Palak Paneer

Recipe (from Shveta at Trovix):

Ingredients:

• Spinach : Half a bag of costco (I used roughly 8-10 ounces)
• Red Onions: 1 big onion sliced thin. Regular onions would do too.
• Tomatoes, 2 fresh (I used a 14oz can of diced tomatoes, which was too much):  see "spinach prep" below
• Grated Fresh Ginger : 2 Tablespoons
• Grated Fresh Garlic : 3 big cloves should be good.
• Green Chillies: 2-3 (Note: instead of the raw ginger-garlic-chili combo, I used a heaping teaspoon of my red masala, which contains all 3)
• Fresh Coriander/Cilantro:4-5 strands
• Fresh Mint leaves: 8-9 leaves (I used closer to 20-25 leaves and it worked well)
• Dried crushed Fenugreek (also called Kasuri Methi):1 teaspoon (optional)
• Paneer ( I tried using Mexican queso fresco that I had on hand, but it proved overly crumbly)

Prepwork for Spinach:

1. .Put the spinach in water. Let it boil(You would know as the leaves become soft) in an open pan for 10-15 minutes. (Meanwhile You can do the prep work for tomatoes and ginger-garlic-chilli paste.)
2. Once the spinach looks suitably boiled, take the pan,drain the hot water thru the strainer and pour cold tap water.(To make it cooler faster,you can let the spinach remain in cold water filled pan for sometime).
3. Once done, strain it using the strainer and put it in the mixer-grinder
4. Add the Mint leaves, Fresh cilantro and the Dried fenugreek
5. Make a coarse paste out of it (I simply chopped it finely with knife on cutting board; would have been better if it was even finer)

Spices:

• Cumin seeds:1 teaspoon
• Salt: According to your taste
• Red chilli powder:1 tbsp (I left this out because I used my red masala paste)
• coriander powder: 2 Tbsp
• Turmeric: 1/3 tbsp.
• Chaat masala: 1 tbsp/Tbsp (gives a lil sour taste) (I haven't got my hands on this spice yet)
• Garam Masala: 1 tbsp

How to:

1.  Take a pan, preferably non stick.
2.  Add 4 tablespoons cooking oil(Corn/sunflower/olive)    whatever you have at home. Keep it on Medium
3. Add some Cumin seeds when you think oil has slightly    heated up.
4. Add the grated ginger-garlic-Green chilli paste( You can grate them all together) to the pan.
5.  Saute till the paste becomes light pink.
6. Add the onions (sliced up and long).let them go a lil brown. Keep stirring so they won't stick to the pan.
7. Add the spices (Redchilli-coriander-turmeric) to the pan.
8. You can sprinkle lil water(2-3 tablespoons) to make sure the spices don't burn too much.
9. Let them cook for 2 minutes. Add the Boiled tomatoes puree. cover it with a lid and let it cook for 5-7 minutes. Keep Stirring.
10. Once you think the gravy looks suitably cooked( you will know if the color changes or let it cook as in Step 9.), Add the spinach mix paste.
11. Mix it all well. Now let it cook for 10-15 minutes. keep the gas on Medium.
12. Add grated cottage cheese(2x1x1 slab) or more if you like.
13. 13.Add the chaat masala and Garam Masala. Check for salt now.
14. Cover it with a lid for few minutes.

Review:

• Very tasty overall.
• Queso fresco does not work as a substitute for paneer. :)
• Maybe a little too much tomato? Might be better if the tomato was more finely chopped or puréed.