Palak Paneer with home made Paneer

I like making paneer at home, whenever I make them I used that to make Palak paneer. Here is the recipe for making paneer and palak paneer.



Ingredients for making Palak Paneer

• Palak/Spinach - 1 bunch or more
• Green chillies - 2or3
• Onion and tomato - 1 each chopped
• Ginger and garlic - grated 1 tsp each
• Sesame seeds - toasted 2tsp ( to give rich taste and texture)(cashews, walnuts or peanuts can also be used)

For garnish I used few spring/green onions and few slices of red onions.

1. See below instructions for making paneer and keep it ready. If using store brought paneer, follow steps 7 and 8 (cut into bit size cubes and shallow fry them little oil till golden brown).
2. Toast and powder sesame seeds and keep that aside.
3. In the same pan,add cleaned and chopped spinach and chillies, cover and cook till spinach is all wilted down. Transfer to a blender/mixie when cooled little bit smoothly grind with toasted sesame seeds.
4. In the same pan add oil when hot add cumin seeds and once it starts to pop, add ginger-garlic paste and then add chopped onions and tomatoes. Cook till they are soft. Once done add Spinach mixture, add sesame powder mix well. Add salt and adjust to taste. Cook on medium heat for about 10mins or untill flavours combines well.
5. Add roasted flavoured Paneer, mix and garnish with raw onions. Allow it to stand for atleast 10 mins before serving.

This is how I make Paneer. I have flavoured it with black pepper, cumin and red chilli powder.

1. Heat 2 liter of milk(i use 1% milk) on a thick bottomed pan.
2. When Milk comes to boiling point(this takes about 20 mins or so) add lime juice or white vinegar(about 2 tbsp). Turn off the heat.
3. Stir the milk mixture after adding vinegar, it should starts to curdle, if not add some more. At this point whitecurds separates from the greenish white whey.
4. Place clean cloth or cheese cloth into a colander, pour the mixture in, let the whey drain. Let it stand for 5 - 10 mins.
5. Once the whey is completely drained, I wash it once with cold water to remove the smell of vinager and let it drain well. Now add 1tsp of each salt,cumin,pepper and red chilli powder. Mix well, tie the cloth tightly and squeeze all the water let it stand for 2-3 hrs. Put a pan or weight on it so most to the liquid drains out and hardens to a nice shape.
6. Remove from the cloth and use paneer to make desired curry (or store it in the fridge to use later).
7. Cut into bit size pieces. Fry with little oil and use as such.

Making paneer at home has its advantages, we can make it low fat or high fat . And add flavours with our favorite spice.