Saag Paneer

I cannot tell you how delighted I am to have discovered a way to freeze this dish.  Saag paneer is one of my favorite meals and my favorite Indian dish.  Unfortunately we only have one Indian restaurant in town and while they have some delicious food their saag paneer is not great. It can also be pretty time consuming to make saag paneer.  Due to the lack of good saag paneer in my town and how time consuming it is, I haven't been able to have saag paneer on a regular basis for a few years now, hence the delight at being able to freeze it.  Now I make a quadruple bathc and can have it even more frequently than I did when we lived in a town with more Indian restaurants.  As I've said before, Indian food is one of my favorite things to cook.  It's such an enjoyable sensory experience.

Delicious saag paneer with an equally delicious mango lassi right next to it.

This recipe is time consuming and I classify it as difficult based solely on making the paneer, which is a process.  If you can find a store bought paneer or if you want to replace the paneer altogether with chickpeas, chicken or potatoes, this actually becomes and reasonably fast and easy dish.  I love the paneer though, so it's worth the effort to me to make it.



Adapted from: Aarti Sequeira
Difficulty: Hard
Category: Simple Side
Recipe Column: AE
Serves: 4

Make the Saag

1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 lb chopped, frozen spinach, thawed
1 onion, cut into chunks
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic
1 serrano chile, stem and seeds removed and cut into chunks
1/2 tsp garram masala
2 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin

1. Puree the thawed spinach in a food processor, or if you don't have a food processor, use a knife and cutting board to chop the spinach very fine.  If you have a hand blender, you can skip this step and puree the spinach later in the pot after cooking.
2. Place the onion, ginger, garlic and serrano chile in a food processor and process until it froms a chunky paste, or mince finely with a knife and mix together.
3. Heat the oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat.  Add the onion mixture and cook stirring regularly until the vegetable are a dark brown color, about 15 minutes.  If the mixture starts to get too dry and burn, you can add a little water.  I also find that I turn the heat down a bit as the mixture is getting very brown to discourage burning.
4. Add the garam masala, coriander and cumin and cook 3 to 5 minutes until the spices lose their raw smell.  You may need to add a little water at this point to prevent the spices from burning..
5. Stir in the spinach.  At this point you will need to add some water to the mix.  The original recipe called for 1/2 cup.  I ended up adding 1 1/2 cups, but my spinach had leaked some liquid while thawing the in fridge.  Start with adding 1/2 cup, but add enough that the entire mixture is moist and their are a few puddles of water in the mixture.  It should not be soupy.  If you accidentally add too much water, it can be cooked out later.
6. Cover the pot and take the heat down to low.  Let the mixture simmer until the spinach is tender and cooked through.  If you didn't puree the spinach earlier, do so now with a hand blender.
7. At this point you could add precooked shredded chicken, cooked diced potatoes or drained and rinsed chickpeas if you don't want to do the paneer.
8. Cool the saag and divide it into the desired number of containers or bags.

Make the saag

Scroll to the end for a photo tutorial of this process.

8 cups whole milk

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 tsp salt

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp tumeric

1/4 tsp cayenne

clean kitchen towels (not terrycloth)

1. Line a large colander with the clean kitchen towel.  The towel should be a smooth material so that there is no place for the cheese curds to get caught.
2. Pour the milk into a large, heavy-bottom stockpot.  Do not use a thin pan for this. Milk burns easily in a thin pan.  Also I recommend that you use a pot that you are comfortable using steel wool on.  It makes clean up much easier.
3. Heat the milk to 200 degrees over medium heat.
4. Add the lemon juice and turn the heat down to low.  The milk should immediately start to separate into curds and whey.  If it doesn't, turn the heat back up and add another tablespoon or two of lemon juice until separates.  Stir the milk as it separates.
5. Pour the curds and whey into the colander and rinse the curds gently with water to remove the lemon flavor.  Gather the ends of the towel up around the curds and squeeze out excess liquid.  Allow the curds to drain in the colander for five more minutes.
6. Sprinkle the salt over the curds and gently mix to combine.
7. Now it's time to press the paneer. Line a pan with four clean, smooth kitchen towels.  Pour the curds onto the center of the towel and spread them out evenly into a rectangle.  Fold the sides of the towel over the curds, pulling tight to make a compact rectangle of curds.  The goal is to press the curds together to make a solid cheese.  Place another pan on top of the cheese and weigh it down with books or cans.  Allow the cheese to sit for 20 minutes.
8. Mix the oil, tumeric and cayenne together in a large mixing bowl.  Take the weights and top pan off the cheese and unwrap it.  Cut the cheese into bite-sized cubes.  Transfer the cubes and any crumbly bits to the bowl with the oil mixture.  Gently toss the paneer with the oil to coat.
9. Divide the paneer into the same number of containers or bags as saag.  If you have a vacuum sealer, I do not recommend using it here.  The vacuum sealer will crush your cheese.  I place the paneer into gallon, ziploc, freezer bags and gently remove as much air as I can.

To freeze:

Freeze the saag and paneer in their separate containers.

To serve:

1/2 cup yogurt

rice or naan

Thaw both a container of saag and of paneer in the refrigerator overnight.  Heat a large frying pan over medium heat.  Once it is hot, add the paneer to the pan and spread it out.  Let the paneer fry without stirring until it is golden brown on the bottom.  Gently remove the paneer from the pan and set aside.  Add the saag to the pan and heat through.  You can cover the pan to help this along.  If there is excess water, allow it to cook off at this point.  Add the yogurt and heat the mixture thoroughly again.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Add the paneer.  Once the paneer is heated through, serve with rice, naan or both.

If you want to go all out with your Indian dining at home, make an easy mango lassi to go with it.

Once the milk has reached 200 degrees, add the lemon juice and reduce temperature to low.  Continue to stir as the curds separate from the whey.  This process looks gross but will make something delicious.

Pour the curds and whey into a large colander lined with a clean, smooth kitchen towel.  Rinse the curds.

Bring the corners of the towel together and twist to squeeze moisture out.  Sprinkle salt over the curds and mix to combine.  Let the curds drain for five minutes.

Line a pan with four smooth, clean kitchen towels.

Pour the curds into the center of the towel and evenly spread them into a a rectangle.

Fold the edges over the cheese to create a tight square.  I only folded over one side and it resulted in crumbly edges.  Next time I plan to pull all the edges in tight to compact the curds around the edges.  It should solve the problem.  The goal is to press the curds into each other so they from a solid mass. 

Place another pan on top and weigh it down with books or cans.  Let sit for 20 minutes.

Unwrap the cheese and cut into cubes.

Combine the tumeric, oil and cayenne.  Add the paneer cubes and any crumbles as well.

Gently toss the paneer with the oil mixture to coat.

Divide the paneer into bags or containers.