Saag Paneer
From abermouse 16 years ago
- 120 minutes to make
- Serves 4
Saag Paneer, an East Indian cheese and spinach curry...this recipe comes from Shiva Indian Restaurant in Houston.
Ingredients
- Saag: shopping list
- 1 large onion shopping list
- 6 cloves garlic shopping list
- 1 oz fresh ginger shopping list
- 1 lb frozen spinach, thawed shopping list
- 1 cup plain yogurt shopping list
- 4 oz buttermilk shopping list
- 2 teaspoon red chili powder shopping list
- 2 teaspoon garam masala shopping list
- 1 cup half and half shopping list
- 6 oz paneer, a homemade cheese ( ingredients & recipe follows for those who want to make it from scratch) shopping list
- salt to taste shopping list
- Paneer: shopping list
- Ingredients shopping list
- 2 litres of milk shopping list
- the juice of two lemons shopping list
- cumin powder shopping list
- salt shopping list
- Equipment: shopping list
- big pan, at least 4 litres shopping list
- cheesecloth shopping list
- wooden spoon shopping list
- two chopping boards or similar shopping list
How to make it
- Directions for Saag (Spinach Curry)
- Grind the onion, garlic, and ginger into a fine paste.
- In a medium saucepan, combine the paste, spinach, yogurt, buttermilk, chili powder, and garam masala. Simmer at medium heat for 20 to 30 minutes. Mash the ingredients with a potato masher. Add the half and half. Simmer until the mixture has a creamy consistency, 10 to 15 minutes. Add the cheese, simmer 5 minutes. Season with salt. Makes 4 to 6 servings.
- Directions for Paneer (Homemade Cheese):You can use a clean dishcloth for your cheesecloth, or any other smooth cotton cloth. Make sure you haven't washed it with fabric softener, and that it's been thoroughly rinsed. If it smells freshly laundered, that's how your cheese will taste!
- Pour the milk into the pan. Add about a teaspoonful of salt, and about a teaspoonful of ground cumin
- Bring the milk to a gentle simmer. Keep it there for about 5 minutes. If you take your eyes off it for a second, it will boil over. If it burns, your paneer will taste funny.
- Remove the simmered milk from the heat, and start to slowly stir in the lemon juice, about a tablespoonful at a time. The milk will begin to curdle. This is "curds and whey". If it doesn't begin to curdle, add a tiny bit of vinegar.
- Keep stirring and adding lemon juice until the curds are thick and the whey is only slightly cloudy.
- Drain off the whey, keeping the cheese curds.
- Dump the curds out onto the cloth (it will be messy), wrap them up, and squeeze the cloth to get the whey out.
- Open up the cloth and look at the curds. Taste some. If it needs a bit more salt, add some (it should not taste salty). If it needs more cumin, add some (it should be quite subtle). If you feel like adding something else, like chilli, or coriander, or anything, now is a good time
- Fold the curds up in the cloth, in a squarish block. Put the block on one chopping board, place the other chopping board on top, then balance the big pot, full of cold water, on top
- After a couple of hours, you will have pressed out all the whey that's going to go. Unwrap the cloth and dump it in the sink. It will need rinsed out and washed almost immediately. Clingfilm the paneer, and it will keep for a couple of weeks.
- Cut Paneer into cubes to use in Saag, any leftover can be used on flatbread, you can even dip it in batter and deep-fry it. It tastes great. You've made cheese.
The Rating
Reviewed by 7 people-
Thank you finding this. It is absolutly my favorite dish at our local Indian restaurant. I have been looking for a good recipe for it.
cheryilyn
in Salem loved it
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Great! Thanks for share it, rated 5!
berry
in Myrtle Beach loved it
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This has to be so nice. Wow, I'm lost for words and drooling everywhere. I just have to get this done today! Thanks for posting this one!
trev
in Bogangar loved it
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