This was a milestone cooking experience for me. Palak Paneer
My trusty Punjabi/Hindi/Indian dictionary tells me that palak is spinach and saag is Mustard Greens. Both are scrumptious but since mustard greens are a little harder to come by, I'm making Palak Paneer.
The secret to great palak paneer is consistency and colour. Both are achieved thanks to a blender and parboiled spinach. Now that I know how, it's easy and not in the least intimidating.
Let's talk ingredients.
Paneer: You can get at SuperStore in Canada and Indian grocers around the world. A good and tasty substitute is firm soya or better yet, ricotta. In Melbourne, we could buy 200 gr of fresh ricotta just about anywhere. Cut your paneer/ricotta/soya into thumb tip size pieces. Lay them on a cookie sheet lined with a piece of lightly oiled foil. Broil for a few minutes each side. This will ensure your ricotta doesn't melt into your curry and give nutty flavour to your soy and paneer. If you feel like adding in some calories, you can also shallow fry them on the stove and drain the golden nuggets on some kitchen paper.
Spinach: frozen chopped spinach is really convenient. French baby spinach in those salad bags are also convenient. If you have a large head of spinach, give it a rough chop first.
Spices: As far as Indian curries go, palak paneer is pretty easy on the spices. Ginger, garlic, coriander, cumin, turmeric and a bit of chili. 6 spices! All those spices are commonly available. (also known as Saag Paneer) is one of my favorite Indian dishes and after several different recipes, I've found the right one.
Palak Paneer Recipe
thanks to Chabita Massi
2 pkg of frozen spinach or 1 large head of fresh spinach or 1 bag of baby spinach
1 cup of chopped paneer/ricotta/firm soya roasted as above
1 large onion
2 tsp ghee or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of groun coriander
1 heaping teaspoon of crushed/minced garlic
1 heaping teaspoon of crushed/minced ginger
1 large tomato (or skip the blender and use 1 smaller can of pureed tomatoes)
1 pinch of turmeric
1 tsp of salt (or to taste)
3 dried red chillis or 1 long green chili fresh or 1 tsp of ground chilis (or to taste)
1/2 cup of thick non-skim milk yoghurt (skim milk yoghurt) or 1/2 c buttermilk or 1/4 c cream
Put a large pot of salted water to boil.
Meanwhile take out your food processor or blender and finely chop that onion. Blending it means that they'll flavour your palak without adding chunky texture. You need the blender for the spinach for why spend time chopping!
Fry up your onion mixture on medium heat with a bit of oil. When they get a bit of color, add garlic, ginger, cumin and coriander. Stir and cook for 2-3 minutes. Take this time to throw the large tomato in the blender and puree. When the spices and onion have been in the pan 2-3 minutes, pour in the tomatoes and stir. Add a pinch of turmeric and salt. Keep stiring. Keep cooking until the oil seems to seperate from the tomatoes. 5-7 minutes. It won't look pretty at this point, especially if you used a fresh tomato. Don't worry, it's really tasty!
By now, the pot of water should be hot. Bring the blender close to the water and prepare to dunk your spinach in small batches into the hot water. (This step applies even to frozen spinach) When the spinach gets soft and bright green, throw it into the blender. I find tongs and salad forks work well for scooping out spinach. Doing this shocks the spinach and gives it a great bright green colour. Blend and the result is miraculously bright green soupy magical stuff.
Pour the spinach mixture in with the tomatoes. Throw in your chilis and cook for 5-10 more minutes. Now is a good time to taste and check the salt of your curry. Add your yoghurt/buttermilk/cream and the prepared paneer/soya/ricotta. Cook for 5 more minutes.
Serve with basmati rice and a scoop of yoghurt. It's also great with tortillas. Saag and palak are often served with corn rotis. Heated tortillas are convenient and tasty substitute.
