California Tandoori Salad

I made one of the Indian recipes by Neela Paniz from Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle tonight. It was amazing! I made cheese - paneer. Mike helped me but it was actually pretty easy and definitely doable. You just need to have everything and some of it you can not get at the grocery store so plan ahead. I found the anardana on Amazon so the internet's a good choice. Don't forget to buy the muslin to make the cheese.
If you don't like cilantro like my friend Cooper you will not like this recipe. Everyone else should love it.

Here's the link to the Chronicle article http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/14/FDGO1C5G4G.DTL&type=food.

And here's what I did.

Paneer:
1/2 gallon whole milk
1 quart buttermilk
Instructions: Set a colander over a deep mixing bowl. Drape the colander with a fine, clean muslin cloth (not cheesecloth, because it is too porous) so that the ends hang over.

Rinse a 4-quart heavy bottomed saucepan. While it is still wet, pour the milk into it. (Using a wet pan helps prevent the formation of a skin on the pan during cooking.) Bring the milk to a boil, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching.

Remove from the heat and pour in the buttermilk, stirring constantly. The solids will separate from the liquid, or whey. Pour the entire contents of the pan into the muslin-lined colander. Let the mixture cool slightly to make handling easier. Gather up the ends of the cloth and twist them together firmly to force out excess whey; reserve this excess whey to use for storing the paneer. While still tightly wrapped in muslin, place curd on an upside down plate, shallow bowl or pan set on a tray to catch more whey. Place a plate or flat pan on top, then weight with something heavy such as a can. Let the remaining whey drip away for about 30 minutes.

Dressing:
1/3 cup lemon juice
handful of fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 cup canola roasted cumin
1/2 teaspoon anardana
kosher salt

Chicken:
4 large cloves garlic
2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 green serrano chiles, trimmed of seeds & membranes, cut into chunks
large handful of cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon garam masala
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 1/4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast
kosher salt
1 tablespoon canola oil

Salad:
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 pound paneer, cut into cubes slightly smaller than 1-inch (see recipe)
1 large head romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
1 small tomato, diced
1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded and cubed
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
3 green onions, chopped
Kosher salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup fine Sev (I found this at Malabar, an Indian market but I saw it on Amazon too)

To make the dressing: Puree the lemon juice with the cilantro until smooth in a food processor, scraping down the sides as needed. With the machine running, slowly drizzle in the oil. Add the seasonings and blend again for 30 to 40 seconds. This recipe yields about 1 1/2 cups. Use 1/2 cup in this salad and refrigerate the rest for another use.

For the chicken: To make the marinade, place garlic, ginger, chiles and cilantro in a food processor. Process to a smooth paste, using water by the spoonful as needed (up to about 3/4 cup). Remove to a mixing bowl and stir in the garam masala, coriander, cumin and cayenne. Set aside 1 tablespoon of the marinade to use later.

Cut chicken into bite size pieces, about 1 inches, put in bowl with the marinade, season with salt and turn the pieces to coat well. Let marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes, or refrigerate for up to 6 hours. Bring chicken to room temperature before proceeding.

When ready to cook, add the oil to the chicken pieces, stirring to coat well. Broil (about 4 inches from the element) for about 5 minutes per side, until done.

For the salad: In a nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the paneer (I used about half of what I made), and cook for about a minute, until lightly browned. Add the reserved marinade to coat it. Add chicken to skillet and toss together.

Place the lettuce, tomato, cucumber, pepper and green onions in a large mixing bowl. Toss with 1/2 cup dressing, adding more dressing as necessary. Add paneer, chicken and sev and toss to coat.

This recipe had alot of ingredients and took some legwork to get everything I needed but it was worth it. I'm sorry Abigail missed it since she is out of town but I will make it again.

Enjoy!