Between a cheating ex and paneer tikka, what do you trust more?
Life taught us to deal with fake people, not fake paneer
You’ll never find a vegetarian Googling ‘how much protein is too much protein?’. What we are constantly looking for are ways to sneak more protein into our meals without sacrificing taste. We’ll mash peas into tikkis, transform soya into chhaap, or turn chickpeas into hummus. In fact, when a Tweak team member spent a month on a hardcore vegetarian protein diet she stocked her kitchen with soya and chole like a squirrel who is preparing for winter. First, she made a sabzi with both ingredients, for double protein. Then, unsure what else what more to do with all the soya she had ordered, she started adding it to every sabzi, be it bhindi or baingan, every single day. It wasn’t hard to tell she was losing her sanity trying to come up with ways to eat soya.
If, like me, you’re not blessed by culinary geniuses like Tarla Dalal, paneer is your most reliable ally. It’s versatile, easy to make, and often when I am in a hurry in the morning, I can sauté a few pieces and quickly eat my protein-rich breakfast.
Paneer is also one of the few vegetarian sources of protein that I can actually convince my non-vegetarian friends to split with me when we go out for dinner. Else, I’d be left to tackle an entire plate of paneer chilli on my own—much as I like it, I’m not sure I like it that much. Funnily, when I stayed at a Bengali friend’s house for three days, as the lone vegetarian, paneer became my breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Eventually, I asked my friend, only half-joking, if she had a tabela in the backyard or a paneer subscription. Her family, sincerely baffled, asked, “Beta, veg mein aur kya hota hai? [What else is there in vegetarian food?]”
Clearly, paneer is the lifeline of vegetarian protein and ironically, the reason our non-vegetarian friends will still come over for dinner. But the dependence is real, it is everywhere in our dabbas, in our menus when guests come home, and on our tables at restaurants. We roll our eyes at it, but we would be lost without it.
It’s no wonder then that the recent rise of fake-paneer hysteria hits hard. In 2022 there were cases of fake or analog paneer (synthetically made with maida, palm oil, milk powder or similar ingredients), where the police caught the perpetrators. Over the past few years, many such instances have been reported and the conversation around it has resurfaced. And it’s triggering more trust issues than Anjali had in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, convinced Rahul was after her dukaan.
Many of the viral ‘fake paneer’ videos, though, come from misinformation, leading to more fear and confusion. For example, when an influencer donned the hat of a food inspector at a Mumbai restaurant recently and mistook a piece of cottage cheese to be inauthentic, Michelin star chef, restaurateur and Masterchef India judge, Vikas Khanna stepped in to debunk a few myths about identifying synthetic paneer.
Between a cheating ex-boyfriend and a paneer pakora, we should be able to trust the latter more, don’t you think?
The paneer we deserve
While it is hard to test the authenticity of paneer at a restaurant, you can still check if your neighbourhood dairy is stocking the real stuff. Chef and winner of MasterChef season one, Pankaj Bhadouria recommends looking out for a chemical-like smell or hard, rubbery texture, which are signs of fake paneer. She also suggests mixing a little paneer with arhar dal water and letting it sit. “If the water changes to a yellow or reddish colour, it means the paneer is adulterated.”
If that still doesn’t make your heart rest, why not learn to DIY?
For the novice home cooks, chef Kunal Kapur has a fuss-free tutorial. For 200g of paneer, boil 1 litre of full-cream milk. Add the juice of one lemon diluted with water, plus a pinch of salt. Once the milk curdles, simmer a little longer, then strain the mixture using a muslin cloth. Dip the cloth in room-temperature water to rinse off the citric flavour. Here you go, fresh bhurji-style paneer. You can also make gourmet-style paneer at home by just adding herbs to the milk before adding lemon juice to it.
Not a fan of paneer bhurji (we could be responsible for that) and prefer cubes? Roll the paneer in the cloth, press it with a heavy object (a chopping board or a kadhai work great), leave it for 15 minutes, then refrigerate it for an hour and you’ve got a slab of home-made cottage cheese.
Not the same paneer
Every protein-obsessed vegetarian will confess that eating paneer for every meal is boring, but a variety of marinades will keep things interesting. Here are a few ideas to take your protein game to the next level—and don’t be afraid to share them among your friends too, as hints or straight up demands for their next hosted dinner.
Thecha-marinated paneer salad
A Maharashtrian-inspired green chutney marinade made from garlic, green chilies, roasted peanuts, and coriander adds a punch to lightly pan-fried paneer. Food content creator, Bhumika combined it with sautéed veggies like zucchini, capsicum, and broccoli, it’s a salad that eats like a meal.
Soy-sesame paneer and veggie bowl
This marinade blends soy sauce, vinegar, jaggery, sesame seeds, spring onions, and lots of garlic. Criss-crossed paneer soaks in the sauce while being cooked in butter for deep flavour penetration. Canadian creator, Vaishali served it over roasted vegetables for a comforting, Indo-Asian meal.
Kandhari coconut milk paneer
Marinated overnight in coconut milk, garlic, ginger, green chilies, and optional pandan leaves, Instagram creator Catherine Dayal whipped up a soft, mellow dish with a Kerala-style touch. Finished with a garnish of fried curry leaves and red chilies in coconut oil, it’s a fragrant appetiser or side.
