Palak Paneer

Blanched fresh spinach puree cooked with mild Indian spices, home made and pan seared cottage cheese, sprinkled with chili oil and Punjabi garam masala.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Serves: 4.

Ingredients and Quantity:

Spinach, chopped, discard the stems- 10 cups/ 04 small bunches

Cottage cheese (paneer) cut into 1/2”cubes- 1 ½ cups.

Oil- 1 ½ Tbsp.

Cumin seeds- ½ tsp.

Onion, finely chopped- ¾ th cup

Garlic, grated- 05 cloves

Ginger, grated- 1inch piece

Green chilles, finely chopped- 02 nos.

Tomato puree- ½ cup

Salt- to taste

Lemon juice- ¾ th tbsp.

Fresh cream-02 tbsp.

Water- 1 ½ tbsp. / as required

For the Sprinkling:

Chili Oil- 01 tsp.

Punjabi garam masala- 01 tsp.

For the Garnishing:

Fresh Cream- 02 tsp. (Optional)

Method:

1. Blanch the spinach in a deep pan of boiling water for 03 minutes.
2. Drain, refresh / wash with cold water and keep aside to cool for some time.
3. Blend in a mixer to a smooth purée and keep aside.
4. Heat the oil in a non-stick kadhai, add the cumin seeds, let it crackle, add the onions and sauté on a medium flame till they turn translucent.
5. Add the garlic, ginger, green chillies and sauté on a medium flame for 02 minutes.
6. Add the tomato pulp and sauté till the mixture leaves oil, while stirring continuously.
7. Add the spinach purée and 1 ½ tbsp. of water, mix well and cook on a medium flame for 03 minutes. Add paneer cubes.
8. Add the salt, Punjabi garam masala . Cook on a medium flame for another 02 minutes.
9. Remove from the flame.
10. Sprinkle lemon juice, stir very lightly to avoid paneer cubes from breaking.
11. Add fresh cream and mix well.
12. Serve hot sprinkled with Chili Oil.

Chef Tips:

1. Spinach is blanched uncovered as green vegetables have volatile acids which should be allowed to escape or else the green vegetables lose their colour (become dull in colour) and tend to become bitter in taste. These acids need to escape hence spinach is blanched and cooked uncovered.
2. Blanching of spinach: Blanching is cooking technique in which food is briefly immersed in boiling water. Vegetables such as spinach are often blanched in order to enhance their natural green color. Blanched vegetables are typically plunged into an ice water bath after blanching in order to halt the cooking process.
3. Refreshing of blanched spinach under cold water is done in order to stop / halt the cooking process in order to preserve the colour the spinach.
4. Paneer cubes may be deep-fried and steeped in salted lukewarm water to remove excess of oil and to make the paneer soft n spongy. In that case the quantity of oil will increase, as required for deep frying.