I love paneer, I think I’ve told you all that before. I could honestly eat it everyday. I sometimes even make my own. After having some really tasty palak (spinach) paneer at a restaurant recently, I decided to make an at home version. It doesn’t taste the same, but it’s just as good (hubby says mine is better, but he’s biased).
I’m totally digging my Indian serving bowl, what do you think?
Ingredients
- 2 tblsp oil
- 1 med onion
- 1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1/4 turmeric powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp garlic
- 1/4 ginger
- 2 handfuls baby spinach (approx. 3 cups) and a little water
- 1 med tomato
- Paneer approx 300g
- 3 tblsp cream
Instructions
Finely chop your onion and add to a pan on medium heat with the oil. Sauté until onions are soft and translucent. Place all the spices including the ginger/garlic into the pan.
While spices are toasting, throw the spinach and a few tablespoons of water (use more if you need to) into a blender and blend until you have a runny purée consistency. Add the spinach purée to the pan and cook. Blend your tomato and add this to the pan to cook with the spinach purée.
While this is cooking, chop you paneer into cubes (approx. 1,5 cm) and throw this into the pan as well. Cook this for about 5-10 minutes or until paneer is tender. Add in your cream, and gently stir through. Serve hot with some rice or naan.
3.1
http://modestmunchies.com/palak-paneer/
Please don’t buy your paneer from an average supermarket, I’ve tried it and it doesn’t taste very good, instead try a deli or even better an Indian grocer or spice shop.You could serve this with rice, but I enjoy it best with naan.
Many of you have asked me and I promise I will try to get up a recipe/tutorial for home-made paneer as soon as I can. I just have a backlog of so many things I need to blog first. Trust me though, it’ll come, even if it takes me another year 😐
Just over six months ago we embarked on a journey to the subcontinent. My husband, son and I left in late December to make a few stops along the way. Phuket and Kuala Lumpur were on the cards before getting to India, a country neither of us had been to, despite our Indian heritage. This was not a holiday by any means, our sole purpose was to attend the wedding of Abdullah’s sister (my wonderful sister in law), Aasiya. What we never expected was to leave feeling humbled, grateful and renewed.
India is an amazing place with amazing people and beautiful sights. One of the most enjoyable parts of our trip was definitely the wedding and the functions that preceded it. And coming a close second was the food, there is honestly nothing like Indian food, so intricate in flavour and colour. My favourite dish in India was anything that had paneer (an Indian cheese, looks like a block of fetta, texture and taste of cottage cheese).
It’s something I always order in an Indian restaurant here and usually cook with the frozen bags at home. As in India has a high population of vegetarians, paneer is extremely popular, and depsite having over 20 paneer dishes while in India, not one of them was the same, there was paneer in different types of curries, paneer with marinates that were grilled, paneer balls, crumbed paneer, paneer stuffed in chillies and vegies, and too many more to mention. Even after all that, I wasn’t sick of the paneer, and forunately for me, on my last day in India I watched an Indian chef on TV make paneer from scratch, I couldn’t believe how easy it was.
Since our trip, I have made paneer countless times, and there’s nothing like the fresh stuff, I’ll never go back to frozen again. I will be doing a recipe on how to make paneer from scratch sometime in the near future. For now, here’s a recipe using paneer.
Paneer Malai** Tikka
500g paneer
1/2 bunch corriander
3/4 tsp salt1 tsp ground cumin
1 whole green chilli
1 tblsp lemon juice
1/2 cup cream (**malai is an Indian term for cream)
Cut the paneer into cubes and set aside in a bowl. Grind all ingredients except for cream in a blender, once blended into a paste mix in cream. Pour over paneer and leave to marinate. Cook off on a medium to high heat in a about 1 tblsp oil. Serve with naan bread.
Variation: This recipe works well with chicken, just substitute the 500g paneer with 500g chicken pieces.
India is a definite must see and it’s a place I’m sure we’ll be visiting again. For now, enjoy some photos from our trip.
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Try out this paneer malai tikka recipe, great with chicken as well. Oh and Happy 6 month Anniversary Aasiya and Salim!
Tandoori it is… This had to be my first recipe, it’s the easiest, yummiest thing I like to make. Normally I use chicken, but in this case I decided to use chicken and paneer for a vegetarian option. I was surprised, it actually turned out quite well with the paneer. What is paneer? It’s an Indian cheese, that is basically a hardened cottage cheese.
Ingredients
1 kg boneless chicken (I used 750 g chicken and 200 g paneer)
115 ml tomato paste (about 4 tablespoons)
2 tblsp yogurt
1 tblsp lemon juice
2 tblsp oil
1 tsp garlic
1/4 tsp ginger
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground red chillies (chilli flakes are a good alternative)
Method
Mix all the ingredients together and marinate chicken and paneer. You can use it straight away, but if you have the time, leave to marinate for a few hours. You can use this recipe for a roast marinade, you can fry the pieces or with cut up vegetables on skewers. I used red onion, red and green capsicum. A tandoori meal needs a cooling accompaniment such as a raita (cucumber yogurt) but my beetroot version is an absolute hit… It goes well with almost anything, and works wonderfully as a dip with bread and crackers.
Beetroot Yogurt
2 medium beetroot (or half a can of beetroot)
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
If using fresh beetroot, boil them until cooked (about 30-60 minutes). If using whole beetroot, grate them. If using sliced beetroot, chop finely and mix in with yogurt. I know it seems too simple, but trust me, it doesn’t need anything else.
Tandoori skewers and beetroot yogurt… flavoursome, healthy… Yum!
