Name: Paneer 65
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 2 servings
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 167 g Paneer, cut into square cubes; 1⅓ tbsp Indian-Style Yogurt, thick yogurt; 2 tbsp Rice Flour, vital for extreme crunch; 1⅓ tbsp Corn Flour, for binding; ⅔ tbsp Ginger-Garlic Paste; 1 tsp Kashmiri Chili Powder, for deep red color; ⅓ tsp Red Chilli Powder, spicy; ⅓ tsp Garam Masala; 10 Curry Leaves, roughly torn, for batter; ⅔ tsp Salt, to taste; 1⅓ tbsp Water, use cautiously; as needed Cooking Oil, for deep frying; 2 Green Chili Pepper, slit, for garnish; 7 Curry Leaves, whole, for garnish

30 mintotal

Prep 15 min · Cook 15 min

Serves: 2
Difficulty: Medium
Spice: Spicy

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Method

In a large bowl, whisk together the thick curd, ginger-garlic paste, Kashmiri chilli powder, hot chilli powder, garam masala, torn curry leaves and salt.
Integrate the dual binding starches: rice flour and cornflour. Blend relentlessly until a highly viscous, sticky spice emulsion is formed.
Add the paneer cubes to the spiced mixture carefully. Toss them by hand very gently, so every side of the paneer is thickly coated in the red batter.
If the mixture looks too powdery, sprinkle in a very small amount of water. It should not be runny: the batter has to hold onto the paneer.
Elevate frying oil to a rapid medium-high temperature within a deep kadhai.
Lower the coated paneer cubes into the hot oil one at a time, leaving space between them so the oil does not cool down.
Leave them undisturbed for the first 2 minutes so the fragile crust sets, then stir them gently. Fry for 4-5 minutes in all, until the outside is very crisp and deep crimson.
2 min4–5 min
Lift them out with a skimmer and drain the oil off well on kitchen paper.
In the still-hot oil, fry the slit green chillies and whole curry leaves for 5 seconds. As soon as they crisp, scatter them over the hot paneer 65.
5 sec
Service must be absolute and immediate.

How to tell it's done

Demand a shattering, highly spiced, brilliantly red crust that instantly gives way to impossibly soft, yielding paneer, heavily perfumed by essential curry-leaf oils.

Getting it right

Tip

Chef's Tip: Paneer inherently lacks the natural structural starches found in meat to anchor a batter. Embedding torn curry leaves directly into a hyper-thick, rice-flour dominant paste acts as a structural net, ensuring the crust does not separate from the protein during frying.

What to serve it with

A ferociously popular culinary benchmark. Devour immediately from the service platter, punctuated by the sharp acidity of raw onion rings and citrus.

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Ingredients