What makes a thabdi peda brown
Three hours at the kadai: the slow cooking behind Rajkot’s favourite sweet.
Cooking with fresh paneer
Why farm paneer behaves differently from a packet, and how to keep it soft in a curry.
Fresh paneer made from whole milk is soft, moist and slightly sweet. It crumbles if you press it, and it melts into a curry if you are not careful. That is the whole point of it, but it needs a slightly different approach from a firm packaged block.
When it arrives, keep it in the fridge in a bowl of cold water, covered. Change the water every day. It will stay good for three days. If you want firmer cubes for tikka, press the slab between two plates with a weight on top for twenty minutes before cutting.
For curries, add the paneer at the very end. Turn off the heat, slide in the cubes and let them sit in the gravy for five minutes with the lid on. They warm through without hardening. If you want to fry the cubes first, use a little ghee on medium heat and stop as soon as two sides are golden. Dropping fried cubes into warm water for a minute keeps them soft.
For bhurji, crumble the paneer by hand rather than grating it. Cook the onions, tomatoes and spices until the oil separates, then add the paneer and cook for no more than two minutes. In Rajkot, many of our customers eat it simply: crumbled on a hot rotla with a pinch of salt and pepper.
