - 1 cup of plain yoghurt (I use Greek or labneh). Stir until completely mixed in and add the cheese cubes. Give one final stir and serve with rice or if feeling particularly Paleo, cauliflower rice.

 

On a side note: I went to my Asia shop last week but they didn’t have the usual paneer. I bought something with foreign writing that looked like paneer and cut into cubes like paneer but when put in the pan, was most certainly NOT paneer. That night we had a gooey mess of a curry!