Palak Paneer - Spinach Curry with Paneer cheese

Recipe for a Spinach Curry with North Indian Paneer soft cheese

This yummy curry is very popular in Northern India.
Paneer is a firm cottage cheese and similar to pressed Ricotta with a similar consistency of tofu. You can buy it in the Indian grocery store or online. You can also do it yourself by boiling milk with vinegar and pressing the flocced paneer in a kitchen cloth for at least six hours.

Ingredients for 4 - 6 persons

200 g Paneer
5 tblsp sesame oil or ghee (Indian clarified butter)
800 g of fresh spinach or 600 g of frozen leaf spinach
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 piece of fresh ginger (about 3 cm)
2 tsp gound coriander
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp raw cane sugar
salt
200 g of cream

Preparation

Clean, wash and cut the fresh spinach. Defrost frozen spinach.
Peel and cut the onion into half rings. Peel garlic and chop finely. Peel ginger peel and finely grate.
Dry paneer and cut into cubes about 1 cm.
Heat the oil in a non-stick pan over medium flame. Add paneer cubes and shallow fry them until the sides turn light brown. Transfer them to a plate and keep aside.
Heat remaining oil in the same pan over medium flame. Add finely chopped onion, garlic and ginger and stir fry for 3 – 5 minutes until golden brown.  Then add turmeric, cumin, chili powder and coriander and fry for about 2 more minutes. Add spinach and simmer over medium heat for about 10 minutes.
Season with plenty of salt and some sugar. Then add the cream and the paneer and simmer for further 5 minutes on low heat.
Serve hot with rice or chapati.

 
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