Daab paneer recipe | Bengali daab paneer | paneer in tender coconut shell

Daab paneer recipe | Bengali daab paneer | paneer in tender coconut shell with step wise pictorial and video recipe.

WHAT IS DAAB PANEER

In certain states and territories, tender coconut is called with a name “Daab” & Paneer is “Cottage Cheese”.

So paneer cooked in tender coconut is called Daab Paneer.

BENGALI DAAB PANEER

There’s a famous non-veg recipe named “Daab Chingaari” from Bengal. It is a prawns recipe made in coconut shell.

Present recipe is the vegetarian version of Daab Chingari substituting prawns with Paneer.

So it is suitable to title Daab Paneer as Bengali Daab Paneer.

DIFFERENT COOKING METHODS

CHOICE OF INGREDIENTS

Less or more, spices are added in this recipe as per choice and taste.

Few add tomatoes, onion and garlic too, but we didn’t. And this omission makes it no onion no garlic paneer recipe.

Likewise you can make a choice amongst other ingredients except few mandatory one. But never miss the mustard seeds. It releases a different taste and aroma to paneer.

RAW v/s ROASTED INGREDIENTS

Here too, there are 2 sets of cooking method.

Few people just grind raw ingredients and marinate paneer in it. Thereafter cook in coconut shell.

But some people roast ingredients first, like we did, and thereafter cook.

Choice is yours.

WAYS TO COOK

Daab paneer is cooked in 3 different ways :

1. Baking
2. Stove top
3. Steaming

Present recipe narrates about cooking Daab paneer through baking and stove top method.

So we will speak about Steaming method only.

To steam the paneer, just take a vessel, put some water in it and place coconut shell in it. Fill the water only till the 1/4 coconut is dropped and not the entire shell.

Cover the vessel with lid and put on heat. And daab paneer will be ready.

IMPORTANT TIPS TO FOLLOW

Buy a tender coconut with good amount of meat/malai.
There’s no exact measurement of coconut meat you will get from shell. But you must have about 3/4th to 1 cup of coconut malai.
In case you lack coconut meat, you can add additional coconut which is soft and juicy.
Desiccated coconut can not replace coconut meat being dry and free from moisture. However you can add for flavour and grainy texture as per your choice only, though not recommended.
Make sure coconut should be in a position to stand on its own. Otherwise level its base to make it worth standing.
Prefer to use mustard oil as it gives a nice and strong flavour to paneer.
Let oil cool down first, otherwise spices will burn easily.
As earlier said, skip anything but not mustard seeds. They makes this recipe different.
While roasting spices/masala, off the heat wherever necessary, to prevent masala from burning.

HOW TO SERVE

Usually daab paneer is served with rice but we preferred to cherish it with ghee roti.

If you want to eat it with rice and feels the gravy is bit thick, add little more coconut water to adjust gravy.

Also see other recipes with tender coconut like :

This blog has a series of paneer recipes which are made differently. To have a look at them, click here.

Video Recipe of Daab paneer

To know and understand the recipe in a more better way, here is the video method of Daab Paneer. For more easy and interesting recipes, please do visit our YouTube Channel and do subscribe it and also hit the bell icon. It’s free. Gratitude for subscribing.

Step wise pictorial recipe

Take a green coconut and cut its head in such a way that you can easily handle it internally.
Take out the coconut water from it.
With the help of spoon or some scrapper, scrape out the coconut meat/malai from inside the tender coconut. Keep aside.
Take mustard oil in a pan and let oil smoke first.
Off the heat and let oil cool down a bit.
Add bay leaf, yellow mustard, ginger, cumin seeds, cardamoms, cinnamon, cashews, melon seeds, poppy seeds and coriander seeds. Roast them on low flame for a minutes or two.
Add red chilli powder, turmeric, garam masala and salt. Saute.
Off the heat and let the mixture cool completely.
Add mixture to grinder.
Also add tender coconut meat earlier scrapped from coconut. Quantity may vary coconut to coconut. In our case, it was about one cup.
Add roughly about 3 to 4 tablespoons of coconut water also, collected from green coconut.
If you feel mixture is not becoming a fine paste, you can add more coconut water spoon by spoon. The measurement of coconut water is not strict and depends on the need to make a smooth paste.
Once a smooth paste is ready, take it out in a bowl.
Cut paneer into cubes of desired size.
Add paneer cubes to the paste. Mix gently.
Now take the coconut shell and fill with masala coated paneer.
Wrap the head of shell with aluminium foil in such a way that stream shouldn’t come out while cooking.
METHOD 1 : BAKING : Put the coconut in a preheated oven in a standing position.
Bake @180℃ for 45 minutes.
OR you can adopt METHOD 2 : GAS STOVE
Place a roaster on gas stove and put coconut shell on it.
Let it cook for 45 minutes on medium to high flame.
Once the said time is over, remove coconut shell from gas stove. It will be extremely hot so handle very careful.
Daab paneer is ready. Bring it out from the coconut shell.

Enjoy

NOTES

Coconut water can be substituted with coconut milk.

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