My new year resolution is to eat/cook with more vegetables. The problem I face with this is, I buy lot of vegetables in a week and then they sit in fridge and pass their prime time. This weekend, after a very long time, I prepped all the vegetables – washed them, cut them into pieces, dried them and stored in boxes/zip lock bags in freezer or refrigerator. This is helping so much in fast cooking during weekdays and I hope this will also bring down the wastage. Now I have to figure out something similar with spinach(palak). I buy big box of baby spinach from Costco. I make dal, paratha etc with it, but still have some leftover. Last week I prepared this palak paneer with almond paste. I called it palak paneer, because it had palak and paneer!. This is probably the closest to the classic palak paneer that my family will eat. I made it quite spicy, the way we like it.
Many years ago, on a cooking show I had seen the addition of kasoori methi (dried fenugreek) to Palak paneer. I followed the same to give it a bright methi taste. This is by no means traditional palak paneer (calling it a palak paneer may be a stretch!)n- I made it to suit our taste buds. Check Anita’s Palak panir or Manisha’s Palak paneer posts for authentic versions.
Pictorial: Blanch tomatoes in boiling water. Make ginger-garlic paste. Blanch spinach. Blanch almonds. Fry onions with ginger-garlic paste. Add masalas and fry.
Add ground spinach-tomato paste, kasuri methi. Then add almond paste. Add paneer and cook.
Paneer in Creamy Spinach - Almond gravy
Ingredients
- 3 cups baby spinach
- 2 big tomatoes about 2 cup chopped
- 1 tea spn freshly made ginger-garlic paste
- 1/2 cup onion
- 1/2 tea spns cumin seeds
- 1/2 cup almonds
- 1 tea spn garam masala
- 2-3 green chillies
- 1/2 tea spn coriander-cumin powder
- 8 oz 227grms paneer cubes
- 1 tea spn kasuri methi dried fenugreek leaves
- Oil
- Salt
Instructions
- Boil 2 cups of water.
- Add tomatoes to it, after about 3 mins, add spinach.
- Switch off the heat, let it sit there for a mins.
- Take the tomatoes and spinach in mixer bowl along with green chillies and grind to smooth paste.
- In the same water, add almonds and boil for 4-5mins (I use them with skin).
- Grind the almonds to a paste (I made a coarse paste for some texture).
- Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds.
- Then add onion, ginger-garlic paste. Fry for few minutes.
- Add garam masala, cumin-coriander powder and fry for 2 mins.
- Now add the ground spinach paste, salt and cook.
- Crush the kasuri methi slightly with fingers and add it to the gravy.
- Add almond paste and then paneer cubes. Cook for 5-6 mins.
- Serve hot with rotis/chapatis or rice.
Paneer in Creamy Spinach - Almond gravy
Ingredients
- 3 cups baby spinach
- 2 big tomatoes about 2 cup chopped
- 1 tea spn freshly made ginger-garlic paste
- 1/2 cup onion
- 1/2 tea spns cumin seeds
- 1/2 cup almonds
- 1 tea spn garam masala
- 2-3 green chillies
- 1/2 tea spn coriander-cumin powder
- 8 oz 227grms paneer cubes
- 1 tea spn kasuri methi dried fenugreek leaves
- Oil
- Salt
Instructions
- Boil 2 cups of water.
- Add tomatoes to it, after about 3 mins, add spinach.
- Switch off the heat, let it sit there for a mins.
- Take the tomatoes and spinach in mixer bowl along with green chillies and grind to smooth paste.
- In the same water, add almonds and boil for 4-5mins (I use them with skin).
- Grind the almonds to a paste (I made a coarse paste for some texture).
- Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds.
- Then add onion, ginger-garlic paste. Fry for few minutes.
- Add garam masala, cumin-coriander powder and fry for 2 mins.
- Now add the ground spinach paste, salt and cook.
- Crush the kasuri methi slightly with fingers and add it to the gravy.
- Add almond paste and then paneer cubes. Cook for 5-6 mins.
- Serve hot with rotis/chapatis or rice.
I am one of those moms who want my kids to learn cooking. I do not expect them to cook any elaborate dishes if they don’t wish to, but atleast they should be able to feed themselves some fresh homemade food. I have been giving Ishaan little jobs in the kitchen whenever I can. He now gets excited when I ask him for “help”.
Few days back we had a get together and we planned for make-your-own pizza for kids. I took the base, another friend got sauces and toppings. We rolled the bases and gave them their individual small bases. They cut them into different shapes with big cookie cutters, added whatever they wanted on the pizza. We baked the pizzas for them. They all were thrilled. Ishaan is huge fan of this idea. Since then he has been asking me to make pizzas every week.
This time I thought of making it a little different. We baked them in cupcakes. I did not know how they would come out. Ishaan loved to put sauce, toppings and cheese on them. They came out so delicious. Both the kids loved to eat them for dinner and they even took them in lunchboxes next day. I may make regularly now instead of normal pizzas. Pictorial: Brush a cupcake pan with butter. Line each cup with pizza base.
Brush the base with butter and cover and let it rise for another 30mins. Bake in preheated oven at 400F for 6mins.
Add the sauce (I used a mix of marinara and basil pesto) and toppings.
Top with cheese and bake at 400F for 15mins. I took them out of the pan and baked them for another 7mins.
Pizza cupcakes
Ingredients
- For pizza dough
- 1 pack active dry yeast
- 2 cups water
- 2 cups whole wheat flour I use multigrain atta
- 2 and 1/2 cups approx all purpose flour
- 1 tbl spn butter
- 1 tea spn honey
- 1 tea spn dired oregano
- Olive oil
- Salt
- For topping
- Sauce
- Corn
- Bellpepper
- Tomato
- Paneer marinated in chilli powder and salt and then fried
- Mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Take 1/2 cup lukewarm water and add honey, yeast to it.
- Leave it aside till it becomes frothy (yeast gets active).
- Now add remaining water, salt, wheat flour, oregano, melted butter and mix. (I sue stand mixer for this).
- Gradually add remaining flour till the mixture comes into a dough but still very sticky.
- Now take the dough on a floured surface and knead for a min.
- Put the dough in a big bowl (I just use the stand mixer bowl), add 1-2 tea spns olive oil and move the dough around to coat with oil.
- Leave the bowl covered till it doubles in volume (around 1 and 1/2 to 2 hrs.
- Now punch the dough down to remove all the air.
- Make small balls and roll them into rounds (as thick as stuffed paratha).
- Brush cupcake pan with butter.
- Now line each cup with the dough, brush with oil/butter, cover with a wet towel or plastic wrap and leave for about 30mins.
- Preheat the oven for 400F (I keep a pizza stone in the middle rack, the stone helps to get crispy crust) , Keep the pan in hot oven and bake for about 5-6mins (I didn’t want the dough becoming too soggy, so baked for few mins).
- For the sauce, I used a mix of marinara sauce and basil pesto, use any desired sauce.
- I microwaved the frozen corn and bellpepper cut into small pieces for about 1 mins.
- I marinated paneer in chilli powder, salt and then shallow fried for few minutes.
- Now add a tea spn of sauce in each cup, add corn, bellpepper, paneer, top with cheese and bake at 400F for 15mins.
- I then removed the cupcakes from pan and bake them on the pizza stone for another 7-8mins.
