Recipe for a marinated paneer toast using native Australian ingredients
I have been a die hard fan of Masterchef Australia ever since it started airing in India. Every season, they have at least one episode in which they showcase their native ingredients like quandong, wattle seed, saltbush, salsify etc. The contestants play around with these ingredients to come up with modern dishes.
Recently, I had the opportunity to try out some native Australian ingredients thanks to a box of these spices, herbs and powders sent by Tourism Australia. We attended a fun Zoom session in February, hosted by Tourism Australia. This included a demo by Masterchef Australia winner Sashi Cheliah, using these ingredients in creative dishes. Many of these ingredients are chock full of nutrients and are superfoods in their own right.
It is always challenging to create a dish using ingredients that you have never used before. Thanks to the masterclass and the recipe booklet, I did get some ideas on how to use some of these herbs and spices.
Whenever using a new spice or herb, it is good to use it on a fairly blank canvas like potatoes, paneer or tofu, so you get to taste the flavour in the dish. Also, do not combine too many new ingredients together as it is tough to say what will or will not work together.
Keeping these points in mind, I came up with this marinated paneer toast. I am happy to report that the nutty flavour of wattle seed and the pungent mildly spicy mountain pepper berries did really work together well.
In this marinated paneer toast, I kept the rest of the ingredients fairly simple so that these two flavours could shine through. Here is the recipe for marinated paneer toast.
If you do not have access to these native Australian spices so use your favourite combination of spices like black pepper, chaat masala, black salt and kasoori methi to marinate the paneer and try out this recipe.
Ingredients
Method
- Cut the paneer into long strips.
- Combine all the ingredients for the marinade [olive oil, ginger garlic paste, yogurt, wattle seed powder, crushed mountain pepper berries, salt] in a bowl.
- Marinate the strips of paneer in the prepared paste for 10-15 minutes.
- In 1-2 tsp oil, pan fried the marinated paneer pieces until golden on both sides.
- Take a thick slice of sourdough bread. Spread some green chutney, top with tomato slices, marinated pan fried paneer, rocket leaves and dots of kashundi.
- Sprinkle some cinnamon myrtle and finger lime powder for a final burst of fresh flavours.
Some more toast ideas
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