Cravings for soothing warm curries are always perpetual in me. I can welcome and eat curries, sambhar and rasam at anytime of the day and still have no stop toggle for want of curries. How do I even chronicle how wonderfully rice and curry make a match like straight from heaven? Looking back, my last story had a plenty of words about paneer. Speaking of which, paneer made at home and then released into a gravy is another level of irresistibleness.
Palak (An Indian name for Spinach), is a regular leafy green visitor at home. Mandya market sellers, specially the women sellers will never let you leave without forcefully stuffing your hands with that Kanthe (bunch) of Palak Soppu. I cook with this so often and more so, Palak is almost every time in the form of a Sambhar, gravy or also a kootu. Not very regularly, when Paneer and Palak are present at home at the same time, it is always a chance for the good old Palak Paneer. A name that I would hear at every restaurant visit in my younger days. Good old sweet days when I was so wide eyed and naive :)
There was a day, when this had to be made. Hankerings for a good palak paneer and the chapathi meal had taken over mine and my husband’s mind. This meal was lovingly made, well relished and photographed too.
There are unspecified number of recipes home cooks adopt for making Palak Paneer. Some mix two or more leafy greens to a similar recipe and its called Saag Paneer. However, all taste wonderfully heavenly, delicious and irresistible. As I always say, curries have my heart, come what may. Most often, restaurants offer Palak Paneer drizzled with lovely white streaks of white cream and spongy pieces of white paneer, like ornamental beauties, plating itself atop the puddle of the lacy green curry, against gravity.
Although this recipe isn’t a native for me and its all adapted food for us back at home, still it is loved by the young and old invariably. Thats how beautiful this curry is and it is indeed a mass conquistador. I’ve used whole cashew nuts for attaining the creaminess of the curry. At the end of the cooking process you can also add, fresh white cream that makes the recipe all the more seraphic. I had run out of the cream when I made this, sadly. Garlic is also something that a few recipes use, but I usually do away with garlic in most of my gravies. It is a individualised choice.
I usually blanch Spinach for this recipe. I do sometimes shock the greens in ice after blanching, sometimes not. The blanching of greens and vegetables itself is a huge subject to write about. Some say it retains the fresh green colour of the spinach, some say, it stops the further cooking of the greens in its own heat. But there’s no much harm if it cooks little further and descends in colour too. Some do claim that they dislike the raw taste of Spinach in Palak Paneer. I even grind the leaves raw with a bit of wheat flour in a mini mixie if I’ve to make green chapathis for Krishna’s lunch box.
Be that as it may, I’m also going to stop setting down too many things here and move on to my blog (www.foodforjoy.in) for shaping up a post there with a lovely set of pictures I clicked for a Palak Paneer recipe so long ago. Must I warn you, there are too many pictures to portray, which keep singing like the chorus of a song for this curry.
The making of Paneer
- This recipe is a version that I could come up with inspite of different trials. Some trials involved even using other greens to get a better flavour. But this recipe comes close to what one would like. You can make this with fresh cream too instead of cashew nuts.
Ingredients
- 1 bunch – Palak Leaves
- 2-3 tbsp Cooking oil or Ghee
- 1 tbsp – Coriander seeds
- 1/2 tbsp – Cumin seeds
- 2 medium sized – Onions – ulienned
- 1 medium sized – Tomato – chopped roughly
- 3 – green chillies
- 10-15 Whole Cashews
- 1.5 tsp Salt
- 15 cubes – Paneer
- 1 tsp – Sugar/Jaggery (Optional)
- 2 tbsp – Kasuri Methi
Directions
- In a heavy bottom vessel, bring water to a boil. Once the water has reached the boiling point, add the cleaned palak leaves.
- After a few minutes, once the leaves wilt, remove the leaves and plunge the leaves into an ice bath to stop the further cooking of the leaves. Once cooled grind the leaves to a smooth paste. Filter out the fibrous part through a sieve (optional step)
- In a wok, add some cooking oil and let it heat on low heat. After the oil heats a bit, add coriander seeds, cumin seeds and Onions one after another. Fry till, the onions wilt and turn translucent.
- After the onions are done, add the tomatoes and chillies. Add a teaspoon of salt. Fry the mixture till the tomatoes loses their raw smell.
- Once done, let the mixture cool down. Once cooled, add this to a mixie jar and the cashews. Grind to a smooth paste
- In a wok, add the palak mixture and let it come to a boil. Next, add the cashew – onion – tomato mixture. Let all these come to a boil. Adjust the salt and add the paneer pieces. Bring the whole gravy to a boil again.
- Add the Kasuri methi. Mix well. If you wish you can add a bit of jaggery or sugar to balance out all the flavours. Serve hot with chapatis. Add fresh cream at the end if you wish to make it more mellow flavoured.
