Palak in Paneer Bowl

So the guessing game was fun. Thank you all for the comments. Yes, you all have guessed it right the main ingredients were paneer (famer’s cheese) and spinach. Here goes the recipe for the yummy and delicious recipe from my mom’s kitchen.

Serves 6

Ingredients:

For making the paneer bowls:-

Farmer’s cheese (Paneer): ½ kg

Wheat flour (Maida): ½ cup

Spinach paste (Palak shaakh bata): 1 large bowl

Garlic (Rasun): 10 -12 cloves, chopped finely

Ginger paste (Ada bata): 1 teaspoon

Sugar (Chini): ½ teaspoon

Turmeric powder (Halud guro): ½ teaspoon

Chilli powder (Sukhno lanka guro): 1 teaspoon

Sunflower oil (Sada tel): 5 tablespoons for frying

Salt to taste

For making the gravy:-

Cashew nuts (Kaju badam): 30 gms

Poppy seeds (Posto): 100 gms

Green cardamom (Choto elaichi): 3-4

Cinnamon (Darchini): One 1″ size

Cloves (Labango): 3-4

Green chili (Kanch LAnka): 3 – 4

Sunflower oil (Sada tel): 1 tablespoon

Preparation:

 For making the paneer bowls:-

• Take the paneer, wheat flour and salt in a large bowl and knead well to make dough. The dough shouldn’t be very soft, depending on the water content of the farmer’s cheese.
• Make two inch diameter spheres from the dough
• Using your hand make them into small bowls to hold the spinach
• Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok
• As the oil becomes piping hot sauté the onions in it
• Throw in the chopped garlic and ginger paste just as the onions turn golden
• Add the spinach paste when the oil starts separating from the sautéed spices
• Put in the turmeric and chili powder along with salt and sugar
• Fry till the spinach gets dry
• Take it out of flame and let it cool down completely
• Take a large tablespoon of the fried spinach paste and put it into the paneer bowls
• Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the fried spinach paste filled paneer bowls in batches
• Drain the excess oil using a kitchen paper

 The fried bowls are an ideal snack for any evening party, or you can even use it as a starter along with tomato sauce. Read on if you want to make it into a curry.

For the curry:-

• In a mixer grinder put in cashew nuts, poppy seeds, green chilies and ½ cup of water, make it into a smooth paste
• Heat oil in a wok and throw in cinnamon, cardamom and cloves
• As they start popping pour in the poppy paste along with salt and sauté till the oil starts leaving
• Carefully add the fried farmer’s cheese bowls to the gravy and cook uncovered for 5 minutes
• Take out from flame and serve with rice, paratha or roti

This dish was a instant hit among all my relatives when my mom cooked it for the first time. Though a little tedious and take almost 1 hour to prepare from the raw materials to the dining table, but the outcome is worth all these hard work. Look for more recipe here, till then Happy Cooking and Happy Eating.

Also this recipe is heading for the EFM-Savouries hosted by Srilekha.