Paneer Tikka Pizza

 

Paneer Tikka Pizza is the most delectable fusion of two most popular dishes in the world – Indian Paneer Tikka Masala and Italian Pizza. If you are a fan of spicy food and cheese, you will definitely love this pizza.

For this Pizza, curry base (gravy) of paneer tikka masala serves as the pizza sauce. The grilled marinated paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese), different types of bell peppers, and onions serve as toppings. Further you can add your choice of cheese on this pizza. Mozzarella, cheddar cheese, the combination of both mozzarella & cheddar, Indian Amul cheese, or any cheese of your liking. For pizza base, one can use Indian naan, Pita bread, regular pizza bread, or any regular bread.

 

What is necessary to make Paneer Tikka Pizza?

You can make this pizza with your left over home made or restaurant bought, Indian cottage cheese curry – Paneer Tikka Masala, Paneer Tikka, or any Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese) curry. If you do not have left over curry, making this curry from scratch is perfectly worth it to make this pizza. Once pizza is ready, you can drizzle a bit of mint cilantro chutney and yogurt dip on top of pizza, and it will taste heavenly. Yogurt dip is basically the yogurt marinade used to marinate the paneer chunks and other vegetables before grilling. If you do not have yogurt dip left, it can be made quickly by mixing yogurt with turmeric, salt, chili powder, garam masala, and ginger garlic paste. Besides, pizza will taste good without these dips too. In case of Indian Cottage Cheese (Paneer), you can either use home made or store bought cottage cheese (paneer). Red, yellow, orange, and green bell peppers along with onions go really well with cottage cheese (paneer) as the toppings for this pizza.

 

How to make Paneer at home?

• Bring the milk to boil.
• Let it cool a bit say for 5 minutes.
• Add lemon juice of about two lemons / limes per half gallon of milk.
• Let the milk curdle completely.
• Once the milk turns acidic, the milk protein coagulates and forms clumps called curds. These curds will get separated from the watery portion of the milk.
• Take a big deep vessel.

• Cover it with white cheese cloth or clean white cotton cloth.
• Transfer the curdled milk to the cloth and strain the milk curds and separate them from the watery part of the curdled milk.
• All milk curds will be separated and be there on the cheese cloth or white cotton cloth. Rest of the watery portion will be collected in the deep vessel underneath the cloth.
• With a spoon bring all the milk curds to the center of the cloth.

• Bring all the ends of the cloth in the middle and tie it really tight.
• Now hang this cheese / paneer in the cloth for about 2 hours.

• If your cheese has not solidified enough put a heavy weight on the tied cloth for another few hours.
• Put this setting in the refrigerator over night.
• Hard and Solid cottage cheese / Paneer is ready.

 

To make paneer tikka pizza toppings you need following ingredients –

• 400 grams Cottage Cheese / Paneer Chunks
• 3 – 4 cups of plain yogurt (curd)
• ½ green bell pepper (capsicum) chopped into big squares.
• ½ red bell pepper (capsicum) chopped into big squares.
• ½ yellow bell pepper (capsicum) chopped into big squares.
• ½ orange bell pepper (capsicum) chopped into big squares.
• ½ red Onion chopped into big squares.
• ½ tablespoon of grated ginger (ginger paste)
• ½ tablespoon of grated garlic (garlic paste)
• Salt to taste
• Red chili powder according to your taste
• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin coriander powder
• 2 – 3 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 teaspoon kasoori methi
• 1 teaspoon chaat masala (optional)
• 2 tablespoon roasted gram flour (optional)
• Cooking oil of your choice.

 

To make paneer tikka pizza sauce you need following ingredients –

• 4 – 6 chopped tomatoes (depends on the size of tomatoes) or 2 – 3 cups of tomato puree or 1 cup of tomato paste (I would recommend using fresh tomatoes for the authentic taste).
• 1 big onion chopped or 2 small, chopped onions.
• 1 ½ tablespoon of grated ginger (or ginger paste)
• 1 ½ tablespoon of grated garlic (or garlic paste)
• 2 tablespoon of melon seed or cashews (if you have nut allergies skip cashews and use melon seeds) – This step is optional. Curry tastes amazing without these ingredients.
• Salt to taste
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric
• 1 teaspoon of sugar (optional) or honey
• Red Chili Powder according to your taste (I have used Kashmiri red chili powder to give nice red color to the curry. Kashmiri red chili powder is bright red in color, very flavorful, and less spicy).
• 1 tablespoon of more according to your taste – Punjabi garam masala or garam masala.
• 2 tablespoons of cream (optional)
• 1 tablespoon of kasoori methi
• Cilantro or Coriander leaves for garnishing
• 2 – 3 tablespoons of Cooking Oil or Ghee (clarified butter) – your choice
• 2 teaspoon of cumin seeds
• 2 – 3 bay leaves
• 2- 3 small cinnamon sticks
• 2-3 cardamoms

 

For the paneer tikka pizza crust –

You can use Pita bread, Indian Naan, Any kind of pizza crust of your choice, or even regular bread.

 

How to make Paneer Tikka Pizza Toppings?

To make Paneer Tikka Pizza Topping you have to follow the recipe of paneer tikka and make it accordingly. To know the recipe click the link below.

Paneer Tikka 

Or

Simply marinate paneer (Indian cottage cheese) and vegetables in salt, punjabi garam masala or garam masala, turmeric, chili powder, and 1 tablespoon of cooking oil for 20 minutes. Then grill it in the oven or in the pan on stove until paneer (Indian cottage cheese) turns golden brown. Toppings are ready for pizza.

 

How to make Paneer Tikka Pizza Sauce?

• Take a deep pan.
• Put 1 ½ tablespoons of ghee or cooking oil and heat it up.
• Add 1 teaspoon cumin, 2 cinnamon sticks, 2-3 cardamoms and 2 bay leaves and let them sizzle.
• Now add chopped onions and sauté them well until the onions are transparent or light golden in color.
• Then add chopped tomato / tomato puree / tomato paste. Stir everything well.  

• Add cashews / or melon seeds – (This step is optional – you can skip adding nuts or seeds).
• Add grated garlic and ginger or ginger garlic paste.

• Now add turmeric, red chili powder, Punjabi garam masala (or garam masala), salt, and sugar (optional).
• Stir everything well and let the spices mix well.
• Sauté everything for 2-3 minutes on medium flame until you smell amazing aroma of spices.
• Let everything slow cook on low medium flame.
• Cover the pan with the lid and keep stirring in between until everything is mushy and soft.

• Turn off the gas once the base is ready. Let this mixture cool down for about 5 – 10 minutes.
• Transfer everything to the blender jar or you can use the hand blender too.
• Add ½ or ¾ cup of water (cold water to cut down the cooling time) to the blender jar.

• Put the lid on the jar. Crush and blend the mixture to puree the contents properly until puree is smooth and blended well.
• Take the deep pan and add about 1 tablespoon of ghee (clarified butter) or cooking oil to the pan.
• Let it heat up and add 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds and 2 bay leaves.
• Let it sizzle.
• Add the blended puree to the pan.

• Add red chili powder to the puree if you need to adjust the taste and color of the gravy.
• Put the lid on the pan and let the puree cook until it thickens and until gravy starts separating from the oil / ghee. Cook this on medium low flame.
• Keep stirring in between.

• Add about 2 table spoon of heavy milk cream on top of it and stir it well (cream is optional).
• Sprinkle little bit of garam masala on the top of the gravy.

• Sprinkle little bit (about a pinch or 2) kasoori methi on the top of the gravy.
• Thick, rich, and flavorful gravy / curry base is ready for paneer tikka masala. Use this as paneer tikka pizza sauce.

 

How to make Paneer Tikka Pizza?

• Take a flat pan and switch on your stove on medium flame.

• Warm up pizza bread (I have used pita bread) on both sides on medium / low flame.

• Apply the paneer tikka pizza sauce or gravy to the pizza bread / crust. Keep the stove on low flame.

• Put the toppings – marinated and grilled paneer (Indian cottage cheese chunks) and other vegetables (bell peppers and onions) on it.

• Put the cheese of your choice on the toppings and grill the pizza in your oven at 300 F (around 150 C) for 5 – 10 minutes. Or put a lead on the pan and let the crust get crisp and cheese melt.

• Once the pizza crust base has turned golden brown and cheese has melted, Paneer Tikka Pizza is ready to eat / serve.

• If you want you can add / drizzle mint cilantro chutney and yogurt dip on the pizza to further enhance the flavors.

 

How to make yogurt dip?

Add salt, turmeric, chili powder, chaat masala, garam masala, cumin-coriander powder (optional), kasoori methi, ginger paste, and garlic paste to the yogurt and mix it well. Yogurt dip is ready.

 

Click the link below to know how to make Cilantro Mint Chutney / Dip

Cilantro Mint Chutney – Dip / Coriander Mint Chutney – Dip / Fudina Chutney

 

Click the link below to know how to make Garam masala at home

Garam Masala Recipe link

 

Click the link below to know how to make Tandoori Paneer Tikka – appetizer

Paneer Tikka

 

Click the link below to know how to make Paneer Tikka Masala – curry

Paneer Tikka Masala 

 

Tips

• You can add black olives, corn, and jalapeno along with cottage cheese (paneer) on this pizza.
• Make this pizza by using regular white bread or whole grain or multi grain bread and it will taste amazing.
• All the spices like garam masala, chaat masala, kasoori methi, and cumin coriander powder are easily available in any near by Indian store or ethnic store. In case you don’t have Indian stores near by make garam masala on your own from the link above and skip the other spices. Pizza will taste equally delicious.
• You can sprinkle chaat masala, crushed oregano, and red chili flakes on the top of the pizza.

 

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