Cranberry-date chutney with red onions for paneer cheese roti tacos

Our cranberry-date chutney, made for spicy paneer tacosWhen you love paneer cheese, spices, dates and cranberries, a recipe for a paneer-filled taco with cranberry-date chutney will make you roll up your sleeves to do the work -- even down to making your own roti for the first time ever. Roti plays the tortilla's roll in this cross-cultural meal.

Roti is an unleavened flatbread that can be made from flour, salt and water alone. Some recipes incorporate oil and/or ghee (clarified butter).

Roti has the same basic ingredients as chapati. Both are often made with whole wheat flour (atta), sometimes cooked in the brick tandoor oven that roasts its namesake tandoori chicken. More frequently, roti and chapati are cooked on a stove-top tawa, a flat pan, sometimes made of cast iron. In short, the words roti and chapati are often used interchangeably to describe a flat, round bread, rolled out thin and cooked in a pan. While they are often made of whole wheat flour, other types of flour are used as well. Our inspiration recipe uses all-purpose flour. We used a blend of all-purpose and white whole wheat flours.

In the original taco recipe from the US Cranberry Marketing Committee's India website, the bread is described as both chapata (another spelling of chapati) and roti. Our first (unphotographed) effort worked well using a hybrid recipe that added butter and oil to the chapata ingredients in the original Sara Ahmedi chapata paneer taco and cranberry-date chutney recipe. We liked the idea of adding a little oil and butter to the bread recipe for a softer result, and the process for making soft roti at All Things Food on YouTube.

Our aim, with practice, is to make a fat-free bread that puffs up, as in a Bengali soft roti recipe, which also informed our process. Contrary to much of the advice we found online to use boiling hot water, my favorite author of cookbooks on South Asian cookery makes roti with cold water. Chetna Makan's chapati puffing technique also is unique and, for novices, safer than heating them over open flames on a gas stove burner.

Because the taco recipe is somewhat involved -- with making the bread, the filling and the chutney --  we used refrigerated roti for our second and third tests. We tested with roti from both SHRI Foods in Colonia, and Rotifaa brand in Iselin. Both are made with whole wheat flour, water and corn oil, and we didn't have a clear favorite.

Paneer taco filling blends the cheese with onion, garlic, ginger and several dry spices. The original chutney recipe has red chile powder. We left it out for our take, favoring a sweet chutney without heat to be a soothing counterpart to the spicy-hot taco filling. We also added red onions. For the filling, we used half a 14-ounce block of Swad brand paneer. The other half can be frozen for later use with no ill effects, if wrapped well. 

Paneer cheese roti tacos
with cranberry-date chutney

INGREDIENTS AND DIRECTIONS

Cranberry-date chutney with red onions: In a food processor, pulse to finely chop 1 cup fresh cranberries, 6 to 8 halved and pitted Medjool dates. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons cooking oil. Stir in 1 finely chopped small red onion (about 1 cup) and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook onion, stirring occasionally, until translucent, soft and browned, about 10 minutes. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder. Add cranberry-date mixture. Stir to combine with onions and heat through for about 2 minutes. Stir in 1 cup water with 1 tablespoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice. Cook 15  minutes over medium-low heat. Let cool.

Paneer taco filling: In a bowl combine 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1 teaspoon ground coriander, 1 teaspoon garam masala, 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon Kashmiri red chile powder (or 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne), 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric,  and 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt, set aside. In a pan, warm 2 tablespoons cooking oil over medium heat, add 1 teaspoon cumin seeds. When seeds begin to pop, stir in 1 cup chopped white onion. Cook, stirring occasionally until translucent and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Push onion to one side and add spice blend with 1 or 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger (about 3/4 inch from a thick knob of ginger root) and 1 large clove garlic, minced. Stir and heat the spices, about 1 minute. Mix spices with onion and stir in 14 ounces canned, diced fire-roasted tomatoes with 3/4 cup water. Cover and cook 15 minutes. Meanwhile, cut 7 ounces paneer into 1/2-inch cubes. At the end of cooking time, stir paneer into the tomatoes with 1/3 cup of plain yogurt.  If using purchased refrigerated roti, toast the flatbread in a pan (cast iron is best) until it is warmed through and as soft or as crisp as you would like. Place about 1/3 cup of the paneer filling acoss the center of each roti, top with cranberry-date chutney and fold in half to contain. Refrigerated roti is typically sold in packages of six, and this recipe makes enough filling for six paneer tacos.

Making your own roti or chapati

In a mixing bowl, whisk 2/3 cup all-purpose flour, 1/3 cup white whole wheat flour and 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt. Make a well in the center and add 1 tablespoon butter and 1 teaspoon canola oil. In a pan, heat about a cup of water to boiling. Measure out 1/2 cup and slowly pour just enough hot water into the well to cover the butter. Stir the butter to melt it. When melted, mix with a fork to make a dough, mixing in more water in small amounts as needed.

Squeeze dough pieces together and knead in bowl to form a soft ball. Coat in a little more oil. Let rest 30 minutes in bowl, covered with an inverted smaller bowl.  When ready to cook, divide dough in four pieces and shape into balls. Working on a clean, lightly floured surface, use your palm to press down on a dough ball and flatten it as much as possible. Then use a rolling pin to push out the dough in one direction. Turn it 90 degrees and roll in one direction. Keep turning and rolling  to form a rough circle of very thin dough. Place it on a hot skillet, preferably cast iron, over medium heat. Cook 2 to 3 minutes. Roti should begin to show puffed air pockets. Flip gently and cook about 3 more minutes so bread has browning on the bubbled areas of both sides.