Palak Paneer

I have a love hate relationship with this veggie dish. It mostly feels to bland and more so when some recipes use cream in the making. I also have been put off by what I have identified as too many steps to preparation of it. I tend to use palak (spinach) in another recipe of mong dal with palak. Again, I have not made it in ages for it ends up slightly bland. Maybe I am being stingy in the spicing or is it that I forget to add more to counter the natural bland taste of the ingredients. This time when I got a bag of small palak and almost forgot it in the fridge I decided to make sure it does not get thrown away and salad is not an option as it is not hot enough during the day to just have a large salad for dinner. And surprise there was also some paneer in the fridge… maybe the universe is saying make the damn palak paneer! I looked up a few different recipes and decided to mix them up and come up with my own.

Ingredients 

• 250 gm of paneer cut into pieces to the size you want
• 120 – 150 gm of palak (leaves only)
• 1 medium red onion thinly sliced (you can use brown or even white onion)
• 2 medium green chillies finely sliced
• ½ inch ginger finely sliced
• 5 – 6 cloves of garlic sliced (optional)
• 1 large tomato chopped 
• ½ teaspoon red chilli powder
• ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
• ½ teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
•  Salt to taste
• 1 table spoon of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds

Method

• Wash and drain the palak. Boil water and add the palak and blanch for a minute. Drain and put aside to cool.
• Into the pain add the oil and cumin and sauté till it starts browning.
• Add the sliced onion, ginger, chillies and garlic and sauté the masala till onions are translucent. Remove half of the masala into a plate and cool it off.
• To the left-over masala in the pan add tomatoes and continue cooking till tomatoes are soft and breaking up.
• Put the cooled palak and the onion ginger garlic and chilli mix in a food processer and grind it coarsely. Many recipes call for very fine grinding but I prefer coarse to retain some texture.
• Once the tomatoes are cooked add the spices and cook for a further few minutes till the oil is released from the cooked masala.
• Then add the ground palak into the masala. Stir well and add a couple of spoons of water to loosen the mixture. Cover with lid and cook for a about 3 – 5 mins on medium heat so that the palak is fully cooked. 
• Add the paneer and stir well. Again, cover the pan and leave to cook for a few minutes so that the paneer gets warmed up and absorbs the spice flavours.

Tips to Serve

• Add a table spoon of cream / malai or butter and stir well. 
• Garnish with some fresh chopped coriander.
• Serve with naan or paratha or roti.

I must say the spicing was exactly right. I added some butter to get a richer taste. The taste was hot and tangy and I was very happy with the overall flavour. 

Palak / Spinach Parathas

A few weeks back I saw a website that came up in my Facebook news feed about making different types of parathas. Since I know a few different recipes myself, I was intrigued to see what kinds were in this recipe link. Scrolling down the list palak parathas caught my eye. Now I do feel I should have more spinach in my diet but always find it difficult to think what I can make besides the moong dal and palak. Just realised, that I have not penned that one and will do so after this one. I am not very fond of palak paneer as the palak is gets cooked to a pulp.

The palak paratha recipe was to my mind very lengthy and it involved blitzing the spinach in a mixer and using the pulp instead for water to knead the dough. Of course various condiments and spices were to be added to this dough. This would provide nice green parathas. I did not want to do the additional blitzing of spinach which meant I would not be sure of how much dough I would eventually make and additional washing up. So I adapted the recipe and made these wonderful tasting parathas.

Ingredients

1/2 bunch of spinach finely chopped

2 cm piece of ginger finely chopped

1 medium sized green chilli also finely chopped

300 gm of plain wheat flour / chapatti flour

A teaspoon of salt

Water about 225 ml

5 table spoons of Olive oil.

Preparing the Dough

• Place the finely chopped spinach, ginger, chilli and salt in a bowl.
• Add the flour and 1 table spoon of olive oil next and mix them together.
• Then start adding water a little at a time while bringing the dough together.
• Once all the dough is brought together knead it for a few minutes.
• Finally take a teaspoon of olive oil in your hand and knead the dough to make it smooth.

Normally I set aside the dough of parathas and chapattis to rest but with this one I try not to keep it resting for more than 10 minutes as the palak can make the dough too soft.

Preparing the Paratha

• Put a flat griddle or tawa on the hob to get it heating. Have a small bowl of oil and teaspoon to brush the paratha with oil as it is cooking. It is useful to get a foil ready to cover your parathas and keep them warm.  Take a dough ball big enough to fill your palm. You should be able to make about 7 balls / portions from that dough.
• Flatten it a little and cover it with flour before rolling it out. This use of flour as you are rolling out keeps the dough from sticking on to the rolling pin (Gujarati word is velan) or the surface you are rolling it on. Some people can use the work surface tops or wooden or marble patlo (a Gujarati word for the surface you roll out your chapattis on).
• Roll out the dough to as about 2 mm thickness.
• Put on the hot griddle and wait for it to warm up and start to get cooked. Turn it over once and brush with oil. Then turn over again and brush the other side with oil. The cooked paratha will have some blistering and darkening patches.

I would recommend having these palak parathas with raita or moong dal or even just mango pickle.

Palak / Spinach Parathas

A few weeks back I saw a website that came up in my Facebook news feed about making different types of parathas. Since I know a few different recipes myself, I was intrigued to see what kinds were in this recipe link. Scrolling down the list palak parathas caught my eye. Now I do feel I should have more spinach in my diet but always find it difficult to think what I can make besides the moong dal and palak. Just realised, that I have not penned that one and will do so after this one. I am not very fond of palak paneer as the palak is gets cooked to a pulp.

The palak paratha recipe was to my mind very lengthy and it involved blitzing the spinach in a mixer and using the pulp instead for water to knead the dough. Of course various condiments and spices were to be added to this dough. This would provide nice green parathas. I did not want to do the additional blitzing of spinach which meant I would not be sure of how much dough I would eventually make and additional washing up. So I adapted the recipe and made these wonderful tasting parathas.

Ingredients

1/2 bunch of spinach finely chopped

2 cm piece of ginger finely chopped

1 medium sized green chilli also finely chopped

300 gm of plain wheat flour / chapatti flour

A teaspoon of salt

Water about 225 ml

5 table spoons of Olive oil.

Preparing the Dough

• Place the finely chopped spinach, ginger, chilli and salt in a bowl.
• Add the flour and 1 table spoon of olive oil next and mix them together.
• Then start adding water a little at a time while bringing the dough together.
• Once all the dough is brought together knead it for a few minutes.
• Finally take a teaspoon of olive oil in your hand and knead the dough to make it smooth.

Normally I set aside the dough of parathas and chapattis to rest but with this one I try not to keep it resting for more than 10 minutes as the palak can make the dough too soft.

Preparing the Paratha

• Put a flat griddle or tawa on the hob to get it heating. Have a small bowl of oil and teaspoon to brush the paratha with oil as it is cooking. It is useful to get a foil ready to cover your parathas and keep them warm.  Take a dough ball big enough to fill your palm. You should be able to make about 7 balls / portions from that dough.
• Flatten it a little and cover it with flour before rolling it out. This use of flour as you are rolling out keeps the dough from sticking on to the rolling pin (Gujarati word is velan) or the surface you are rolling it on. Some people can use the work surface tops or wooden or marble patlo (a Gujarati word for the surface you roll out your chapattis on).
• Roll out the dough to as about 2 mm thickness.
• Put on the hot griddle and wait for it to warm up and start to get cooked. Turn it over once and brush with oil. Then turn over again and brush the other side with oil. The cooked paratha will have some blistering and darkening patches.

I would recommend having these palak parathas with raita or moong dal or even just mango pickle.