Palak Paneer

Hello, boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun! If you're Indian, odds are that every Navratri season,  most of you go (or are strong armed into going) vegetarian for a few days. As unfortunate as this is, let us take a moment to remember that there are still a fair few evergreen vegetarian dishes that go down very well with almost everybody and few are as popular as the one we will be making today. 

Palak paneer. Silky saag lovingly flavoured with spices. A hint of garlic. Soft chunks of melt-in-your-mouth paneer. Served with garam rotis or parathas. Maybe a side of dal. Some lassi perhaps. Your guilty pleasure soap on the telly. That's not too bad is it?

This one in particular, was a favourite of my roommate in Solihull, UK, Ms. Popularity, and since paneer was not hard to come by in Solihull, coupled with the fact that I could whip this up from scratch in 31 minutes (I'm quicker now!), I cooked it fairly regularly. Indians aside, this dish was quite a hit with the Brits as well (people and cats)!

Now that I've piqued your interest (I hope I have anyway!), on with the recipe!

For my Palak Paneer, you will need the following:

Palak (spinach)	500gms
Paneer	250gms
Onion	1 medium
Tomato	1 medium
Garlic	4-5 cloves
Ginger	small piece
Jeera (cumin)	1 heaped tsp
Red chilli powder	1 heaped tsp
Green chillies	1-2
Tomato puree	2 big squirts
Ghee (or Cooking oil)	large dollop
Salt	to taste

Prep:

1. Clean (unless you like a fresh muddy taste) and roughly chop the spinach.
2. Quarter the onions.
3. Dice the tomato.
4. Chop the chillies.
5. Slice up half the garlic.
6. Unwrap your cold, pre-packaged, store bought paneer.
7. Cut it into cubes.
8. Toss the cubes in a bowl and add water until submerged.
9. Bung it in the microwave for 2 minutes and drain.
10. Locate your blender.

Method:

1. Toss the palak, onion, tomato, half the garlic, and ginger into a deep bottomed pan/patila (or for a quicker option, a pressure cooker).
2. Add in a shot glass worth of water. (Don't add too much water. You'll have to drain it and in draining it, you lose the vitamins and iron content in the palak.)
3. Turn on the gas.
4. Bung the patila on the gas.
5. Take a short walk.
6. Come back to a sizzling sound.
7. Discover that the water has come to a boil and is bubbling over the edge of the patila and onto the burner.
8. Rush to turn the gas down a notch.
9. Move the palak and the onions around to make sure they are boiling away nicely.
10. Repeat steps 5 to 9 until the palak and onions are soft.
11. If using a pressure cooker, 3-4 whistles ought to do it.
12. Turn gas off.
13. Attempt to move the patila to drain excess water.
14. Burn fingers.
15. Yelp.
16. Run some cold water over the singed area.
17. Blend palak and co. until silky smooth. 
18. Turn on a smaller burner.
19. Bung a pan on.
20. Spoon in the ghee.
21. Add in the jeera and watch it snap, crackle and pop.
22. Toss in the chillies and the sliced garlic and take a step back to avoid the spattering ghee.
23. Bravely move close to the pan and stir.
24. Wince as you're peppered with tiny flecks of ghee.
25. Sprinkle in the chilli powder.
26. Squirt in the tomato puree.
27. Cook for a few minutes.
28. Turn off the gas.
29. Turn on the palak burner.
30. Stir in the contents of the pan, i.e. the 'tadka'.
31. Add salt to taste.
32. Add the paneer into the bubbling palak.
33. Cook together for a few minutes.
34. Turn off the gas.
35. Taste test for salt.
36. Add more salt if you need to. If it's too salty, mix in some cream after you've turned the gas off.
37. Stuff face.
38. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish. 

Tip: This is super simple recipe to bring out the taste of the palak complemented with garlic. For an alternate flavour, you can add coriander powder, cumin powder, and a tiny pinch of garam masala to the ghee after you add in the chilli powder.

And remember, overeating is a myth. A full tummy is a happy tummy!