Pesto Paneer Sliders
I recently saw a great movie called Chef and it just left me with an inspiration and burning desire to test my limits in the kitchen. After looking around the Internet, I am certain that this is my own creation, but if someone can find someone who has made this, please let me know so I am not stealing their ideas. It is essentiallly an Italian-Indian fusion dish. I made an appetizer version of it without bread last year for my birthday, but I am only getting around to revisit the recipe now. In the one year since then, I have grown in terms of culinary skills, so hopefully the end result will be executed with more finesse. This is an intricate recipe and requires time, so be prepared. Here's what you'll need:
*Makes 18 individual sliders
Pesto Sauce (used in marinade, but you can use store bought sauce if you prefer):
-2 packed cups of basil leaves
-1/4 cup pines nuts or slivered almonds*
-3 cloves of garlic chopped
-1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese
-1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
-Salt and black pepper to taste
Other ingredients:
-Three (3) 14 oz. blocks of paneer**
-18 pav bhaji rolls or slider rolls if you can't find pav bhaji rolls
-1 stick of butter
-2 medium sized onions cut into thin slices
-Panko bread crumbs poured into a large plate***
-8-10 sprigs of mint leaves, stems removed
-3 cloves of garlic
-half a lime's juice
-2 eggs
-3 tbsp. of milk
Spices:
-2 tsp. of turmeric
-2 tsp. of garam masala
-2 tsp. of red chilli powder
-2 tsp. of curry powder
-3 tsp. of cumin powder
-2 tsp. black pepper
Pesto preparation:
***If you will use store brought pesto, avoid the following steps***
-Make sure your basil leaves are thoroughly washed and then dried. On a chopping board, mince the basil leaves. Doesn't have to be finely minced since it will go in a blender.
-Place the basil leaves and nuts into a blender and use the pulse setting to break it down. You may need to put in a bit of olive oil (in addition to the 1/3 cup which will be used later)
-Roughly chop 3 cloves of garlic. Add to the mixture of basil and nuts and pulse again.
-Add finely grated Parmesan cheese, and pulse again.
-Add salt and pepper and stir with a spoon.
-If you will be saving pesto for later, you can freeze it in an air tight jar as is and add olive oil when using. Since we will be using it right away, add the olive oil now so it becomes a smooth, creamy texture.
Marinade preparation (must be done one night in advance):
-In a blender, add the mint leaves, remaining 3 cloves of garlic, freshly squeezed lime juice and the pesto.
-Add 1 tsp. of all the spices and save the rest for later.
-You will want the consistency of the marinade to be around the same as ketchup.
-Cut the paneer into 1 cm. thick blocks large enough to fit on your slider rolls. I'm using three blocks and this should yield 18 even sized blocks.
-Using a brush, coat the blocks of paneer with the marinade (mint sauce and pesto sauce preparation combined), making sure to cover all six sides. You can be liberal with the coating. I still had quite a bit of pesto sauce left over in the end which I will most likely spread on the bread.
-Place the coated paneer in a large tupperware box and cover it with a lid. Give it a good shake in case you missed any sides of the paneer when coating, but don't shake too vigorously to avoid the paneer crumbling. Let it marinade overnight or at least 8 hours before you want to cook it.
Paneer preparation:
-After the paneer has marinated, we can start dredging.***
-In a large bowl, make an egg wash.
-Preheat your oven at 300°F for 15 minutes. In the mean time, you can work on the following steps:
-Place the pan in the oven at 350°F and bake for 10 minutes or until the bread crumbs become golden brown.
Slider preparation:
-In a bowl, melt the butter until you get a semi-solid consistency. You don't want it melted to the point where it starts looking like cooking oil. If you still see lumps after melting it, just use the back of a spoon to mash it down until you have a paste like consistency.
-Add the remaining turmeric, garam masala, red chilli powder, curry powder, and cumin powder into the butter and mix well with a spoon.
-Split open the slider rolls. Using a pastry brush, coat a hot pan and put down the rolls face down. My pan was big enough to toast three rolls at a time.
-See instructions on caramelized onions here.
-Place the baked and coated paneer on the slider and then the caramelized onions.
-Add your favorite condiments if you desire. As I said earlier, I will be putting the remaining pesto on the rolls with a spreading knife.
For presentation:
-I picked up two really nice plates from Goodwill and some sword shaped toothpicks at Stop and Shop. You want to arrange nine sliders per plate in a 3x3 array and place the toothpicks down the middle. This makes it look really presentable and your guests will be amazed.
Notes:
*Pine nuts tend to be expensive and you get tiny quantities. I used almonds to save on costs.
**I'm using the Haldiram's brand since it will be easy to cut it into cubes that can fit on the slider rolls.
***We will be making a dredging station
****Since you will constantly be placing the wet paneer in the bread crumbs, the crumbs will get wet and hard to coat, so it's best to do the dredging in batches.
*Makes 18 individual sliders
Pesto Sauce (used in marinade, but you can use store bought sauce if you prefer):
-2 packed cups of basil leaves
-1/4 cup pines nuts or slivered almonds*
-3 cloves of garlic chopped
-1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese
-1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
-Salt and black pepper to taste
Other ingredients:
-Three (3) 14 oz. blocks of paneer**
-18 pav bhaji rolls or slider rolls if you can't find pav bhaji rolls
-1 stick of butter
-2 medium sized onions cut into thin slices
-Panko bread crumbs poured into a large plate***
-8-10 sprigs of mint leaves, stems removed
-3 cloves of garlic
-half a lime's juice
-2 eggs
-3 tbsp. of milk
Spices:
-2 tsp. of turmeric
-2 tsp. of garam masala
-2 tsp. of red chilli powder
-2 tsp. of curry powder
-3 tsp. of cumin powder
-2 tsp. black pepper
Pesto preparation:
***If you will use store brought pesto, avoid the following steps***
-Make sure your basil leaves are thoroughly washed and then dried. On a chopping board, mince the basil leaves. Doesn't have to be finely minced since it will go in a blender.
-Place the basil leaves and nuts into a blender and use the pulse setting to break it down. You may need to put in a bit of olive oil (in addition to the 1/3 cup which will be used later)
-Roughly chop 3 cloves of garlic. Add to the mixture of basil and nuts and pulse again.
-Add finely grated Parmesan cheese, and pulse again.
-Add salt and pepper and stir with a spoon.
-If you will be saving pesto for later, you can freeze it in an air tight jar as is and add olive oil when using. Since we will be using it right away, add the olive oil now so it becomes a smooth, creamy texture.
-In a blender, add the mint leaves, remaining 3 cloves of garlic, freshly squeezed lime juice and the pesto.
-Add 1 tsp. of all the spices and save the rest for later.
-You will want the consistency of the marinade to be around the same as ketchup.
-Cut the paneer into 1 cm. thick blocks large enough to fit on your slider rolls. I'm using three blocks and this should yield 18 even sized blocks.
-Using a brush, coat the blocks of paneer with the marinade (mint sauce and pesto sauce preparation combined), making sure to cover all six sides. You can be liberal with the coating. I still had quite a bit of pesto sauce left over in the end which I will most likely spread on the bread.
You want the paneer to be about this size to fit on the slider rolls.
Paneer preparation:
-After the paneer has marinated, we can start dredging.***
-In a large bowl, make an egg wash.
-Preheat your oven at 300°F for 15 minutes. In the mean time, you can work on the following steps:
-On a large plate right next to the egg wash, place out your Panko bread crumbs, and add black pepper and 1 tsp. cumin powder (save the third tsp. for later). Mix well.
-Take your blocks of marinated paneer and dip one in the egg wash. Then coat in the bread crumb mixture. Then dip it in the egg wash again and coat in bread crumbs again. This method allows for a really crispy outer layer and your bread crumbs won't slide off when baking. Do the same for the remaining blocks of paneer.
The dredging station. You want to line it in this order to make the process easier: paneer, egg wash, bread crumbs.****
-Place a thin coat of butter on a large baking pan (a lasagna pan would work well).
-Line up your pieces of paneer, leaving enough space between all the pieces.
-Place the pan in the oven at 350°F and bake for 10 minutes or until the bread crumbs become golden brown.
-In a bowl, melt the butter until you get a semi-solid consistency. You don't want it melted to the point where it starts looking like cooking oil. If you still see lumps after melting it, just use the back of a spoon to mash it down until you have a paste like consistency.
-Add the remaining turmeric, garam masala, red chilli powder, curry powder, and cumin powder into the butter and mix well with a spoon.
-Split open the slider rolls. Using a pastry brush, coat a hot pan and put down the rolls face down. My pan was big enough to toast three rolls at a time.
-See instructions on caramelized onions here.
-Place the baked and coated paneer on the slider and then the caramelized onions.
-Add your favorite condiments if you desire. As I said earlier, I will be putting the remaining pesto on the rolls with a spreading knife.
~I was originally planning to do a mushroom pâté as another topping, but didn't get a chance to make it. Perhaps in a future blog post I'll attempt to make it.~
For presentation:
-I picked up two really nice plates from Goodwill and some sword shaped toothpicks at Stop and Shop. You want to arrange nine sliders per plate in a 3x3 array and place the toothpicks down the middle. This makes it look really presentable and your guests will be amazed.
Unfortunately, I forgot to take a lot of pictures and didn't document this well, but this is what the end product came out like.
Enjoy! :)
*Pine nuts tend to be expensive and you get tiny quantities. I used almonds to save on costs.
**I'm using the Haldiram's brand since it will be easy to cut it into cubes that can fit on the slider rolls.
***We will be making a dredging station
****Since you will constantly be placing the wet paneer in the bread crumbs, the crumbs will get wet and hard to coat, so it's best to do the dredging in batches.
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