Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Palak Paneer

3 words: salty cheese balls.

See, now you want them too.

I know you’re fighting the desire to sing Chef’s ‘Suck on my chocolate salty balls’ from South Park, but the salty cheese bites in this recipe are sooo, so good.

If you can’t locate palak (the Indian squeaky cheese), you can substitute with halloumi (which we did because we had it leftover from the other night).   If you do cook with the halloumi, don’t fry it long.  Unlike paneer, halloumi does melt in high heat (though not as much as mozzarella), so you just have to get the outside melted a bit to get the flavour. If you can’t locate either cheese, or want to make this dairy free, use extra firm tofu, but add a 1/4 tsp of salt when adding the other spices.

I didn’t take a picture of this one, because lets face it, mulched spinach with white chunks won’t look pretty no matter which way you serve it.

Ingredients:

1 inch cube of fresh ginger, grated
garlic*
1 cup cubed paneer, halloumi or tofu.
1/4 tsp garam masala
2 pinches cayenne pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
2 pkgs frozen spinach (thawed) or 1 1/2 lbs fresh (will need to add 1/4 cup water)
1/2 cup cream or half and half

Directions:

1.  Heat oil in a pan.  Add tofu or paneer and fry until golden.  If using halloumi, add to hot pan and toss until outside is softened.   Sprinkle with garam masala and 1 pinch of cayenne.  Set aside.
2.  Fry spinach with ginger, garlic and pinch of cayenne for about a minute.  Add cream and continue cooking.  If mixture gets too thick, you can add a bit of water to make it a little more sauce-like.   Heat on low for 10 minutes for the flavours to blend.
3.  Add paneer and serve over rice or with naan.

*(recipe calls for up to 6 cloves…I used 6 and didn’t taste it, but my garlic detector could be dead). 

The original recipe includes directions to make paneer yourself, but I’m a long, long way from feeling the need to make my own cheese…but come the time that I start milking my own cows and grocery stores evaporate from the face of the planet, I’m set.

Toughest Critic Rating: 8.63

Toughest Critic is enjoying his rating duties way too much. 

Toughest Critic served me some sort of store bought angel food cake wannabe foam rubber thing (maybe it’s the dog’s chew toy?) for dessert today….am considering revoking Toughest Critic status until I question his tastebuds.

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