Pooja: do u want a home made one...that mgiht be tough coz it'll be hard for me to give u the exact quantities, there might be a couple of trails invilved before u get it down perfectly...but it'll be really easy...or i could find u a recipe, it might be a bit harder to make
well, u do live in US, so i suspect that u migh tbe able to find frozen paneer somplace
Chezzik: I probably could.
Pooja: i used to make my own paneer but idont anymroe coz we get it frozen here
Chezzik: We have about 6 asian grocery stores in our little town of 100,000 people.
Pooja: but it's really pretty simple to make...u just have to heat milk and when it's about to boil, add lemon or vinegar...thats pretty much it, ujust have to strain it then to dischanrge the water and then just put the paneer in a muslin cloth or soemthing so that it can clump together
Chezzik: Most of the recipes that I saw call for fenurgeek. I asked for that in a grocery store here, and they had no idea what I was talking about.
Pooja: yeah u can pretty mcuh forget that
i'll tell u how i make palak paneer and it's pretty good...ofcourse home cooked north indian food is diff from the restaurant food, rest food is much much richer, we cook at hime the simpler and healthier way
Chezzik: ok, sounds good.
Pooja: i just use a food processor to chop tomatoes, red onions, giner, garlic and green chilly....this mixture u use for the paste...
wash and boil the spinach separately and once it's done just mash it in a blender...
Chezzik: ok
Pooja: het some oil in a pan, just half a tsp and add the paste, cook the paste till dry
then add the mashed liquidy spinach, cook for a while till it starts reaching the desired concistency...add salt, red chilli (if u want), coriander powder
u should add a bit of garam masala if u can get it (it's a mixture of some spices and adds a lot of flavour to any north indian food)...and i add turmerci powder too
then just add the paneer and let it all cook for a while...all done
i can find u a proper recipe too or give u estimated quantities for this
Chezzik: ok. yeah, it might be good to find a recipe. There are a lot online, but they're all different.
Here's one:
http://www.indianchild.com/Recipes/gravies_and_masala/palak_paneer_recipe.htm
It calls for very different ingredients though.
Pooja: yeah i dont lik ethis one, doenst sound north indian at all...and when they ask u to add cheese to an indian dish, well...
i'll be back in 10 mins, have some stuff to do around the house...will find a recipe when i get back