Palak Paneer
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| I'm strong to the Fin-ich, 'cause I eats me Spin-ach, I'm _______ the sailor man... |
In my last post I mentioned the Tarla Dalal recipe and posted the link to the same and a whole set of people asked me why I had changed the recipe. Well, I didn’t change the recipe. I merely adjusted the quantity of ingredients to my liking. In cooking there are no ‘set’ rules that one has to conform to. As much as I like looking up recipes, I know my own taste and the flavours enjoyed by the people I cook for. I tend to accordingly add ingredients so that one taste doesn’t overpower the other. I think of the kitchen as my lab and I experiment. On occasion there are explosions and disasters but often times the results are just mind-blowingly amazing. Like this recipe. After tasting the palak paneer, I actually wondered if I had cooked it!
Fresh spinach is such a joy. I can’t believe I needed Popeye to help me eat this leafy vegetable as a child. I am sure many parents are thankful to Popeye who made Spinach very popular.
I wanted a recipe that used cashew paste in the gravy. I googled and landed on Spice up the curry.
I read the recipe out loud and decided, hers would be the recipe that I’d try.
Ingredients:
· For onion paste
a. 1 Big onion
b. 1/4thcup cashews
c. Chillies (as per taste)
d. 1cup water.
· To blanch the Spinach
a. 6 cups water
b. 6 bunch fresh spinach.
· Other ingredients
a. 200gms paneer
b. 1 Tbs oil
c. 2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
d. 1 tomato
e. 1tsp kasoorimethi
f. 1 tsp garam masala
g. 1 Tbs fresh cream
h. salt
Method:
1. In a pan, add all ingredients listed under ‘onion paste’ and cook on a slow flame till the onion starts to become slightly brown. Let this cool down. Once cooled grind it into a paste.
2. Boil water and add spinach to it after water has come to a boil. Let it stay in water for 4 minutes and then strain it and hold under cold, running water. Set aside to let water drain.
3. In a pan add, oil and ginger-garlic paste and sauté for a few seconds. Then add tomatoes to it and cook till the raw smell leaves.
4. To this, add the onion paste and stir well.
5. In the meantime grind the spinach into a fine paste.
6. Add this spinach puree to the above mixture and cook for a few minutes.
7. Add kasoorimethi, garam masala and salt.
8. After 3 minutes add the diced paneer and let it cook for 2 more minutes.
9. Lastly add fresh cream and stir.
10. Serve hot with light phulkas.
Side note:
· This method of blanching helps retain the ‘green’ colour of spinach, making your curry look especially fresh.
· I don’t like my curry too spicy or too creamy hence add those two ingredients as per your taste.
· The taste just gets better with time. Even though I cooked it in the morning, when I ate the remnants at night it was much, much more delicious.
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