PALAK PANEER

The delicious Palak paneer, one of the most adored North Indian Dish, is soft cottage cheese cubes in a mild spiced smooth spinach gravy. Palak is spinach and Paneer is Indian cottage cheese and the blend of both in a tasty, smooth, velvety gravy is called Palak Paneer.

Palak Paneer is viewd as extremely healthy as Palak/ Spinach is stacked with vitamin A, K, Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, fiber and iron and paneer provides us the necessary protein. 

There is an alternate versions of this recipe where different greens like mustard leaves, fenugreek leaves, etc are also used along with spinach and known as Saag Paneer. A very similar Kashmiri dish is there called as Methi Chaman where spinach and methi greens are used as the base gravy ingredients and fried paneer cubes are added to it later.

This dish works out in a good way for roti, naan, paratha or tandoori roti and even jeera rice or biryani rice or saffron rice or ghee rice. It is very easy to prepare and can be made in so many ways.

INGREDIENTS:

For palak puree:

• Spinach - 250 gms
• Green chillies - 1 - 2, chopped
• Garlic - 1 - 2 cloves, roughly chopped 
• Ginger - 1/2 inch, roughly chopped
• Water for blanching - 3 cups
• Ice cold water - 3 cups

Other ingredients:

• Oil or ghee or unsalted butter - 2 tablespoons
• Cloves - 2
• Cinnamon - 1 inch
• Green cardamom - 2
• Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Bay leaves - 1 - 2
• Garlic - 4 - 5 cloves, finely chopped
• Onion - 1 large, finely chopped
• Ginger garlic paste - 2 tablespoons
• Green chillies - 1-2, finely chopped
• Tomato - 1, medium, finely chopped
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Red chilli powder - 1/2 teaspoon (Optional)
• Coriander powder - 1 tablespoon
• Crushed black pepper - 1/2 teaspoon
• Kasuri methi leaves - 1 teaspoon, crushed
• Asafoetida - 1 pinch (Optional)
• Garam masala powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• water - 1/2 cup or as required
• Paneer cubes - 250 gms
• Salt - As required
• Sugar - A pinch
• Cream - 1-2 tablespoons, low fat

PROCEDURE:

Making palak puree:

1. Rinse the palak or spinach leaves very well in running water and drains off the excess water. If the stems are hard, then discard the stems, however you can utilize the tender stems.
2. Boil 3 cups water in a container with ¼ tsp salt. At the point when the water comes to a rolling boil, switch off the fire and add the spinach leaves in the hot water. 
3. After about 1 minute, take out the leaves quickly and add them in a bowl containing ice cold water. This blanching technique helps in preserving the green color of the spinach. Allow the spinach leaves to be in the cold water for a minute and then drain the ice cold water. 
4. Add the spinach in a blender jar with chopped ginger, garlic and green chilies. Make a smooth palak puree without adding any water and keep aside.

Making masala:

1. Heat oil or ghee or butter in a pan. If using butter, melt it on a low flame so that the butter does not brown. Add cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, cumin and let them splutter. Then add the bay leaf.
2. Add the finely chopped garlic. Saute till the raw aroma of garlic goes away and they become golden brown.
3. Then add the finely chopped onions. Saute till the onions become translucent. Then add ginger garlic paste and finely chopped green chilies. Stir and saute till the raw aroma of ginger-garlic goes away. Add the chopped tomatoes. Stir and saute the tomatoes till they soften. 
4. Then add the turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder, crushed black pepper, kasturi methi leaves and asafoetida. Stir very well and saute untill the mixture leaves the side of the pan.

Making palak paneer:

1. Then add the palak puree and add about ½ cup water or as required. Mix well. Simmer for 6 to 7 minutes or more till the palak or spinach is cooked. Season with salt and a pinch of sugar. The gravy or sauce will also thicken by now. 
2. Add garam masala powder, stir and then add the paneer (cottage cheese) cubes. Stir gently and simmer on a low flame for 1 -2 minutes till the paneer cubes become soft and succulent.
3. Lastly, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of low-fat cream. Stir gently again so that the cream gets incorporated in the gravy uniformly. Switch off the flame. Delicious palak paneer is ready to be served.
4. Pour the palak paneer in serving bowls and serve hot with some butter or cream on top. You can also drizzle a few drops of lemon juice on top along with ginger julienne on the palak paneer.
5. Being a versatile dish, it goes very well with indian breads like tandoori roti, chapatis, phulkas, parathas or naan. It also accompanies rice dishes like cumin rice, veg pulao, ghee rice and even a simple steamed rice very well. 

NOTES:

• Always use fresh tender spinach leaves. Blanching of spinach leaves is done so that the dish has a nice green color and it retain the vitamins and minerals to maximum. Just add 8 to 10 ice cubes to 3 cups water to get ice cold water.
• Instead of blanching spinach, you can also fry the spinach for a short time before making puree.
• Use fresh paneer or homemade paneer to get best outcome. If using store baught paneer, keep them immersed in 2 cups of hot water for 20 minutes to get soft texture.
• The paneer cubes can also be lightly fried and then added to the curry. In this case, you don't need to cook the paneer in the gravy. After frying the paneer cubes, keep them immediately in water for 3 to 4 minutes to soften the paneer.
• Insread of chopped green chillies, you can add green chilli paste or red chilli powder and instead of tomatoes, you can add amchur powder or lemon juice to get the requird tanginess.
• Whole spices are optional, but they do add a lot of flavour to the dish. To get the best colour, keep garam masala to minimum and also prevent overcooking spinach which darken the dish.
• You can use dhungar method, to add smoky charcoal aroma to the dish and to get dhaba style palak paneer recipe.  A burning piece of coal is kept over the curry in a bowl and is poured with some ghee on top. That results in smoke coming out and the smoke that is released is trapped in the curry to give it a smoky flavor.
• If you find your palak paneer to be a bit too bitter in flavor, adding some lemon juice and/or a pinch of sugar will balance the dish out. 
• Palak paneer can be made vegan by substituting paneer with tofu and using cashew cream or coconut cream instead of milk cream or skipping cream altogether.
• You can add aloo in the gravy and make Aloo Palak Paneer. You can even add corn to it.

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