Paneer Tikka

"I am a vegetarian not because I love animals, It is because I hate plants!"
-A.Whitney Brown

Don't I love the irony in the above quote? A.Whitney Brown has a terrific sense of humor and I love his one-liners. This one is my favorite lines and I tell this to every one who questions me on being a veggie.

I am sensitive enough not to indulge and gorge on something that screamed with pain for its life before landing up on my plate beautifully garnished. I got to see a chicken being killed one day and I wept like a child that entire night. My heart ached when I saw the documentary Food.Inc. Hey, but that's me.

Many people cannot imagine a meal without eating meat. I do not have any personal grudges on people eating meat. But I do not understand the apathy of the multinational companies towards the animals, their workers and the environment.

“I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens.”-Isaac Bashevis Singer

Most of the chickens are injected with hormones that make their breasts two times the original size. This results in obese chickens (more meat). These chickens cannot walk more than 3 to 4 steps at a time due to over weight. They are kept in complete darkness and are packed so tight that they hardly have any place to move.

The same goes to beef. The cattle are fed with excess hormones to yield more milk. This results in obese cattle. They cannot handle their own weight and end up breaking their legs. If a calf is male, they throttle it for its tender meat (veal).

Most of the workers working for these companies are illegal immigrants or they are extremely poor. They work in unhygienic conditions. They are over-worked and payed less. These workers can neither complain to the government nor allowed to form a union.

"So I am living without fats, without meat, without fish, but am feeling quite well this way. It always seems to me that man was not born to be a carnivore."-Albert Einstein

This is how multinational companies can price their meat so cheap and make profits.Death is inevitable for anyone on this planet. But is it right to say, "Anyways they are going to die soon, so who cares how they are treated"? You and me are also destined to die, do we treat each other like slaves? Then why the animals? Then why the environment? The animals are treated no better than Auschwitz concentration camp inmates.

Whether you are a vegetarian, vegan or a non-vegetarian, buy your daily vegetables and meat from organic stores or local farmers market. Buy food items that are not genetically modified. Support against animal cruelty. Protect the environment. This planet is our only home! Treat Mother nature and our fellow inhabitants with respect! The Consumers create a demand for certain products. Let us stop the demand for products from manufacturers who have forgotten to mention one of their basic ingredient: Cruelty.

This is my fav tandoor dish! It is easy and fuss free recipe- no stirring, no frying and finally no steaming/boiling required. I usually make this when guests come home and every time I end up sharing the recipe with them. So here is the recipe:-

Ingredients:-

Marinating Batter:-
1 cup of curds/natural yogurt
1 tsp of coriander powder
1 tsp of jeera/cumin powder
1/4 tsp of turmeric powder
1 tbl spn of red chilli powder
1/2 tsp of garam masala
1/4 tsp of pepper powder
1/4 tsp of chat masala/amchur powder
2 tbl spns of ginger-garlic paste
salt as desired.
pinch of Saffron/red food color

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5-6 tbl spns of lemon (add/squeeze according to taste)
1 slab of paneer (around 20 pieces of 2 inch cubes)
1 medium sized diced onion (as desired)
1 medium sized potatoes sliced round (as desired)
1 medium sized diced capsicum/bell peppers (as desired)

Method:-

Marinate the paneer and veggies separately for 3 hrs!!!
Put them in skewers as shown and arrange them across a baking tray. Baking tray/pan is used to support the ends of the skewers. This is done so that, the tikkas do not touch the tray (they tend to stick to the stray and will break when you try to pull them off) and secondly, the marinating liquid tends to drip and liquid will collect in the tray and will not dirty your oven.
Preheat the oven to 400 F.
Mine took 20 minutes to cook and some dark spots appeared on the surface. If you want more burnt look, keep it longer.
Keep a watch on the oven every 10 minutes so that they won't get burnt.

Take them out and let them cool.
Squeeze some lemon juice on them and relish.