Palek Paneer

I often try to make Indian food, but it somehow never quite lives up to a restaurant. This version however is the best yet, and cause for resurrecting the food blog (now that the bee blog has gone into hibernation for the winter). Palek means spinach and Paneer is an Indian cheese so this dish is just curried spinach with cheese.

Begin with the main dish by placing a frying pan over medium high heat and adding

2tbs butter
2 tbs vegetable oil
2 onions, chopped fine
1 pepper chopped fine(I used a whole poblano, but adjust to your level of heat)

Sauté until the onion is translucent and then add

4 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbs fresh ginger minced (about a 2 in peice)
2 tsp ground cumin (or cumin seeds according to the Internet, but I didn't have any)
2 tsp Garahm Marsala powder ( no good substitute, and really worth buying)
1/2 tsp chili powder or to taste
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground coriander ( or some fresh cilantro, which is the same plant)

Mix the spices well and cook until the onions begin to caramelize. Then add

2-3 Tbs tomato paste

Slowly add about 1 cup water stirring constantly to get the yummy bits off the bottom of the pan. Then add

1 16oz pkg frozen chopped spinach

Add water until is seems liquid enough and put in a crockpot while you go to spin class and make the cheese. ( or whatever it is you need to do)

PANEER
(or is it Panir? What's a Sanskrit mis-translation between friends?) is an Indian cheese. I'm sure it is available in your major metropolitan south Asian grocery store. If you have some good sense or a lack of time go swing by there and pick some up. If you have no sense, plenty of time, and only the Yarmouth, ME grocery store to work with I'd suggest following the quick and easy directions for making the "simple little cheese" in the November cheese newslestter http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/pg/446-Cheese-News-2011-November.html

Ok, you can stop laughing at me for suggesting you make your own cheese now, I'm serious, go! All you need is

1 gallon whole Milk
3 Tbs salt

Add the salt to the milk and heat the whole she-bang to 190F. Either stir periodically or be ready to scrub the bottom of the pot. Then add

1 cup white vinegar

Mix it well and let it sit for 20-30 min. Then pour it through a cheesecloth lined strainer and let it drip.

If you really don't like this whole cheese idea I'd say whole milk ricotta is about the closest thing you'll find, but humor me and try making the cheese.

******** meanwhile back at the main dish************
After it has been in the crockpot a while and is all soft you'll need to blend it. Bask in your awesomeness If you have an imersion blender, otherwise try not to get green flecks everywhere. You MUST blend this. Trust me I tried just letting it cook for forever in the past and it is not the same. after blending, because I felt I had a lot of liquid and wanted some more protein I added

2 15oz cans chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans) - this is optional, see how you feel

Add the Paneer last in chunks and you're ready to serve. The Internet seems to imply that if you buy Paneer it has a consistency of firm tofu and can be cut into chunks and fried. The homemade stuff was not that stiff and frying made a big burned mess, so I would just add it in large chunks. It tastes great even though it breaks up into tiny bits.

NAAN
Naan is actually well worth making if you have a pizza stone. It really doesn't work otherwise, so try substituting some flat bread from the store if you must. Tis makes a larger batch and is based on the bread-in-5-min-a-day recipie

3 cups whey (you know, that pale liquid you drained off your cheese? The one you dumped in the sink already? Oops! Use water instead)
5-6 cups flour
1 tbs yeast
1 Tbs salt

Mix it all up in a Tupperware and you're ready to go. Dough stores in fridge for up to 10 days. When you're ready to bake, take a hunk of dough, roll it out into a circle-ish and put it on the pizza stone in your preheated 425 degree oven. Bake about 6-8 min flipping in the middle.

Whew? I'm tired just typing this. Happy cooking!