The inspiration for this recipe came from the menu in a Tex-Mex restaurant in Yerevan, Armenia. The original dish was called chicken and pineapple in tomato sauce, but I knew it would work with paneer, as I had already tried a paneer, pineapple and tomato recipe a few years earlier which turned out very well. We did think it odd that such a dish was on a Tex-Mex menu, but the idea sounded interesting and I made a note on a napkin so I wouldn't forget.
At home, we had plenty of milk in the fridge and even a lemon, so the day after we had spotted that rather peculiar entry in the menu, Sveta made the paneer and I used it to make this dish. It was, as we had expected, quite delicious, although it was probably even less of a Tex-Mex dish than the original had been. There were a lot of dishes on that menu which seemed a little out of place given the Latin American music, cactus-shaped salt cellars and Aztec designs on the wall. The frozen margaritas, however, were very fitting.
Ingredients
150-200g of paneer, cut into 2-3cm cubes
150-200g pineapple chunks
3 or 4 tomatoes
1 sweet red pepper
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
A small pinch of ground cinnamon
A third of a teaspoon of ground ginger
A sprig of fresh basil and one of fresh mint
Oil
Salt
Roughly chop the tomatoes and put them into a bowl until needed. Chop the garlic finely and slice the pepper thinly. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and fry the pepper and garlic for about a minute, throw in the paneer and pineapple along with the cinnamon, ginger and some salt. Stir gently and cover with the chopped tomatoes. Cover the pan and cook on a medium heat for ten to fifteen minutes then turn off the heat and sprinkle with chopped fresh herbs.
Try serving with boiled rice and a leafy salad.