Episode 4: Shahi Paneer with Bobby Friction
Just like food, music migrates with us, and evolves as we do. In this episode, we’re talking food, music, race, belonging, and more with British Asian DJ Bobby Friction, who helped pioneer a sound in the UK in the 1990s that was like nothing before.
British Asian music took traditional South Asian folk music and layered guitars and drums and synths and rap vocals - it was the bedrock of a new hybrid culture that mixed the South Asian influences of our homes with the dominant white British culture all around us. I was starting my BBC career just as this exciting cultural wave of music, food, art, and media was exploding.
“When we got a bit of spotlight on us,” remembers Bobby, “it felt like a revolution.”
This all happened against the backdrop of a country that had not always welcomed young British Asians - in the show Bobby remembers how he used to hate South Asian food because he felt a hatred of his own culture as a result of racial abuse he suffered as a child.
While he thinks racism still troubles the UK, Bobby has found his own flavor as a British Asian - including visiting his mum three times a week for her beloved home cooking. In the show we even hear his mother cooking his favorite dish - shahi paneer - thick chunks of Indian cheese nestled in a rich and spicy cream sauce.
“It’s a very rich cuisine,” says Bobby, “that’s survived migration, survived Partition, and now gets cooked at least once a week because if it wasn’t I’d go mad!”
The recipe is below.
Food is an expression of our shared humanity, and everyone has a food story to tell. What’s yours? Get in touch at rajesh@findingourflavor.com. And if you try out any of these recipes, email and let us know how they turned out - if you send us a voice note, we might use it in a future episode!
Episode 4 Recipes
Bobby Friction’s Mum’s Shahi Paneer
Ingredients
1 lb/ 500g paneer, cut into cubes and soaked in water
1 14oz/400g can peeled plum tomatoes, pureed in a blender
1 small onion, chopped roughly then pureed to a paste in a blender
2 tbsp vegetable oil
10 fl oz/300ml single cream (in the US this is called table cream)
2 tbsp ginger garlic paste (available in South Asian grocery stores; otherwise mince equal amounts of ginger and garlic to make up 2 tbsp).
20 cashew nuts soaked in about ½ - ¾ cup of hot water
2 tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder
2 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp fenugreek leaves, dried & crushed
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
Method
Leave the cashews and paneer to soak in separate bowls of boiling water for 30 minutes each.
While they are soaking, heat the oil on medium. Once hot, add cumin seeds, and warm to release their fragrance.
Add the pureed onion and fry till a light brown.
Add the garlic/ginger paste and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring all the time.
Add the pureed tomatoes, mix and leave to cook until the oil separates.
While it’s cooking, add coriander, chili, and salt, and stir to mix.
Once you see the oil starting to separate, reduce the heat to low/medium, drain the paneer and add to the pot. Now turn up the heat nearer to high, and stir to mix.
Puree the cashews in their soaking water to form a thin paste, and then add this to the pot with the paneer.
Stir to mix and let cook for about 10 minutes. Now add the tomato ketchup, mix everything together, and then take the pan off the heat.
Add ¾ of the cream, and crush the dried fenugreek leaves crushed into the pot.
Put the pot back on the heat and allow to cook for a couple of minutes.
Turn off the heat, and add the last of the cream as a garnish before serving.