There are many many recipes in my repertoire that I just make, I do not attempt to publish them because they seem so everyday and obvious in some sense. But once in a while I get a request to post a recipe for one of these obvious foods and that makes me realize that what is obvious for me may not be obvious for someone else. One of such foods is the humble yet universally loved Palak Paneer. It is a dish of ground spinach leaves and cottage cheese cooked in a mixture of spices and this is easily one of the most popular vegetarian dishes in Indian restaurants.

Every home and every lady in the kitchen has their own way of making it and all I am sharing is my recipe. There is no right or wrong recipe ... only what tastes good. For me there are two things which are very important for this recipe - first is the quality of the spinach and I like the gravy very smooth - so finding a good blender or grinder to grind the spinach as well as the rest of the masala is very important. Secondly, it is the quality of the paneer. In India, it is so easy to find good quality paneer even in the neighborhood shops but outside of India, it is not that trivial. I have this blog entry which explains making paneer at home. It is fairly easy and tastes way better than the frozen stuff available in Indian supermarkets. For the purpose of this recipe, the spices in the recipe shared can be omitted.

For the spinach, I like to use Indian spinach wherever available, which is not too hard to find in Singapore. My next best choice is baby spinach used for salads. That has a very gentle taste, cooks really fast and keeps its fresh green color after cooking. The trick is to not overcook the spinach, just cook it enough to ensure it is cooked but not to discolor it. Overcooking also kills the sweet taste that good spinach can have and this can make a lot of difference to the end product. I do not add a lot of cream to the dish as we eat it every week but do feel free to add some heavy cream to

Ingredients:

2 large bunches Fresh spinach leaves or 2 packs of baby spinach

2 small onions, chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped

2 tsp oil

1 tsp cumin leaves

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1/4 tsp mild red chili powder

salt to taste

Paneer Cubes (2 cups) [made with 2 liters milk ] see recipe here (can be made with or without spices)

Method:

1. If you are using a bunch of spinach which has the stems intact, make sure you cut the hard woody parts. Wash and rinse the spinach leaves. Put the spinach leaves in a pot with some water and put it over high heat. Place a cover on the pot and allow the spinack leaves to wilt and cook. Baby spinack cooks very fast about 1-2 minutes. For other types of spinach you may need to cook for 3-4 minutes.

2. Once the spinach is cooked, take it out and place in an ice bath. This will stop the spinach from cooking further and losing color. To omit this step, put the spinach in a bowl and place it in the fridge or freezer to cool down immediately. Once the spinach has cooled, grind it to a very fine consistency.

3. To a pan over medium head, add 2 tsp oil. Once the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds, Once the seeds start to cook a bit, add the chopped onions and cook till light brown. Keep stirring occasionally to ensure even browning.

4. Once the onions are cooked, add the tomatoes and continue to cook for another 3-5 minutes till the tomatoes have cooked and softened well. Add the salt, red chili and turmeric powder and cook for another 1-2 minutes and then turn off the heat. Move the cooked mixture to a bowl to cool down.

5. Grind the onion tomato mixture and put it back into a pan placed over medium heat.

6. Add the ground spinach to this and cook it together for 1-2 minutes till the mixture is heated through and comes together very well.

7. Add paneer cubes and cook for another 3-5 minutes. Check for seasonings and add more if needed. Leave it on the heat for another 1-2 minutes. If you desire, you can add 2-3 tablespoons of cream at this stage and mix well.

8. Serve with hot naan or chapati.