• Dice paneer to ¾ inch pieces and add them to a mixing bowl. Add all the ingredients mentioned for marinade – ginger garlic paste, cumin powder, coriander powder, garam masala, red chilli powder, turmeric, chopped curry leaves and salt.
• Toss the paneer with all the ingredients we just added so the spices coat all the paneer well. Sprinkle lemon juice or vinegar and 2 to 3 tablespoons of water. Toss again and set aside as long as you like. (up to 48 hours in the fridge.)

Temper

• Tempering paneer 65 is optional but this makes a lot of difference to the dish. If you want to skip you may skip this section and head over to frying paneer section directly.
• Prepare the red chilli paste by mixing the red chilli powder, garlic paste, sugar, salt, vinegar (or yogurt) and water in a small bowl. Keep this aside.
• Pour 1 ½ tablespoons oil to a wok and heat it. Add the chopped garlic, green chilies and curry leaves. Fry until the garlic begins to smell good.
• Lower the flame. Stir and pour the sauce we made. Cook this on a medium heat until oil separates from the thick sauce. At this stage the sauce should be essentially thick to keep your final paneer 65 crisp and not runny. (check stepwise pictures in the post) Turn off the heat.

How to make Paneer 65

• Add flour and salt to a small bowl and pour water. Mix together to make a thick batter, it should be of neither too thick nor runny. If you dip a spoon into the batter, it should coat the back of the spoon. (Check stepwise pictures in the post) To make the air fryer version, it needs to be more on the thicker side as this prevents the batter from dripping.
• Pour this batter over the marinated paneer and give a gentle mix. If you feel the batter is too thick and does not spread, add a splash of water. It may need a few tablespoons at this stage.
• Heat oil in a deep pot or pan for frying. If you want you may shallow fry in 3 tablespoons of oil. Test if the oil is hot enough by dropping a small portion of batter to the hot oil, it should sizzle and come up without turning brown.
• Regulate the flame to medium. Gently pick up each pieces of paneer, making sure it is well coated with the batter, gently drop it to hot oil. Make sure you put them away from each other so they don’t stick.
• Do not crowd the pan by adding a lot of pieces. Do not disturb for 3 minutes, meaning do not stir.
• Later gently turn them to the other side and fry until crisp and golden. Remove to a wired rack or steel colander.
• Fry the paneer in batches until all of them are done. Turn off the heat and place the curry leaves (pat dry first) in the frying skimmer and gently down to the hot oil. They will fry and become crisp, remove to the plate.
• Repeat frying by placing the slit and deseeded green chilies (pat dry first) in the skimmer and lower them to the hot oil. Fry them until blistered.
• If you don’t want to temper, you may serve the paneer 65 fry as is. If you have made the spicy tempering, add your paneer 65 to it and toss until well coated. Serve it immediately.
• Garnish paneer 65 with fried green chilies and curry leaves, Squeeze some lemon juice and serve alongside fresh cut onions.

To Air Fry

• Keep the tempering ready first.
• Preheat your air fryer for 10 mins at 400 F or 200 C. Spray oil and begin to place each piece of paneer in the basket/tray, spacing them apart. For the air fry version, I have felt keeping the pieces slightly bigger and the batter a bit thicker works well.
• Air fry for 6 to 7 mins. Turn them to the other side and continue to air fry for another 3 mins , until crisp and cooked through. Adjust the air frying time depending on the size of your fryer. Smaller fryer requires a bit lesser temperature and lesser cook time.
• Toss the paneer 65 in the tempering and serve immediately.