“Fried cheese,” he said, without missing a beat. The only fried cheese I knew of at the time was the mozzarella sticks at sports bars. Mozzarella sticks got love too; his devotion to fried cheese was vast and deep. He’d adore Zainab Shah’s new recipe for paneer chile dry (above), a dish of shallow-fried paneer cubes with a peppery, gingery ketchup-soy sauce. Served on both sides of the Pakistani-Indian border, it’s spicy and sticky, crisp and melting, and you can even swap out the cheese for tofu.

---

Persons: Zainab Shah’s Locations: New York