Thursday, May 8, 2008

PALAK PANEER

Palak Paneer is one of the most popular paneer dishes.It is made of spinach ,paneer cubes and other indian spices.Its a Punjabi dish and is eaten with any Indian flat bread.
A great substitute for paneer is chinese firm tofu which is made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into blocks.


I am sending this post to 2 events Susan's Beautiful bones-an osteoporosis event and for Joelen's tasty tool challenge for May-The Mighty blender.

For osteoporosis event,calcium rich ingredients used here are:

Paneer - Indian cheese and spinach

INGREDIENTS

Paneer -20-25 cubes-i used home made

Spinach - A whole bunch

water

onion - 1 medium size ,diced

tomato - 2 medium size,diced

cinnamon stick - 1/2 a piece

cloves - 2-3

cardamam pods- 2

cumin seeds - 1 tsp

turmeric - 1/2 tsp

chilli pdr - 1 tsp

gin-gar paste - 1 tsp

coriander pdr - 1 1/2 tsp

garam masala - 1 tsp

curry leaves - 1 sprig

salt

butter and oil

METHOD

In a vessel bring some water to a boil and switch off the flame.Drop the spinach leaves into the hot water for just 30 sec - 1 min or just until it gets soft.Then immediately remove it from the hot water and put it in ice cold water.This will help in keeping its green color and stop further cooking.Then grind it smoothly in a blender and keep it aside.

Heat a pan coat the bottom of it with little butter.Place the paneer cubes in 1 layer in the pan and brown any 2 opposite sides of the cubes,remove and set aside.In the same pan pour little oil.When it gets hot add cumin seeds,whole cinnamon stick,cloves and cardamam pods.Stir it for a minute and then add the onions,curry leaves,gin-gar paste ,turmeric and salt.Ones the onions are slightly translucent then add tomatoes,red chilli pdr,coriander pdr and garam masala.Saute everything till its raw smell goes.Sprinkle with water if it gets too dry.Fish out the whole cardamam pods from the masala and transfer it all into a blender and grind it smoothly and keep it aside.

In the same pan pour the pureed spinach and cook it until its raw flavor goes.Add in the onion-tomato masala puree to it and bring it back to a boil.Add the paneer cubes and simmer for 10 mins.Serve hot with any indian flat bread.

24 comments:

Unknown said...

Lovely ranji!! The palak paneer looks very good! and greeeeen :) healthy !!

Nanditha Prabhu said...

this is one of our family fav too:)
hey tell hi to binoj....
he was a bujji in school
even our houses were in the same area..kalamassery.. i think its the same binoj , one year my senior.

Cham said...

The green is amazing, perfect and delish side dish!

Sum Raj said...

hey ranji...its amazing ....ur cuury looks perfect...u know my aunt one day tried adding fried baby corns instead of paneer....good idea na?

Coffee and Vanilla said...

Thank you for stopping by and adding my blog to your blogroll, I also placed your address in my links ;)
Have a good day, Margot

SMN said...

Loved it this is my hubys fav

Dermdoc said...

Hello Ranji,

I love palak paneer but have never made it at home, so I'm so excited about this recipe! I like the idea of substituting tofu as well, since I eat a lot of spinach and tofu. Thank you for submitting an authentic Indian dish that is both healthy and calcium rich!

Cheers,
Susan

Deepa Kuber said...

loved the color of ur palak paneer.. ur dish looks so inviting :)

delhibelle said...

Looks beautiful and delicious !

kamala said...

Looks so perfect Ranji.Perfect color

Priyanka said...

Palak paneer is an altime favorite. the only thing that i do different is cooking the tomato-onion gravy first and later the spinach.

Anonymous said...

Just really mouthwatering. I love paneer and palak in paneer is really a healthy choice . Ahh those fried paneer in the pics makes me to crave for it. Lovely recipe thanks for sharing it.

Anonymous said...

Palak paneer is one of my favorite dishes, but it took me a long time to work up the courage to try it. The texture of the spinach used to really put me off! Thanks for the tip on keeping the spinach color vibrant - that's always a challenge.

Priya said...

Isn't it the easiest dish to make at home! The store bought ones just awful with all the cream and butter. I made this a while ago too, but am a little lazy and used the oven to broil the paneer, store bought ones that too :))

Uma said...

lovely color. looks great.

Vanamala Hebbar said...

Oh My fav...very nice

Unknown said...

healthy yummy entry Ranji..

Madhavi said...

wonderful entry ranji, palak paneer looks very tempting!!!!

Rama said...

The palak paneer looks very good....

Suganya said...

Hi Ranji....
Palak paneer is my fav. Love to have them with butter nan. love ur version of making it. really want to give it a try...

ranji said...

Roopa,nanditha,cham..thank u so much.

Suma thank u so much for the suggestion.Substituting baby corns is a great idea:).

Thank u so much Dermdoc,coffe and vanilla.smn,delibelle,vanamalla,shriya,kamala,priyanka,sukanya ramkumar,madhavi,divya vikram,uma,priya,fearless kitchen,rama and anjali for ur lovely commenst.come abck for more treats :).

TBC said...

Love the lovely color, Ranji! And you make your own paneer too! Wow!

Anonymous said...

The dish looks so yummy and the pic is great.Lovely green colour!

ranji said...

Thank u so much tbc and HC:)