Palak Paneer

Palak or spinach is a leafy vegetable packed with iron and calcium.And it is also the favorite vegetable of our own 'Popeye':-)
Paneer is most common cheese in India ,also called as farmer's cheese or cottage cheese,is made by curdling heated milk with lemon juice and then strained to collect the whey.Readymade paneer is also available in the market,I most commonly use the Amul paneer,but you can make it at home with the following method
paneer--by Mona
Paneer--by Mahanandi

Palak Paneer is usually the star dish in a vegetarian party. Tastes great both with rice and bread.
A tip that might come in handy is that,after a meal your palak paneer will run out of paneer and you will be left with only palak:-),so what you can do is spread it on a pita bread and grill it,or else you can use it as a dip.....it is up to you,whichever way you like!
I had it with meethi Daal and chawal,the other recipe of palak is Palak gosht which is out of the world if it is teamed with khatti daal and chawal(drooooooool), hey guys can you name few such combinations in your comments, like tala hua gosht, khatti daal, chawal,..tomato gosht, meethi daal, chawal...and the likes..
Ok the recipe goes like this...

Ingredients

1 Spinach 3 bunch
2 green chillies 10(accd to ur taste)
3 garlic 6-7 flakes
4 ginger half an inch
5 salt
6 cumin 1 tsp
7 aniseed powder(saunf pdr) 1tsp
8 ghee 3 tbsp
9 bay leaf 1
10 Cilantro half cup chopped
11 tomato paste 3 tbsp
12 onion 2 medium finely chopped(you can also blend it)
13 Paneer 2 cups
14 oil 3 tbsp
15 black pepper half tsp
16 garam masala 1 tsp

Method:

--Wash the spinach,cut the leaves from the stems,discard the stem and put the leaves of spinach in a pot along with green chillies ,ginger and garlic along with a cup of water and boil till the leaves are wilted,say ,for about 10 minutes .Let it cool.
--Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the paneer cubes,till they turn golden.
--Blend the boiled spinach along with cilantro in a blender.
--Now heat ghee in a pot,throw in the bay leaf and cumin seeds,when it starts spluttering ,slip in the finely chopped onion,fry till it gets translucent,now add pepper,garam masala,saunf powder,tomato paste and salt,fry for some time and then add the blended spinach mixture,when it starts bubbling slip in the paneer cubes.
--Cover and simmer for about five minutes.
--Your Palak Paneer is Ready..serve hot with rice or chapatis!

Hi......long time no see:)

Summer has started,and I hate the scorching heat outside,I love the comfort of curling up on my couch with a good book or laptop!
But the summer mornings here are not the same,I felt this when I called back home, on one such morning,Mom was in the kitchen preparing breakfast along with my cousin,sent me back to that time when I did that with mom,It was great staying home during the vacations ,going for morning walks,koooooooooooo,kooooooooooo of koyal was typical during those mornings,and since these were holidays our cousins would come over to our house and I loved the endless chit-chatting!
So back to present,I am on vacation throughout the year.lol:-)

So life was really busy all these days,many things happened,Sameeha turned 4 Alhamdulillah!
This is the picture of her,on her birthday before going to school,she did not wear her uniform that day...she was Uber excited!


My Mom visited us,my mother-in-law visited,it was really fun,to have so many people around.
Huda is now a super duper badmaash,and since she has learnt to speak and understand,it is really fun to be around her,she proficiently calls our names.Mummy,Baba,Miyyaaa(sameeha)or sometimes Thaaji(Baji),
remember last year same time she started walking:)
Well my cooking has taken a total backseat now,I had made some really cool hyderabadi Food and have the recipes of those in drafts,but somehow lost the pictures,so whenever I make those things again,I am gonna post that!
During my Mom's visit here we visited the Sheikh Zayed Masjid,located in Abu Dhabi,Mashallah it is really beautiful! But the sad part is, people coming here tend to loose the spirituality of this place..I am saying this including me,I mean when we go to masjid we pray,but we go there and look at Chandeliers that are world's biggest and then, the carpets are supposed to be the world's biggest,woven in Iran!
But Mashallah it is Very beautiful Masjid!

Here are some of the pictures,







So I am ending this post with a promise that my next post definitely will be with a recipe........till then adieus