Palak Paneer

This time palak paneer had come out very well, thanks to Pratibha of The Chef and Her Kitchen Blog. Color and taste were awesome.

Requoting the recipe from her blog for this blog :

Ingredients:

250 gms paneer,cubed

1 regular fresh corn instead I used Paneer cubes. Paneer Cubes were kept in warm water to keep them soft and moist.

1 big bunch spinach

1 big onion,diced

1 medium onion,finely chopped

2 tsp ginger garlic paste

4-5 green chillies

2 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp roasted cumin powder

1 tsp garam masala

a pinch of sugar

1/2 tsp kasuri methi(optional)

1/2 tsp amchur powder

2 tbsp fresh cream(or 1/4 cup milk)

salt to taste

juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp oil


Method:


Boil water in a big pot and add cleaned spinach leaves and whole green chillies and blanch for a minute.Add a pinch of sugar while blanching it in order to retain the green color of spinach.Strain the spinach(save the water to dilute the gravy later) and quickly run the blanched spinach under running water and squeeze out extra water.You can even saute the spinach but you should be really quick in doing it otherwise you will loose the beautiful green color of spinach.

In that hot water(in which we blanched the spinach)soak the paneer cubes until its uasge.This way the paneer will be soft.

" I Skipped this Step as I used Paneer.
Grill the corn on the flame until light black spots appear all over the corn.Quickly rub it with lemon wedge dozed with salt all over the corn and let it marinate for some time,aproximately 10 mins.Take a knife and cut the corn to get the corn kernels. "

Grind diced onion with ginger and garlic paste and keep it aside.

Grind the spinach and green chillies to a fine paste.Open the mixer and keep it,otherwise it will change the color.

Heat oil and butter in a big kadai and crackle cumin seeds,add finely chopped onions and fry until translucent and add ground onion mixture and fry well.

Add coriander powder,cumin powder,amchur powder,slightly crushed kasuri methi and mix well.

Add spinach puree and cook over medium flame.Add salt,grilled corn kernels,paneer cubes(slightly squeeze them after removing from hot water) and garam masala and mix well.If required add the strained water to dilute the gravy to get the required consistency and ook for 2-3 minutes.Do not cover the kadai while you are cooking,otherwise you will loose the green color of spinach.

Add cream(or milk) and mix well and cook for a couple of minutes and remove it from stove.Add lemon juice and give a quick stir.

Serve it hot with roti/kulcha/naan/jeera rice.

And Enjoy!!!