Paneer (Cottage Cheese) Tikka
Submitted by: Dr. Anand Chockalingam and Smrita Dorairajan (India)
I love this recipe as it is one of my favorite dishes since childhood and brings a smile to my face always along with sweet memories and my mom’s affection.
Smrita Dorairajan and daughter Laya Anand
They make paneer tikka together often.
Paneer (Cottage Cheese) Tikka
Ingredients
Paneer 500 gms slab cut into small cubes
Green/red/orange Bell Pepper-1 cut into cubes
Red/white Onion-1 cut into cubes
Greek Yogurt- 1 cup
Ginger Garlic paste-2 teaspoons
Coriander powder-1 teaspoon
Chaat masala powder-1 teaspoon
Salt- 1 teaspoon
Chilli powder- 1 teaspoon
Kasuri methi- 1 teaspoon crushed
Garam Masala-1 teaspoon
Juice of 1 lemon
Mint leaves- small bunch
Cilantro- small bunch
Instructions:
Whisk the yogurt in a large bowl until smooth. I have used greek yogurt here, you can use regular yogurt just make sure to strain it for several hours until you have thick yogurt left and then use in the recipe.
Add all the ingredients for marinade to the yogurt- ginger garlic paste, coriander powder, chaat masala, red chili powder, garam masala, kasuri methi and salt. Whisk to combine everything together.
Add in juice of 1 lemon along with chopped cilantro and mint. Mix well. Stir in the paneer cubes, onion and bell peppers. Mix until all the paneer pieces and veggies are well coated with the marinade. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for minimum for 1 hour or up to 4 hours. Overnight also works!
After 1-2 hours, take the marinated paneer and veggies out of the refrigerator. Take a skewer and arrange paneer, onion and peppers on a skewer, alternating with each other. Make all skewers similarly. Meanwhile preheat oven to 450 F degrees. Make sure you preheat the oven for good 15-20 minutes.
Arrange all the prepared skewers on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spray the tikka with a oil spray. This is important so that the veggies don’t dry out.
Bake at 450 F degrees for 10 minutes and then turn on the broil. Broil for 2 to 3 minutes until paneer pieces look little charred. You can do this on stove top too after greasing a pan with oil and shallow frying the pieces till little charred.