Achari Paneer Recipe: I’ll admit one thing. This is not the first time that I tried the achari paneer recipe. But always the flavor used to be a bit off. Say it turned out to be very pickle like at times. Finally…finally a few days ago I nailed the flavor of this recipe 🙂 This achari paneer recipe has a mild flavor with a kick of pickle on the palette at the end of each bite. It tastes great with both tandoori roti/ flatbread or steamed rice…! Yum yum yummmm and soooo super easy 😉
Ingredients :
- Cottage Cheese/ Paneer Diced 200 gm
- Red Chillies Whole 2-3
- 1 pinch Hing or Asafoetida
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 1/2 cup Beaten fresh curd
- 1 tablespoon besan or chickpea flour
- Salt To taste
- 1 teaspoon red chili powder
- 1 teaspoon mango pickle powder-optional
- 1/5 teaspoon sugar
- 1 large tomato
For the Achari Masala :
- 1 teaspoon Fennel seeds or saunf
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon kalonji or Nigella Seeds
- 1 teaspoon jeera/cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon methi seeds or fenugreek seeds
Method :
To prepare the masala put all the spices for the masala in a skillet and roast on low flame. Make sure just the fragrance of spices is rendered …do not overheat or roast them. A little bit is enough. Once the spices cool just grind them in a grinder to a coarse powder.
In a heavy-bottomed skillet put any oil of choice. Actually, mustard oil brings the maximum pickle flavor-but it gets overbearing, so I suggest you use another mellow oil. When the oil gets hot add the whole red chilies and hing/asafoetida.
Once the chilies start changing color, add a single pureed tomato. Add red chili powder, 1/2 of the spice mix, mango pickle paste.
Once the tomato puree renders the oil, add 1 tablespoon besan or chickpea flour. Roast it for 1 minute.
Next, keeping the flame low, add the beaten curd slowly, while stirring continuously. Add the sugar and salt to taste. Be mindful, that the pickling paste itself has a lot of salt in it. Just go light with the salt, to begin with.
Next, add the cottage cheese. Mix well. While the flame is low, add the milk too and stir well. This just balances the flavors and its better than adding water no?
Once the gravy renders the oil and lightly thickens up, turn the flame down!
That’s it…the achari paneer is ready. Top it up with a pinch of achari masala for garnish. Serve it with steamed rice/roti and papadums or papad. Papad is definitely not to be missed 😉