Cheese /Paneer stuffed grilled tomatoes

Colourful and delicious, easy to make

Paneer stuffed, grilled tomatoes

Tomatoes, bright, red , firm yet juicy, pulpy. That is what most homes across the country invariably stock, along with potatoes and onions. The vegetable that is really a fruit, is very versatile generally, and  a must-ingredient in thousands of dishes.

As a child, I recall eating it quartered, with a sprinkling of salt and pepper, garnished with finely chopped green coriander, and chilled for a while.

Even now raw tomato is part of many salads. Lovely..

But  I find myself grilling tomatoes, in many ways.

Last weekend, I stuffed the tomatoes with cottage cheese—paneer—and grilled them. The result was a visual treat, as well as mouth watering ! Like many dishes in this blog, it is easy and quick to make, and one has only to walk up to the fridge for the ingredients required for it.

Simple ingredients

Ingredients:

Firm,red tomatoes-2 or 3, depending on how many people you want to serve

Cottage cheese-2 teaspoons per tomato

Finely chopped onion- One tablespoon full

Finely chopped, deseeded green chillies-one teaspoon level

Salt-to taste

If  you don’t have cottage cheese

Worry not.

Boil one cup of milk, add a ladel full of yoghurt, stir for a few minutes/till the milk splits, and the cottage cheese separates from the whey. Strain, and you have the cottage cheese you need for two tomatoes.

METHOD

Crumble the cottage cheese in one large bowl. Add the chopped onions,green chillies and salt. Keep aside

Wash and pat dry two tomatoes. Cut them into halves, and scoop out the juice/pulp, and use it for some other dish.

Fill the tomato halves with the cottage cheese mixture, and grill (I used my gas top tandoor, the traditional aluminum one available everywhere in India. But an electric grill will do just as well)  till the crust of the cheese turns slightly golden, and you have grill marks on the tomatos, which will have become somewhat soft by now.

Garnish with chopped coriander(optional), and serve.

(I did not have coriander, so I skipped it. But I had excess of cottage cheese mixture, so I stuffed two halves of boiled potatoes, and grilled them as well!)

Paneer & Grilled Vegetable Platter

Cottage Cheese, Capsicum,Tomato and Onions, from the Gas Tandoor.

Paneer,Capsicum,Onions and Tomatoes, grilled in a gas top   tandoor

The best way to eat vegetables, I’m told, is to grill them very simply, add a dash of lime juice and whatever else you like, and enjoy them. This line of thinking  has gained currency more of late, as people fear that salads--- which enjoyed the distinction of being the best way to eat many vegetables,till recently--- have become suspect. Thanks to pesticides, dirty water etc etc, that make the health conscious want to distance themselves from raw vegetables.

I love raw vegetables and eat them unmindful of what the Doubting Thomases say. Not that I doubt the wisdom of their view. It is just that I feel it is important to keep one’s immunity in good form , instead of becoming a delicate darling who can’t eat raw vegetables or drink regular water, from a home filter.

Marinated paneer, veggies on the screwer

The smokey aroma of  chicken being roasted in the tandoor, has always kindled my appetite, made me crave. Unfortunately, one doesn’t get to take in the aroma of vegetables being grilled likewise.The good and popular  streetside places for tandoori food rarely do vegetable platters.

But grilling /barbecuing vegetables  is simple. Much of the total  time taken goes towards the cutting of vegetables and  the marinading . Once those are done, and your  BBQ or gas tandoor(like the one I have) or oven is hot, it hardly takes a few minutes.

All the great looking, colourful  vegetables—yellow and red bell peppers, green capsicum, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, cauliflower,tomatoes, onions-- are great on the tandoori platter. Cottage cheese and mushroom add that extra body, oomph and taste to it.

 I’ve had cubes of pineapple also , cooked with these. The simple rule is—don’t fret over what you don’t have. Use whatever vegetables you can find in your fridge.

This is how I made the BBQ vegetables you see in this post:

Ingredients:

For the marinade:

Vegetable oil-1 teaspoon

Yoghurt-Half a cup

Garlic-5 pods

Ginger- one inch piece

Pepper—Half a teaspoon

(you can also use 2 tsps ofginger-garlic instead of 

ginger and garlic)

For the platter:

Paneer-200 grams

Capsicum- 1 bit one

Onion-1 big one

Tomato-1 big one

For the side:

Green chutney

Tomato ketchup

Method:  

Cut the cottage cheese into big cubes. Cut the capsicum into four pieces vertically, and halve them. Cut the onion into half, and separate a few parts.  Cut the tomato into halves.

Mix all the marinade ingredients  in a blender, for two minutes. Pour it over the cut vegetables, and gently toss to ensure all the pieces get a coat of the marinade.Leave it  covered in the fridge, for at least half an hour. A couple of hours is great.

The Gas top tandoor

Fire up your oven/tandoor/BBQ, string the vegetables in the screwer and place them in its  hot, hot,  womb   . Turn the sides of  the vegetables after  about three minutes, and drizzle a touch of  vegetable oil every time. 

Enjoy the sight of the flames licking the paneer , leaving a golden telltale mark in the edges. See it char, a wee bit, the capsicum, and defeat the tomatos into squishy, somewhat limp form. 

Take them off the fire, after you  have enjoyed the smokey, tandoori armoma whafting in the air, for eight to ten minutes.

Carefully, take them off on a plate. Sprinkle salt, and  some “chaat masala” if you like. Serve with green chutney and tomato ketchup on the side.

Some crunchy raw greens will be great…but the purpose of this BBQ is to eat vegetables—grilled, not raw!