Paneer Chingari and How to Add Smoky Flavor to a curry

We visited India last summer and explored the foods at the restaurants that we used to frequent while growing up. I was lucky to find that all the restaurants were still around and we soon got down to eating the food that was deeply embedded in our memories.

Finally, after sampling everything we had craved over the many years, we decided to try something new.  At one of the restaurants we asked the restaurant manager to recommend something that we should definitely try out, a speciality of their restaurant. He recommended "Paneer Chingari". Paneer is fresh cheese and "chingari" means spark. The combination of these words was intriguing and we ordered this along with naan and dal fry.  It was a most delicious meal!! The paneer was cooked with a variety of vegetables in a rich and extremely flavorful gravy. And to top it all it had a smoked aroma which added the "chingari" touch to it. I made several notes after we came home as I just had to recreate this dish.

I was able to reverse engineer the recipe and it was just lip smacking good. Extremely flavorful, colorful because of the variety of vegetables used which are not overcooked and the smokiness from the charcoal takes this to another level. The recipe has a few steps, and it is important to follow these to obtain the right flavor and texture. Don't be tempted to take a shortcut, stick it in the pressure cooker and just cook it all together, that will bring it down to a common place gravy. Follow the recipe and you will love the end result.

The recipe here makes a large quantity and will easily feed a party of 8-12 people with enough for everyone to take seconds. Or you can do what I do, cook it once, and freeze it to enjoy over multiple meals. You can reduce the quantities by half or more if you want to make a small amount.

Also, I have used minimal oil and ghee to make this recipe. You can increase these per your taste.

Here is a detailed video of how to make this recipe.

Ingredients
For the gravy
3 tbsp oil/ghee
3 cups finely diced onions
8 whole peppercorns
4 cloves
2 black cardamom
2 inch cinnamon stick

3 green cardamom, peeled- seeds only
3 bay leaves/ tej patta
7 large cloves of garlic or 1 tbsp garlic paste
2 inch long ginger or 1 tbsp ginger paste
1.5 cups of tomato puree (3 tomatoes)
15  cashew nuts OR pumpkin seeds (pumpkin seeds for nut free version)
1 tbsp kasoori methi (dried fenugreek/methi leaves)

Spice/Masala paste for the gravy

1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp cumin powder/jeera powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder/ dhania powder
1 tsp Kitchen King masala
2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder (can reduce or increase this amount, to taste). For a spicy gravy, add regular chilli powder
1-2 tbsp water to make a paste

For the vegetables and paneer
100 gm paneer cut into cubes
1 tsp ghee

1 cup green beans, diced
1 cup carrots, diced
1 cup peas
1 cup cauliflower, floret separated
2 bell peppers OR 5 mini bell peppers
1 1/2 cup onion cut (3/4 onion)
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp kitchen king masala
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder

1 tsp Kitchen King masala

Method
To make the gravy
In a small bowl, mix together 2 tsp Kashmiri chili powder, 1 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp kitchen king masala and 1/2 tsp each of cumin and coriander powders. Add 1-2 tbsp of water and make a smooth paste. Soak the cashews or pumpkin seeds in some water. Keep aside.

In a large pot/pan which can hold all the ingredients, heat up 2 tbsp of oil and add the 3 cups of finely diced onions. Cook onions till pink and starting to brown and then add the whole spices as follows. Add the peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon sticks, green cardamom seeds and the whole black cardamom. Then cook till mixture till the onion is well browned.  After this mixture cools down a bit, peel the black cardamoms and add the seeds back into the onions, throw away the peels.

Put the onion and spices mixture in a blender jar and to it add the soaked cashew nuts or pumpkin seeds, the garlic cloves, ginger and some water and  make a fine paste. 

Add 2 tsp oil or ghee to the same pan you roasted the onions in. Add the bay leaves, cook for a minute till fragrant and then add the onion paste and cook for some time. Then, add the puréed tomatoes and cook till tomatoes are well cooked. This will take some time to cook the tomatoes down. Finally, add the masala paste which had been made in the first step and stir well. Cook this for a few minutes till the spices are well cooked. The gravy is ready.

Preparing the vegetables and paneer

Dice the paneer into small pieces and pan fry these in 1 tsp of ghee.  Remove and keep aside. Now, in the same pan, add the beans, carrots and cook them for a bit. Next add the cauliflower and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Finally add the peas. If you are using any frozen vegetables, then add them later on as they cook faster than fresh vegetables. The vegetables must still retain a bite and their color. Don't overcook them. Now add  half tsp of each of the spice powders -- the garam masala, kitchen king masala, Kashmiri chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and salt. Stir in these masalas into the vegetables and mix thoroughly. Remove these onto a plate and keep aside.  

Then in the same pan add and add 1 tsp of oil and then add in the diced onions and bell peppers. Cook till they start to brown a little.  Now, add back the paneer, and the cooked vegetables cook this together for a couple of minutes.  This is now ready to be added to the gravy.

You can prepare the vegetables in parallel while you are working on the gravy as shown in the video.

Putting it together

Add water to the cooked gravy to adjust the consistency to your liking.  It should not be watery though.   Then add the prepared vegetables and paneer mixture and mix this into the gravy. Taste and adjust salt as needed. Let it come to a boil. To add the smokiness, heat a piece/briquette of coal till it is very hot. Place a small steel bowl in the center and balance it  on the gravy.  Then using tongs, place the charcoal into the bowl and add a tsp of ghee onto the charcoal. This will immediately create a lot of smoke. Place a lit on the pot and let it remain closed for 10-15 minutes to retain the smoke and infuse it into the gravy.  Then remove this bowl from the gravy.

For the final finishing touch , crush 1 tbsp of kasuri methi between your palms and add it to the curry and mix it in. 

Serve hot with some naan or roti or rice. Or make it part of your elaborate thali meal as pictured below. Here it is served with naan, jeera rice, dal fry and boondi raita with a side salad.

Tips

See the video for details on how to heat the charcoal if you have a ceramic top or a heating coil stove top.  To do this heat an iron pan till it is very hot and then place the charcoal and let it heat up till you can see the embers. Then it is ready to be placed into the bowl. Don't overcook the vegetables.