Main Vegetarian

Meera Sodha’s Baked Butter Paneer

I used to eat paneer butter masala regularly with an Indian friend, Aditya, at a little place near Russell Square in London until one day something awkward happened that meant we never went back. That day, he made the error of wearing a black shirt and black trousers to dinner and, like a rugby player with the ball, was tackled a couple of times on his way to the bathroom as he was mistaken for a waiter. Aditya, this one’s for you.

15 minutes prep, 1 hour cook

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the paneer

Rapeseed oil

500g hard paneer cut into 2 1/2cm cubes

6 cloves garlic, crushed

2cm x 2cm ginger, finely grated

1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder

1/2 tbsp lemon juice

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

75g (5 tbsp) Greek yoghurt

For the butter sauce

1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

3/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp runny honey

2 x 400g tins finely chopped tomatoes

150ml double cream

1 1/2 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves

To serve

Naan breads

Method

1 Preheat the oven to 200°C fan/220°C/gas 7 and line a deep baking tray or oven dish (roughly 20cm x 30cm) with non-stick baking paper. Brush the paper with a little oil.

2 Put the paneer cubes into a mixing bowl and add half the garlic, half the ginger and then the chilli powder, lemon juice, salt, turmeric and yoghurt. Mix well, tip on to the baking tray and bake for 25 minutes, or until the paneer is crisp and starting to blacken ever so slightly at the edges.

3 Take the baking tray out of the oven and very carefully remove the baking paper, leaving the paneer in the tray. Add 3 tablespoons of oil and the remaining ginger and garlic, stir to coat the paneer in the garlicky oil, then add the spices for the butter sauce, the salt and the honey. Stir to mix, then tip in the tomatoes, making sure the paneer is completely covered, and pop back in the oven for 30 minutes.

4 Remove the tray, stir through the cream, crumble over the kasoori methi, then stir again and pop back in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove the tray once more, stir in the butter now if you’d like, then serve straight from the tray with hot naan.

Taken from DINNER by Meera Sodha, image: David Loftus