Paneer con Tomate

choi

(1) Tejal Rao, Endless Summer Tomatoes: In paneer con tomate, bright and juicy acidity finds a perfect partner with bites of fried cheese. New York Times Magazine, Aug 1, 2021.

Note:
(a)
(i) online: "Pan con tomate, the Spanish dish of grated tomato on grilled or toasted bread, is summery and extremely satisfying. Grating a tomato somehow emphasizes everything delicious about it, heightening sweetness and acidity. Paneer con tomate is built on the same principle, but swaps the bread for pieces of crisp-edged, lightly fried cheese. Here, the tomato pulp is seasoned not with olive oil, but with a glug of coconut oil infused with mustard seeds and curry leaves.
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1022434-paneer-con-tomate
(ii) However, in print, everything is different in the column "Eat" (which is by a different writer every Sunday). Partial text from the print, that constitutes about half of the text, is reproduced at the bottom (italics original).

(b)
(i) The Hindu name Rao is "from Sanskrit raja king."
(ii) Spanish-English dictionary:
* tomate (noun masculine): "tomato"  (French noun FEMININE spells the same because it and the English noun tomato both are borrowed from Spanish tomate, which in turn came from n indigenous word.)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tomate
(iii) paneer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paneer
(accent on the second syllable; "made from cow or buffalo milk. It is a non-aged, non-melting soft cheese"/ section 1 Etymology; section 2 History)
(c) "Paneer is a fresh cheese, often curdled with lemon juice or vinegar, rather than rennet, and pressed into a block. It doesn't get melty or stringy when it's hot, so much as suck up what’s around it – perfect for under a sauce."
(i) so much as (phrase): "[with negative]  even  <he sat down without so much as a word to anyone>" (brackets original).
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/so_much_as
(ii) so much as (adverb): "even  <[He] scowls if I so much as look at him>"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/so%20much%20as
(d) Curry the SPICE (composed of ground turmeric, cumin, coriander, ginger, and fresh or dried chilies) is different from

curry tree
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curry_tree  
("Its leaves, known as curry leaves, are used in many dishes in the Indian subcontinent. * * * The tree is native to the Indian subcontinent")
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(2) The Pleasure of Perfectly Fried Cheese. Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, undated
https://www.wisconsincheese.com/about-cheese/fried-cheese

Quote:

"it takes a special kind of cheese to hold its shape in the heat of a frying pan or grill – only cheeses with a high melting point can make the grade. Whether it's halloumi, paneer, mozzarella, or fresh cheese curds, a fried cheese – slightly crispy on the outside, slightly gooey on the inside – is one of the great pleasures of the cheese life.  Here in Wisconsin, we love to prepare cheese in as many ways as possible, so you'll definitely find fried cheese on the proverbial menu. We're particularly fond of fried cheese curds * * *

"While fried cheese may seem like an easy thing to make, it actually takes some pretty solid cooking chops to make a perfectly fried cheese dish. Here are a few tips to keep in mind. * * * • Pick the right oil. Oil for deep frying should have a high smoking point, so the oil won't break down and start to smoke as you heat it. Peanut, canola, or vegetable oil are excellent choices, while oils with low smoking points like butter and olive oil should be reserved for pan frying or sautéing. * * * • Keep an even temperature. For best results with fried cheese, heat your oil to 375°F")

(3)
(a) All You Need to Know About Oil Smoke Point. Michelin guide, undated
https://guide.michelin.com/us/en ... king-quality-safety

Quote:

"Smoke point (sometimes called flash point) is the temperature at which an oil begins to smoke and oxidize (break down into free fatty acids [from triglyceride, ester of fatty acid + glycerol]). When an oil starts to smoke it will impart a burnt, bitter flavor thanks to a substance released called acrolein.

"For example, oils with a high smoke point, such as avocado, sunflower and light/refined olive oil, are good for searing, browning or deep-frying. Oils with a medium-high smoke point, like canola, grapeseed, olive oil or peanut, are well suited for baking or stir-frying. Medium smoke point oils like corn, sesame, soy beans and virgin coconut are good for sauces and light sautéing. "No-heat" oils like walnut and flaxseed are best for making dips and marinades.

Note:
(i) acrolein
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrolein
("is the simplest unsaturated aldehyde * * * colorless * * * The name is a contraction of ‘acrid’ (referring to its pungent smell) and 'oleum' [Latin noun neuter for 'olive oil'] (referring to its oil-like consistency)")
(ii) acrolein
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/acrolein
(pronunciation)

(b) Leslie Beck, What Is 'Smoke Point' and Does It Matter When Cooking with Oil?  Toronto: Globe and Mail, Sept 28, 2015 (updated Aug 12, 2021).
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/ ... oil/article26569060
("The more refined an oil, the higher its smoke point, because refining removes impurities and free fatty acids that can cause the oil to smoke. Refined oils typically have a neutral taste and odour and a clear appearance. * * * the fact that oils break down gradually, rather than at one specific temperature")

My comment: There is no need to read the rest of this report.


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* * *
But if I can resist, then that mix of seasoned, grated tomatoes, on a piece of nicely browned bread rubbed with a raw garlic clove, is a deservedly famous snack in Spain – pan con tomate [one of whose ingredients is grated tomatoes]. It's the best thing to eat when it's hot, and not just as a snack. I've found that it's also a meal, if I simply make enough of it. I let the extra oil and vinegar drip off a few fat pickled white anchovies, if I have them, and lay those on top too.

The pulp can be out to work every day in a different way. A grated tomato with ripped-up basil leaves can be its own basic raw sauce. Season it with the same ingredients, just a little more aggressively, and it's a salad dressing, maybe for more tomatoes, chopped this time, with cold Persian cucumbers and torn bread. Last summer, on one of my usual grated tomato kicks, I poured it over pieces of fried paneer and felt like some kind of genius. I've rolled my eyes at wordplay on menus for years – the useless quotation marks, the jokey language – but despite that, I can't help myself: I have to call it paneer con tomate.

Paneer is a fresh cheese, often curdled with lemon juice or vinegar, rather than rennet, and pressed into a block. It doesn't get melty or stringy when it's hot, so much as suck up what's around it – perfect for under a sauce. The first time I made paneer with tomato, the cheese wasn't homemade. I was working with a block of plastic-wrapped paneer from my local Indian grocery store, and it had been pressed hard so it was almost squeaky, smooth to cut, dry to the touch. This might not sound ideal, but it meant that it fried beautifully, getting crisp and brown all over while staying tender and bouncy inside. I poured over the grated tomato, and seasoned it with some popped mustard seeds and curry leaves bloomed in coconut oil, still sizzling hot, and put it on the table outside, on a very sweaty afternoon, for people to pick at. It disappeared within a minute or two, though no one asked for an explanation, which means I didn't get to share its clever name [paneer con tomate], though it's probably better that way.

I don’t make paneer from scratch [from milk] very often, but when I do, it tends to have small, soft, loose little curds, not as good for frying. * * *