Palak Paneer

Being a punju how can I not cook/like palak panner but as a kiddo I used to hate this since I did not like spinach but then now being a mom myself I try and find different ways to make my son eat his greens and well I end up making egg in spinach gravy, potatoes in spinach gravy and since SD loves shrimp, I even cook shrimps in spinach gravy.


Ingredients

1. 1 pack of baby Spinach (Sam's).
2. 1 onion
3. 2 tomatoes
4. Ginger about 1 teaspoon
5. 1 tablespoon oil
6. Pinch of hing
7. Salt as per taste
8. 1 teaspoon garam masala
9. Red chilly
10. ½ teaspoon Coriander powder
11. ½ teaspoon Amchur powder
12. Sugar a pinch
13. Paneer.
14. 1 cup chopped mustard leaves
15. 1 teaspoon Jeera

Optional

1. Besan
2. Heavy whipped cream.


For Paneer

1. 1/2 gallon Milk
2. ¼ cup Lemon juice.

Steps to make paneer

1. Boil the milk Keep stirring it to avoid burn. Let it cool. Once it is warm re-heat and keep adding the lemon juice till it curdles.
2. Wrap the curd in a cheese cloth or a clean white cloth. Squeeze well. Tie a knot and place something heavy on the paneer still wrapped in cloth. This will help squeeze out extra water and also give a shape to the paneer.
3. Let it stay for 30 min to an hour. Once done cut the paneer in your desire shape.
4. I prefer not to fry the paneer but AD likes it fried so for this recipe I fried the paneer.

Steps to cook the gravy

1. Boil the Spinach and mustard leaves. Drain excess water and make a paste of the greens.
2. Make a paste of Onion, ginger, tomatoes
3. Heat the oil.
4. Add hing, Jeera and the paste of onion, ginger, tomatoes
5. Once the puree leaves the oil. Add all the dry masalas expect for garam masala and sugar.
6. Add the spinach and let it boil
7. At this time if you think that the gravy is too watery then dry roast besan and add it to the gravy. (If you are using only spinach this might be the case but with mustard leaves generally the gravy is thicker).
8. Add paneer (or below substitutes) and let it simmer in the gravy, add a pinch of sugar and garam masala and leave for about 5 min.
9. If you like you could add heavy whip cream to it at this point of time. I did not.
10. Enjoy it with Nan’s or rotis.

You can also substitute Paneer with

1. Fried Potatoes to enjoy aloo saag.
2. Fry shrimps and add them to the spinach gravy. Marinate the shrimps with salt and turmeric before frying.
3. Boil eggs, cut them in halves and add them to the same gravy.