Salva Mubarak Senior Features Writer

As we slowly countdown to the end of 2022, Google has started releasing its ‘Year In Search’ lists and it has uncovered some surprising results.

Did you know, the most searched recipe across the world this year was for Paneer Pasanda?! The delicious Indian dish topped the list of both Indian and International lists. According to Google, the search rate for the recipe spiked in April.

The decadent dish was followed by Bolo Caseiro (a Brazillian homemade cake), Tuzlu Karabiye (Turkish salted biscuits), and overnight oats. In India, Paneer Pasanda was followed by Modak (a Maharashtrian sweet made during Ganesh Chaturathi), Sex On The Beach (a cocktail made from cranberry juice, orange juice, and vodka), and chicken soup.

The dish at the top spot is something that is beloved in houses across South Asia and comprises of a creamy and rich gravy with shallow fried stuffed paneer.

Paneer Pasanda Recipe

If you want to try making the dish yourself at home, here’s a recipe for it…

Ingredients

250 g Paneer (Indian cottage cheese) cut in triangles

3 tbsp grated Paneer

1 tbsp Coriander Leaves (finely chopped)

¾ tsp Green Chillies (crushed)

2 tsp Mint Leaves (finely chopped)

1 tbsp Raisins

¾ tbsp Cashew Nuts (chopped)

Salt to taste

½ cup Corn Flour (mixed with ¼ cup of water to make slurry)

Oil (to shallow fry the paneer sandwich)

For the tomato cashew paste:

4 Tomatoes (medium sized, cubed)

10 Cashew Nuts

½ blade of Javitri (mace)

A pinch of Grated Jaiphal (nutmeg)

1 inch Cinnamon Stick

3 green Cardamom

3 Cloves

4-5 Black Peppercorns

¾ cup Water

For the paneer pasanda gravy:

Prepared Tomato Cashew paste

1 tsp Ginger paste

⅓ cup Brown Onion

1 tsp Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder

½ tsp Turmeric Powder

1 teaspoon Coriander Powder

¾ tsp Cumin Powder

1 tsp Kasuri Methi (dried Fenugreek leaves)

¾ tsp Garam Masala Powder

¼ cup Cream

1 tsp Sugar

Salt to taste

Method

For the tomato cashew paste:

1) In a heavy bottom pot, add tomatoes, cashews, cinnamon stick, green cardamom, cloves, pepper, mace, and nutmeg.

2) Then, add ¾ cup of water into the pot and place the pot on the stove.

3) Bring it to a boil and then cover and cook until tomatoes are soft. Take it off the heat and let it cool completely.

4) Once it cools off well transfer the cooked tomato-cashews into the blender. Then blend it to a smooth paste.

5) To make the brown onion paste, add brown onions into the blender along with a few tablespoons of water. Then blend it into a fine paste.

For the stuffed paneer:

1) Add grated paneer, coriander leaves, mint, cashews, raisins, crushed green chillies, and salt to taste. Mix everything well to form a stuffing.

2) Once the stuffing is ready, next, slice the paneer into triangles that are half inch in thickness.

3) Now, slice the triangular paneer slices into halves horizontally. Repeat this for all the paneer traingles.

4) Take one triangular slice and place the stuffing on it. Now top this with another paneer slice and gently press it in place so that they form a sandwich. Repeat the same for all the slices.

5) Now take the cornflour slurry and dip the sandwich into it. Then take a pan and shallow fry the paneer sandwiches into hot oil until golden. Once they are done, transfer them onto a kitchen towel and set aside.

For the Paneer Pasanda gravy:

1) Heat butter and oil together in a pan. While the butter and oil heat up, add cumin seeds, bay leaf and cinnamon sticks, fry for few seconds.

2) Once the cumin seeds start crackling, add grated ginger and fry for a few more seconds.

3) Add kasuri methi, turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder and cumin powder. Mix well and allow it to cook on low heat for another minute.

4) Sprinkle a tablespoon of water to avoid burning the spices.

5) Once the spices releases oil, add the brown onion paste prepared easrlier. Mix well and cook on high heat for a minute. Stir at intervals to avoid burning.

6) Then add, salt and mix.

7) Add the tomato cashew paste prepared earlier and mix.

8) Cover and cook for four to fice minutes or until the masala oozes out oil.

9) Add water to make the gravy of required consistency. Bring it to a boil and cook for another couple of minutes.

10) Finally, add garam masala powder, cream and sugar. Mix and cook for a minute.

11) Once the pasanda gravy is ready, gently add fried paneer sandwiches to it and coat them with the gravy.

12) Garnish with cream and coriander leaves. Paneer Pasanda is ready to be served and enjoyed.