Palak Paneer and Secret of Popeye's Strength

Popeye had it right when he said " I'm strong to the finish when i eats me spinach, i Popeye the sailor man! toot toot (pipe)". Whenever he is bludgeoned by Bluto, the evil villain, this can of spinach magically appears in his hand and once popped into his mouth can and all, it gives him strength of immense proportions. He can now single handedly eliminate all villains and get the babe of his dreams...

I think this story has long been used by mom worldwide to get their kids to eat spinach. I wonder what it is about kids, that if their mom says something it can never be right, but if some silly cartoon character says the same thing, then the matter is taken to be gospel truth. I mean, is it fair to all us moms out here that a cartoon character has to be used each single time to get kids to eat healthy? But one thing in the kids favor at least as far as spinach is concerned, I can safely say I understand. I hated spinach with a passion as you can see from this story here. But once I developed a taste for it, there was no stopping me.

There is a restaurant in Madras that serves up some of the most delicious Palak Paneer. Along with a hot "kadak" tandoori roti,.... oooh la la....

I have tried many different recipes for palak paneer but the perfect recipe has always eluded me till I saw Nita Mehta's book " Paneer all the way" which showed me the exact recipe. The taste was the exactly what I remembered from the restaurant.

This is the recipe as mentioned in her book.


Ingredients:

150 grams paneer
1/2 kilo spinach ( Delhi Palak)
1 teaspoon jeera seeds
2 large onions
1 inch piece ginger
4-6 cloves garlic
2 tomatoes chopped finely
2 green chillies
Salt to taste
3 tablespoons ghee
2 pods cardamom
1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder

Method:

Clean the spinach well and cook the leaves along with 1/2 cup water over a low flame. When done, grind coarsely in the mixie.

Grind the onions, ginger and garlic in the mixie separately.

Heat two tablespoons ghee, and add jeera. When they turn start sizzling, add the onion paste. Fry till the oil separates and the onions turn golden brown.

Add the chopped tomatoes and chopped green chillies.

Fry again till tomatoes turn mushy and oil separates.

Add the ground spinach paste. Add a few tablespoons of water in case it is too thick.

Cook for 5-7 minutes longer and then add salt.

Add cardamom and paneer. Mix well take off the fame.

At the time of service, heat 1 tablespoon ghee and add 1 teaspoon of red chilly powder and take of the flame. Pour over the heated palak paneer.

Serve hot along with rotis, chapatis , rice etc...

Enjoy.

Dal Palak

I used to hate spinach as a child and those days Popeye wasn't such a popular character. So I received absolutely zilch inspiration on that front. I simply hated the sight of spinach in any form. I don't think I even tried it once. I guess just the look of it (so green and bursting with goodness and health) that was so unappealing. It used to make an appearance in many avatars and find its way on to the dining table ever so often but no, I would not touch it.

One day when my mom was out of town, I came back from college and I was simply starving. You know the of feeling rats gnawing in the tummy and all that. I went into the kitchen looking for something yummy to eat. To my horror, all I saw in the fridge was rice and palak dal. OMG!!! That was the scariest thing to happen to me ever. But by now I was starving. I had no choice in the matter. Took the rice, added some dal very gingerly, put in lots and lots of ghee and heated the whole thing up in hopes that it will morph into something that I loved. But no, the gods were not on my side. It still remained the same vile looking palak dal and rice..

Put the whole thing into a bowl and sat at the table with a book for company (mom wasn't there, remember?). Put one spoon of it into my mouth. I cannot even start to describe the shock I got.

It was heavenly. Tasted so good. Till today I cannot say if I loved the taste because I was hungry or because it just tasted yummy. But ever since then, it has remained one of my favorite dals. And has triggered my tastebuds into loving all the different varieties of greens.

So now I dont ever refuse anything until I taste it once and the same rule applies to the kids too. One taste and if you still don't like it, then its ok, you don't have to eat it. But one taste is mandatory.

So here goes my mom's version of the Palak Dal

Ingredients

1 Bunch Palak ( maybe about 100 gms)

6 cloves of garlic peeled (if the smaller garlic is used, feel free to put in more)

1 teaspoon jeera

1 teaspoon oil

1 cup toor dal washed and boiled till done

1/2 teaspoon chilli powder

salt to taste

Method

Wash and chop the spinach finely.

Heat oil in the kadai and when medium hot, add the jeera and fry till it sizzles.

Add garlic at this point.

When the garlic is browned nicely, pour the dal into the kadai. Add salt and chilli powder.

When it starts to boil add the finely chopped spinach leaves. Heat through for about 5 minutes till the leaves start to wilt.

Switch off the heat.

Serve hot with rice or chapatis.

Note: The garlic adds a lot of taste to the dal. So feel free to use a little more than the quantity I have mentioned.