Palak Paneer (Spinach Farmer Cheese)

These two words always bring tears of happiness to me. I always have loved Paneer and who wouldn’t want to be like Popeye (the strongest man in the animated world). My journey with palak or must I say spinach was a long time back when my mom used to make this green leafy vegetable boiled in water with other ingredients. It was tasty and man! Do I miss my mom’s cooking? It was so healthy that I could actually feel the iron coming out of my biceps or must I say chop-sticks shoulders (then and not now). But still you can feel the energy once you have gorged on the beautiful jealous (green) leafy vegetable.



Fresh spinach is readily available in all Supermarkets, but we need to inspect closely to see the color of the leaves (dark olive green), the color of the stems (light green) and also there is a way to gauge the freshness of spinach by breaking the stem with two fingers. It should snap easily in two pieces, if the three conditions are met, you have good spinach in your hands.

Cleaning spinach is very boring as you need to clear all the other leaves that come packed with the spinach, leaves of peas (vatana), tendli creepers, tomato leaves, etc. After removing the unwanted weeds which actually is very time consuming and the ultimate moment killer, we need to rinse the spinach leaves and clean all the dirt, mud and other coloring agents which the retailers add. I was so bored while cleaning the spinach that sometimes I just wondered if I could munch it directly like Popeye. Anyhoo, after all the cleaning you just need to pressure cooker the spinach in water along with some vegetables like onions, tomatoes, garlic, ginger and chilies for four whistles and you are half way to the finish line.

For the next half, you start with first removing the excess water from the boiled spinach using a sieve. The stock formed with the boiled spinach mix is very healthy and it should be given to children and adults as well. It’s an instant source of iron and it should not be discarded. We then grind the boiled vegetable using a mixer (Phillips 1000W) to form a thick paste. Finally, we take a deep dish frying pan and we add some butter and do be generous in the quantity as this makes the dish very very creamy and tasty. Once the butter is melted and become brown, we add the paneer cubes (don’t use too much paneer, Thumb rule here is 4 cubes of paneer for each person) and just sauté and toss till the top layer of the paneer turns light brown. I like to use less paneer because I don’t like the paneer to crowd with the palak mix. Also while stir frying (sautéing and tossing) the Paneer you need to take care of you eye-brows, if you know what I mean (I think my friends have seen this example in Asangaon). Remove the paneer and keep aside and you do get tempted to eat the hot paneer tikkis. But control your urges there is light at the end of the tunnel. Now in the same pan which is already greased with the butter and what a lovely aroma it is put the palak mix and keep on stirring till all the liquid butter is mixed with the palak mix. Keep on stirring and keep on adding the stock little by little so that the mix doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan (we don’t need that.. do we). We need to constantly stir the palak mix because there are tiny eruptions and we don’t want the dish to erupt like Mt. Etna.

Once you have cooked the palak mix (free of any water), you add the stirred (not shaken) fried paneer and just blanket the paneer inside the palak mix. And Serve.

Recipe

1 bundle Spinach leaves (Washed & Chopped – 4 inches long, use stem also)
2 Small Onions (Diced)
1 medium Tomato (Washed & Diced)
4 green Chilies (Washed & Chopped)
6 Cloves Garlic (Halved)
1 Ginger (Thumb Piece: Skinned and Chopped)
10 - 12 cubes of Paneer (Size of cube 1.5 cm. x 1.5 cm.)
Generous helping of butter (Amul Butter works wonders here)
Salt to taste

Part 1:
Take the chopped spinach leaves, chilies, onions, tomatoes, ginger, and garlic and put it in a pressure cooker. Fill water in the pressure cooker till vegetables are actually at half length of the water level. Close pressure cook and cook till 4 whistles.

Part 2:
After the vegetables are cooked, pass the boiled vegetables and stock in a sieve. Don’t discard the stock. Put the boiled vegetables in a mixer add some stock (Approx. 10 ml) and grind till a smooth paste is formed. Don’t make it too watery so control your intake of the stock and it should be a smooth and consistent paste.

Part 3:
Take a deep frying pan. Put a generous dollop of Butter and melt it at a high flame. Once the butter has melted add paneer cubes and just stir fry. Do not overcook the paneer, just light brown the top layer and keep aside. In the same pan, add the ground palak mix and stir this till the melted butter has mixed with the ground palak mix. Lower Flame. Keep adding the stock (little by little) and cook the palak mix. Take care while stirring and stir slowly as it might just erupt in your face. Once the water content has completely evaporated add the stir fried paneer cubes. Mix the paneer cubes nicely in the palak mix and shut down the gas. And Serve.