Barbecued Paneer with chipotle marinade

This is barely a recipe, because it is so very easy, but more of an idea really. Paneer is great on the barbecue, and just because it is an Indian cheese doesn't mean you have to put Indian flavours with it - chiptotle works a treat. I prefer using paneer to halloumi, it is less melty and won't stick to your barbecue grill.

When shopping for some very important meringue nests, to make Eton Mess during the Wimbledon match (We're having a very stereotypical English summers day here...), I spotted Wahaca sauces were on offer in Waitrose, £1 a bottle.

picture from Wahaca

I cut up the paneer in to four chunky pieces and then coated them in the sauce, about 1/4 of the bottle. It only sat for about 10 minutes before going on the barbecue, but this was fine. If you brush over the marinade during cooking it will boost the flavours. We barbecued the paneer for about 3-4 minutes on each side til crispy and charred. Folded up in a flatbread with some salad, it was perfect vegetarian barbecue food.

You could make your own marinade - maybe with some ketchup, oil, balsamic and chipotle in adobo. But when you are pressed for time (the Wimbledon final was an hour away) the Wahaca sauces are great - really smoky with a nice heat and richness from cocoa. I'm going back to buy the other two sauces in the range!

On a related note, I contributed to a Local Secrets article by fellow Cambridge blogger, Heidi Sladen - read more about my barbecue tips for veggies here. It's not all about dry soya burgers and vegetarian sausages!

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Chilli Paneer

'This is the best thing you've ever made,' was the comment from the Mr about this chilli paneer, so despite the really quite terrible photograph I took hastily (because I wanted to hurry up and eat), I have decided that I really ought to blog this recipe. I haven't received a review like that in a long time.

Chilli Paneer is one of those things I've eaten quite a bit of but never really known what goes into it or how it is made - only recently did I realise it was Indo-Chinese-ish as it has soy sauce in it. The Indian part is made up of the paneer cheese and the rest are ingredients used in both countries (garlic, ginger, chilli, onion).

It differs from the Indian style muttar paneer which has more tomato in it along with the traditional spices - garam masala, turmeric, cumin, coriander. This version is a lot simpler and the soy sauce gives it a rich flavour without too much faffing about with lots of ingredients. In India we had 'Manchurian Paneer' which is another Indo-Chinese dish, it was deep fried crispy paneer in a rich dark sauce - I think with five spice and soy - with lots of spring onion and ginger, something I want to recreate, although I think without the deep frying.

This is very easy to put together and you'll probably have most of the ingredients already. Serve with basmati rice or naan, pitta, roti or other flat bread. Most of the recipes I came across also contained bell pepper, I'm not a huge fan of these and I didn't have any, so I didn't put any in. If you like them add one diced pepper in with the onion.

Chilli Paneer
Adapted from various recipes including Simply Tadka and BBC Good Food.
Serves 2-3

200g block of paneer, diced into about 1 inch pieces
cornflour
sunflower or mild olive oil
2 red onions, finely sliced
1 bell pepper, diced (optional)
2 cloves of garlic
about 1tsp of grated ginger
1/2 tsp - 1 tsp chilli flakes - depending on your chilli tolerance
2 tbsp tomato puree
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
boiling water

1. Dice up your paneer and then toss it in some seasoned cornflour. In a large saucepan shallow fry the pieces in a small amount of oil til golden brown on all sides, do this in batches if you don't have room. Remove and drain on kitchen paper.

2. Add the onions and pepper if using and fry in the oil til quite soft, add a pinch of salt to stop them burning and to realise the juices, it should take about 5 minutes for them to soften. Whilst they are frying mix the tomato puree and dark soy sauce, then add boiling water til it is the consistency of single cream.

3. Add in the ginger, garlic and chilli flakes to the saucepan and fry for a minute. Lower the heat and add the tomato soy sauce mix and then the paneer. Stir to combine everything and keep on a medium heat to simmer gently.

4. The sauce will start to thicken now, because of the cornflour in the paneer, add more water if the sauce starts to reduce too much. Simmer for about 10 minutes on a medium heat, stirring and checking the sauce. Season to taste, add more chilli flakes or soy if necessary and serve.

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