Palak Paneer

Palak Paneer is one of the most common dishes found in every Indian restaurant menu worldwide. Though my mom never prepared this at home, we often relished palak paneer in restaurants with Roti or naan.

This dish basically has roasted paneer (Cottage cheese)soaked in thich, flavoured spinach sauce.

Ingredients

250 grams spinach/palak

4 cups hot boiling water for blanching spinach

3 cups of cold water

for pan frying paneer:

250 grams paneer/cottage cheese

Butter 2 tablespoons

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

2 medium onion diced

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

2 green chilies,

A pinch of turmeric powder

1/2 tsp black pepper powder

1 tsp kasuri methi/dry fenugreek leaves,

1/2tsp garam masala powder

1/4 cup fresh cream

A pinch of sugar

Cheese flakes for garnish

salt as required

Method

Blanching and preparing the spinach puree:

Wash the spinach leaves well in water and then keep them aside to remove excess water. If the stems are tender, then leave them on the leaves. If they are hard or fibrous, then remove them.

Boil water in a pan and add the spinach leaves in the water. Stir and blanch the spinach leaves in water for 3 to 4 minutes. When the spinach leaves are blanching take some cold water in another bowl.After 4 minutes, remove the spinach leaves and add them to the cold water.stir gently so that all the leaves are immersed in the cold water. after 1 minute, remove them. Place the leaves in a grinder and prepare gravy mixture.

Before preparing gravy, take 2tbsp butter in a pan. Cut paneer into large pieces. Once the pan is hot place the paneer in the pan and fry till golden brown. Drain the butter in the same pan and remove the roasted paneer and set aside.

In the same pan, add cumin seeds wait till they crackle.Add finely chopped onions and fry till they turn light golden.Then add finely chopped green chilies and ginger garlic paste.. Some people add red chilli powder but i do not like to mix this because this is a green curry and adding red to it will change the color.

stir and saute till the raw aroma of ginger-garlic goes away.Now add a pinch of turmeric powder, black pepper powder, kasuri methi/dry fenugreek leaves. stir well. Add a pinch of sugar and cook for 1minute. Some use also tomatoes (1 number) to the mixture to give more flow to theur curry but I do not prefer that in this green curry.

Take off the flame and let the mixture cool down.

Once cooled transfer the mixture to grinder along with palak leaves. Add water if necessary and grind it to a smooth paste.

In the same pan, transfer the ground paste and bring to boil. Add salt to the mixture. Once the raw smell of the curry goes off add fresh cream and stir well. Add garam masala to the mixture and cook for 1 minute. Add the fried paneer cubes. Mix them well with the rest of the gravy. Now the dish is ready.

Transfer the curry to the serving bowl. Garnish with cheese flakes. Serve hot with roti, naan or pulav.

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