Coarse Textured - Spicy Palak Paneer.

Palak Paneer is traditional Indian dish, popularly relished in Indian parties and restaurants. Today I cooked it slightly different by maintaining partly coarse texture..generally this dish is very mild but I spiced it up by adding few spices and made it hot with green chilies.

Ingredients :-

• Fresh Spinach - 1o oz packet (284 gm) or one bunch of spinach.
  
• Paneer - 12 oz. (340 gm )- griddle roast - cut into half inch cubes. ( 20-25 cubes of paneer)
• 1 extra large onion - finely chopped
• 3-4 fresh garlic cloves - finely crushed
• Ginger 1 inch piece - finely crushed
• 4-5 Green chilies - finely chopped
• 2 Tb.spoon cooking oil
• 1 Tb.spoon melted Ghee
  

Spice Blend for Palak Paneer

• Cinnamon - 1/2 inch piece
• bay leaf - 1 inch long
• 4 cloves
• 1/2 T.spoon Shahijeera

Combine all spices and make fine powder.

Advance Preparations :-

1. Clean and rinse spinach leaves thoroughly in water and divide it in two parts. You can use either 10 oz packed fresh spinach or a fresh bunch of spinach.
   
2. Take half the quantity of leaves and boil in salted water in microwave for 4-5 minutes. Drain the water and puree with hand blender. Keep it aside.
3. Remaining Spinach finely chop in the food processor. Keep it aside.
4. Cut Paneer block into 1/2 inch thick slab and fry it on griddle by maintaining very low temperature until it turns golden brown on both sides. Cut the slab into 1/2 inch cubes OR you can first cut cubes and later fry them on griddle. Cover fried pieces with moist paper towel and keep it aside.
   
5. In a small jar of blender mix ginger,garlic and green chilies - Finely crush and keep it aside.

Method of Cooking Palak Paneer :-

1. Place a heavy bottom pan and heat 2 tbspoon oil. Add chopped onions and saute until they turn soft, about 3-4 minutes.
2. Add the crushed ginger-garlic-green chili mixture and saute for one minute.Now mix the powdered spice blend and saute for one minute on medium heat.
   
3. Add griddle roasted paneer cubes , little salt - Gently stir and mix with onions and spices.Add chopped spinach and combine all well, add little more salt and let it cook on medium heat for about 4-5 minutes. If you find it too dry then sprinkle little water.Keep stirring at regular interval.
   
4. Lastly add pureed spinach and mix well. Decrease heat to low , cover with lid. Shut off heat after 2-3 minutes.Finally drizzle melted ghee. Enjoy this deep green colored,coarse textured spicy palak paneer with roti and rice or as a sandwich/wrap spread.

Note :- You can also use frozen chopped spinach for this recipe. You can skip first three steps from advance preparation. At step 3 of cooking process - before adding paneer cubes, add frozen spinach and let it cook for 3-4 minutes. Place immersion blender directly into the pot and partly puree spinach. Don't swirl blender all around pot. This way you can balance coarse and pureed texture. After this step add paneer cubes and let it cook for 4-5 minutes on low heat.
When you want to cook Palak Paneer for big crowd - Use fresh spinach and frozen chopped spinach (50:50) ratio.