Palak Paneer

Ooh palak paneer! There are very few restaurants that can get this right and make it taste as yummy as red gravy based paneer dish. I simply love it because it is healthy (if made right) and goes well with rotis or rice. THis is a very simple recipe that I came up with in grad school and was very happy with. My friend Vindhya makes a variation of this by adding some pudina/mint leaves along with palak which gives this a great flavor. I haven't tried this yet but I can imagine that it would be awesome. I use frozen palak for this because it is much easier but you could use fresh palak too. Although, fresh palak reduces a lot in quantity when boiled and you would need to use tonnes of it to make a decent quantity. The ghee can be substituted with oil but making the garlic-ginger tadka with ghee makes a world of difference in flavor. As an alternative, use a tiny hint of ghee mixed in oil. So here goes -

Ingredients:

1. Frozen palak (About two boxes)
2. Paneer - about 15-20 cubes
3. Ginger - 1 inch
4. Garlic - 2-3 pods
5. Green chillies - 4-5
6. Jeera - 1 teaspoon
7. Cream - 1 teaspoon
8. Ghee - 1 tablespoon
9. Vegetable oil - 1 tablespoon
10. Salt to taste

Directions:

1. Boil the palak in water with a little bit water with some salt and puree it with a hand blender.
2. In one tablespoon of oil, saute the paneer cubes until they are well browned and form a nice rust on the sides.
3. Make a paste of ginger, garlic, green chillies and jeera.
4. In a pan heat ghee and add the paste once it melts
5. When the ginger garlic paste is golden brown, add the palak puree and boil until the flavor of the ginger and garlic has seeped into the palak and you cannot taste raw palak anymore.
6. Add the fried paneer cubes and heat until the cubes soften in the palak.
7. Once it is done, take it off the heat and garnish with cream. Enjoy with hot rotis or biryani/pulav.