Popular Paluck Puneer -

This is my phonetic way of spelling this dish - the common spelling is palak paneer  -this dish I know to be the absolute favorite Indian dish of most of my American friends - No matter how they pronounce it, palaak (paluck) paneer is always the Indian dish that is remembered of all. The problem with local Indian restaurants in America is they cream this dish to the hilt, making it heavy and fatty!  My promise to make all these heavy creamy items light stands good as I make this without any cream and perhaps 2 to 3 teaspoons of oil in all making it a very healthy and tasty dish.

We called the kids on our way back from the movies - watched Morning Glory - A fun movie with my all time fav- actress Rachel McAdams - The first question popping out is what's for dinner - I had a block of paneer and I was thinking maybe dry peas and paneer with some dal - but as we talked plans evolved and before I knew it I was making paluck paneer :-) This is one of the easiest dished to make so let's get to it, shall we? :-))

Ingredients:

2 - 12 ounce packs of frozen spinach
1 pack of paneer
1/2 onion
1 can of diced tomatoes
I am giving you a pictorial view of all the spices and quantities used
But roughly
1 sprig of Rosemary
3 dry red chillies
3-4 green chilies
2 cloves of garlic
2 stems of garlic chives
1/2 teaspoon of dry crush bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
1/2 inch of ginger
2 cloves
1/2 teaspoon of cardamom powder
2 teaspoon of homemade curry powder
10-15 pieces of broken and roasted cashews

Preparation
Thaw out spinach in microwave and keep
In a frying pan, use a little turmeric in 1 teaspoon of oil along with 1 teaspoon of curry powder and add the paneer and gently fry to golden (use a non-stick pan)
Set aside in a bowl
Next, put all the spiced together in the same pan and use the oil remnants to slightly fry them.
Add the onions to the spices and fry - add about 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil now
Then add the tomatoes and let them all cook together
Add the spinach to the mix and let it simmer in the spices for about 4-5 minutes

Remove from flame - cool and grind the lot into a fine paste - Use warm water if necessary to wash out the any remaining sauce in the blender.
Pour back the sauce into a 5 quart pan - add the paneer and simmer in low heat for a couple of minutes -

Serve with store-bought naan :-)


                                                                         The spices

                                                            Sauteeing the Paneer

                                                        dry roasting the spices

                                                      Add the onions

                                                
                                                             And the tomaatoes

preparing the spinach

Add all of the ingredients together

The cahsews

                                                  
                                                                 letting it simmer

Blended

                                                  
                                                           Adding the Paneer and VOILA