I am looking for beta testers!

You can have those for a recipe can’t you? My engineering background has a tendency to kick in sometimes even when it comes to cooking. There is even an if statement and while loop in this recipe. I guess there is still a mediumgeek in me. Anyways, lets discuss what is important, Indian food!

My all time favorite Indian is a vegetarian spinach dish called Palak Paneer. This is a creamy, spicy, spinach dish with cheese cubes in it that tends to cause severe overeating and me ending belly up on the sofa.

Palak Paneer

I used to live right next to a restaurant in Oslo that sold the most delicious version of it. Shortly after I moved it was closed and the Indian restaurant we live nearby now doesn’t quite live up to its greatness (at least not when doing takeaway). In pure frustration I promised myself I would manage to recreate it at home despite every previous attempt of cooking Indian having failed miserably.

It took quite a few rounds of debugging. All the versions I had tried were just too boring and were missing the richness of the restaurant versions you get. That all changed when I started pouring in copious amounts of butter and cream. And here I had been thinking I was eating healthy vegetarian…

One of the most frustrating things with making Indian is the mess you tend to make and the stress involved in keeping track of all the ingredients. I have tried to set up this recipe in such a way that decreases stress.

I haven’t quite perfected the method of making the cheese so I do it the brute force way (yeah that was the geek in me speaking). It works but I am sure there are more elegant, accurate ways of making it. Try googling it if you want to do it the right way. You are however welcome to come back here if it fails and try to resurrect it following the instructions from the *.

Palak Paneer

Adapted from Dishesfrommykitchen

Paneer Cheese Hack
3 liters whole milk
3-4 limes

Pour the milk in a pot and cook it right up to the point it boils (stir lightly so it doesn’t stick to the pot) and then take it off the heat. Add the juice of 2 limes and stir. If you are lucky it will start curdling at the first try. The final result should be that you have almost pure yellow-ish liquid (whey) and bunch of little white dots.

(*) If I don’t get this on the first try I simply repeat the process of bringing it to the boil, taking it off the heat and adding the juice of half of a lime. I keep repeating this until I get the result I want (usually two or three times).

Now put a clean cloth in a strainer and pour the curdles in there. Be careful, this is really hot! Preferably wait a little while for it to cool before you try straining off as much of the liquid as you possibly can. Put it in something that can preferably form it into a square cube with something heavy on top but it also just works dropping it in a small bowl with a plate with something heavy on top. Let it sit in the refrigerator for few hours.

Spinach mixture
400 grams Spinash, frozen
30-40 grams coriander
2 green chilies
Butter
3 tsp Green chili paste

Fry the frozen spinach and green chilies in butter until it is no longer frozen. I find it better when you overcook it a bit. Put the spinach mix, green chili paste and coriander in a bowl and run a hand mixer on it until it is pureed. Put aside.

Spice mixture
1 ½ tsp cumin
2 tsp coriander
½ tsp chili powder
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric powder

Take all the ingredients of the spice mixture and mix then in a bowl. Put aside.

Rest of ingredients
Butter (or ghee) for frying
1 tsp cumin powder
2 onions, finely chopped
3,5 tsp ginger paste
8 cloves garlic, crushed
5 roma tomatoes, finely chopped
½ tsp sugar
2 tsp fenugreeks leaves, crushed (you can use your hands)
2,5-3 dl water
1,5 dl cream
A dash of lime juice
2 tbsp butter
Salt

Prepare all the other ingredients according to the listing above and make sure they are in easy reach. Also, make sure your sofa is clear in case you severly overeat…

Prepare the cheese. I like frying it a little golden in some sun flour oil. Cut the piece you have into approx. 1-2 cm thick slices. Fry it slightly golden on both sides. After frying, cut it into cubes. You can of course cut it into cubes and fry it like that but I find that this drains my patience and is really not needed.

Fried Paneer

Put butter in a pan and heat (make sure you don’t do it at highest temperature if you are not using ghee as it will brown). Put the cumin powder in there and let it bubble for few seconds. Add the onions and fry until they are light golden. Now add the ginger and garlic and fry until the raw aroma disappears.

Add the tomatoes and fry them for couple of minutes. Then add the spice mixture and stir and fry until it is well blended. Add the spinach mixture, the sugar and mix well. Then add the water and salt (according to taste).

Add the cream and let it come to boil at medium heat.

Add the cheese cubes, butter, and dash of lime and let it cook for couple of minutes.

Sprinkle with some sliced red onion and serve with rice and nan bread.

Palak Paneer or Spinach Cheese

Tell me how it turned out and by all means send me some bug fixes!